A darkening endless horizon

Legendary Pink Dots frontman Edward Ka-Spel can’t stop, won’t stop

By BILL FORMAN

“Obsession is a demanding mistress,” says Legendary Pink Dots leader Edward Ka-Spel, when asked about his prolific recording career.

Fair enough, but still: According to brainwashed.com, Ka-Spel has put out no fewer than 145 albums — 88 of them with his band, 57 of them solo. How is that even possible?

“Hmmm … I admit I never counted,” says Ka-Spel, whose Anglo-Dutch band is deservedly adored in psych-rock, goth and experimental music circles. “I guess they must be including licensed albums in Poland and Russia and compilations, but even I’m a little staggered by these figures.”

Album No. 146 came out last week. Plutonium Blonde, released in America on the Roir label, has a typically expansive range, from the cinematic-sounding “Rainbows Too?” to the unsettling spoken word/electronics of “An Arm and a Leg,” with a few Syd Barrett-worthy stops along the way.

Ka-Spel says it’s hard to place the album in the context of his previous works.

“We took a year for this one,” he says. “Dotted every quaver. Painfully perfectionist. Each new album is an entity by itself. Still, it’s undoubtedly Pink Dots, and I consider it uplifting at what we’re being told is a dark time.”

Of course, this comes from a man whose band marked its 25th anniversary with Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves, an album Ka-Spel once described as being about immorality and mortality. “There is no end,” he said at the time, “just a darkening endless horizon … ”

A Brit who came to the Netherlands in the ’80s, songwriter-vocalist-keyboardist Ka-Spel formed the Dots with Phil Knight, aka the Silverman, on keyboards and electronics. Rounding out the group are Martijn De Kleer on guitar and Niels VanHoorn on (you guessed it) horns. The sound is at times daunting, but tempered by frequent shifts in dynamics, a sophisticated sense of melody and the strangely soothing effect of Ka-Spel’s vocals.

The group also has ties to the industrial music scene, Ka-Spel having recorded five albums with Skinny Puppy’s cEvin Key in a side project called the Tear Garden. (OK, that makes 151 albums.) They also recorded for the now-defunct Wax Trax label, home to Ministry, Revolting Cocks and other industrial-strength artists.

“No criticism intended, but I never listened to Ministry,” admits Ka-Spel, whose influences tend to go back a bit further. “I have a soft spot for a lot of prog-rock. King Crimson changed my life. Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator sound as great to me today as they did in my tender years.”

When Ka-Spel isn’t listening to the music of others, he can always tune in to the sounds inside his head: “There is always music playing: Awake, asleep, it never stops. Sometimes it’s thrilling, sometimes it irritates, always it’s …. there.”

Happily, Ka-Spel can express it. And while the Legendary Pink Dots may not offer something for everyone, they surely offer everything for someone.

“I liked the comment that there’s a market for the Pink Dots and it exists in a very remote corner of the island of Sardinia,” says Ka-Spel. “I really should go there one day.”

Nearly three decades later, the Legendary Pink Dots legend is still firmly intact

By Jon Solomon

Published on October 15, 2008 at 11:08am

The origin of the Legendary Pink Dots reads like some mythical tale: Three people staying in separate tents at Stonehenge get up at the same time in the middle of night and walk through a mist, where they see a band playing. The mysterious musicians are so completely enthralled by the music they’re making that they’re oblivious to their impromptu audience of three. Within a week, the trio goes on to form the Legendary Pink Dots. That was nearly three decades ago, and founders Edward Ka-Spel and Phil “the Silverman” Knight went on to put out a slew of albums, including their latest — and finest, Plutonium Blonde, drawing from the psychedelia of early Pink Floyd and the krautrock of Can. We caught up with Ka-Spel at his home in the Netherlands and asked about the new album.

Westword: How do you feel about the way Plutonium Blonde turned out?

Edward Ka-Spel: I feel totally happy about this one. We took a long time on this one, particularly. This time we just sat down and said, “Look, we really should take the time that an album needs.” Sometimes we have the feeling that, I don’t know, we let deadlines and things, sort of, in a way, curtail us during the whole way that we wanted to go. It’s not that I’m saying that we really cut corners, but sometimes the pressure of, you know, staying alive, basically, maybe, made us finish albums faster than we would have. But on this one, no. This just takes really as long as it takes. This was going to be our perfect album, basically. We’re going to take a year to do it, at least. Of course, when you’ve actually finished it, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve taken or how much of a perfectionist you were, you always hear things like, “Oh, we should’ve done it a bit differently.” At least we did, in a sense, keep satisfaction within the band, I thought, with this one. I guess after all these albums, that’s pleasing enough, because we’ve made a hell of a lot of albums.

Westword: You and Phil are credited as playing devices on the new album. What sort of devices?

You’ve got to see Phil’s living room to understand just how many devices there are lying around. Lots of them are acoustic and some electronic things. Some things we don’t actually want to talk about because, for one, this is a new way of getting a very interesting sound, and we kind of don’t want other people doing it. It might sound a bit selfish there, but we found some very interesting little techniques on this album that got us jumping around like little kids at Christmas because of the sounds were getting out of them. To be honest, this technology is so primitive. It’s like you should be sort of waving a club around and throwing rocks. That’s as far as I can really say about it.

For those of you who don’t know, Edward Ka-Spel is a founding member and driving force behind The Legendary Pink Dots. Both Edward and the Dots have a long and prolific recording career, dating back to 1981. Edward and the band for that manner are very friendly to their fan base. They will talk with fans after their concerts as well as taking time out of their demanding touring schedule to reply to emails. Edward has been interviewed countless times over the years and I attempted to avoid some of the more typical interview questions, focusing instead on topics that may not have been covered in the past.

You are a founding member of the Legendary Pink Dots as well as a composer, poet, and musician. What do you think is your primary role and why?

I hope it isn’t a cheesy answer but I do what I have to do… No choice in the matter. It’s my calling, my reason for being on the planet and I hope I leave it as a better place than when I arrived (although that may well be difficult considering events of the last few years).

You are a prolific songwriter. Your musical output is phenomenal and doesn’t seem to be slacking off as the years go by. With your frequent tours of Europe and the United States, how do you find the time to write, record, and rehearse? Your music is obviously not improvised on stage, so it does take effort to prepare for a tour.

Onstage the music is actually looser than it perhaps appears, but I can’t pretend that we don’t rehearse beforehand (not massively, but enough). I try to create something every day, while some pieces slowly evolve over the months (even years). I admit I have little command over the “normal daily things” that’s a chaos and always has been.

There is a strong science fiction theme that runs throughout your music, though this topic hasn’t been explored that much with you. How long have you been a fan of science fiction? Who are your favorite authors and how have they influenced your music? What are your favorite science fiction books and movies?

I think it was Harlan Ellison who first caught my attention around 30 years ago with Deathbird Stories. That book opened a door for me as I realized then that sci-fi wasn’t just about bug-eyed monsters and green men in spaceships. Of course I’m influenced by great thinkers like Ellison, Silverberg, Heinlein, and Vonnegut (I could go on). This is not mere entertainment. Great sci-fi movies are rare I think, but I should declare that my favorite film of all time is The Medusa Touch closely followed by Slaughterhouse 5.

You are a consummate story teller and that talent appears in a number of LPD songs as well as in concert. From following the concert reports on the Cloud Zero discussion group when the band is on tour you have varied your stories from venue to venue. How much of your story telling is spontaneous and how much is thought out in advance? What do you draw on for inspiration?

I usually find a first line in the dressing room a few minutes before I go on stage and hang onto the idea until it’s time to spin the yarn. Then it tends to be spontaneous (with varying results).

Since the early days of the Dots, both you and Phil have remained band mates. What has made this possible?

A great friendship and a mutual respect. Sometimes it makes me tremendously sad that the incredible compositional contribution Phil makes to the band isn’t recognized as much as it could be.

One of the many things that endears you and the band to your fan base is how friendly the Dots are and their willingness to talk with anyone before or after a performance. I know it is a positive experience for the fans, but has it always been positive for you? Would you care to share any interesting anecdotes?

There have been stalkers. Once I hid in a dressing room for hours during an afternoon in Texas (it was hot) as a guy wandered in and out of the (almost deserted) club proclaiming how he had the keys to the Tower. (A reference to the LPDs 1984 release The Tower)

Given the long musical history of the Dots and your solo career, thinking back over the years, if you could do it all over again, is there anything that you would do differently and why?

Forgive the pun, but that’s down to dots and quavers. Sometimes I hear greater potential from a song than the reality of what is actually released. But in the bigger picture, I’m mostly fine with how things went.

Other than your band mates, what do you see as the Dots’ single greatest strength and why?

I think we can make someone laugh at him/herself even at the very darkest moments. We offer perspective in a world which seems to be losing it.

I visited Klaverland (the LPD home base and studio in Holland) back in the late 80s. The band was on tour at the time, but I was impressed by how calm and remote it was there. How does the Klaverland environment influence your life and music?

It’s a rare place of peace in a crowded and often unpleasant little country (it wasn’t always unpleasant, but that’s another story). Still, to be honest, I think the music comes from a place that isn’t physical at all.

Plutonium Blonde (LPD) and Dream Logik Part Two (EKS solo) have just been released. What are your next musical projects?

A new Tear Garden album (an ongoing collaboration project with Skinny Puppy’s cEVIN Key) is being mixed as I type, but beyond this the next months will be spent touring or planning live shows.

Please tell us a bit about the new LPD release, Plutonium Blonde. What does the title mean?

Plutonium Blonde was an album which simmered for a year as we slowly added colors to the canvas. A true labor of love. “Plutonium Blonde” simply reflects power and beauty with a dash of humor thrown in for good measure. It fits, we think.

With each new Dots release I listen to enjoy the music and not try to over-analyze it. But is there a theme that runs through the ten songs? If there is, it is not obvious to me from the song titles and the songs are pretty varied. For example “Torchsong” has a martial and industrial feel, “Rainbows Too?” is like one of your earlier waltzes updated to 2008, and “A World with No Mirrors” is a beautiful folk song.

There’s always a line running through the songs although it shouldn’t be overstated. Every album represents the mental and emotional states of the makers at a given time. This album is no different in that respect, but I feel it has turned into one hell of a roller-coaster ride. For the first time since Crushed Velvet Apocalypse we took a few of the songs on the road with us and actually re-recorded them after the tour as well. Nothing spared for this one.

One thing that I have always found intriguing with your music is that a phrase or line from one song becomes the title of a totally different song on a subsequent release. Am I missing some linkages here? Or is this whimsy on your part?

It’s necessary to look at the Dots as you’d look at a very detailed painting (maybe the picture of Dorian Gray). Links run through it all, perhaps inevitably.

You mentioned earlier that Phil goes unrecognized for his compositional contributions to the Dots’ music. Some bands credit individuals on each song, but I don’t recall ever seeing that on an LPD release. So would you please describe how the band approaches composing a song?

Credits? I just never liked the “I wrote this, I played this” syndrome. I always preferred how say the Doors or Joy Division presented themselves with a focus on the creations rather than the individuals.

Did the band share equally in writing the songs on Plutonium Blonde? I can’t really hear a song and say that is Phil’s composition, or this one is by Niels, or you wrote this other one.

Musically Plutonium Blonde is close to a 50/50 split between myself and Phil with much collaboration between us as it developed. The two acoustic guitar songs emerged out of sitting in the kitchen with Martijn. I have the words and he always finds the chords.

I am curious about a couple of the songs on Plutonium Blonde. Is a “Zonee” a cell phone? Is it a brand available in Europe, or just a name coined by the band? The song has a catchy melody. And what is the relationship between “Rainbows Too?” and the other rainbow songs you’ve recorded?

Indeed a Zonee is a mobile, but the brand name is made up. “Rainbows Too?” has a direct relationship with “You and Me and Rainbows” for me.

One element of the Dots’ music I thoroughly enjoyed from the early days was the violin. It is has been quite some time since Patrick left the band, but do you miss having a violinist in the group?

I do miss Patrick. He is a wonderful musician, and it is great when we go to Italy (where he lives now) to have him sometimes spontaneously join us on stage.

The rhythms of your music are normally provided by Phil’s synths, but do you miss having a live drummer in the band as well? I remember seeing the Dots in Denver in the late 90s and Ryan Moore was quite versatile on the drums.

Similarly I miss Ryan, and no drummer could replace him. Still he has a very personal musical direction and needs to follow it.

Each time that I have seen the band perform, you play current music and a selection of older songs. How do you decide which older songs to play? Which songs are the audience favorites?

Audience favorites? Definitely “Belladonna,” crowds actually chant for this in Poland. And then pretty much anything from Crushed Velvet Apocalypse. Still these songs are fun to play.

From reading the Cloud Zero list, fans will contribute their impressions of the shows they have just attended. Many times people will complain about other people in the audience talking through your sets. How is it for you on stage to have people in the clubs more intent on socializing than listening your music?

Talking at shows? It used to be awful in Holland especially, but this is much less these days. In general it’s a problem that has gone down with time. Still, no I actually hate the scenario where people hang out at the bar with their backs to the band. It’s rude.

It is hard to believe, but the Dots are into their 27th year of performing and recording, what does the future hold for the band? There are not that many bands today that last this long and remain vibrant. Do you foresee a day when the Dots will no longer tour or record? I can imagine that it can get tedious being on the road, which is more of a younger man’s world.

Sometimes touring can be very exhausting, but if too many months go by without it I become extremely restless. I think we’ll continue recording and touring while we still breathe.

You have worked with a number of different musicians over the years. Is there anyone you would like to work with that either you have not met personally or have not had the opportunity to collaborate with?

One day I’d like to work with Steven Brown from Tuxedomoon. We talked about it a little when we met, and I think he’s a wonderful musician and a kind, good man.

What bands and music are you listening to today?

I love the music of Andrew Liles. Such joy and so many surprises. Still, I tend to listen to something different every night. Last night it was Roy Harper and Heldon.

Edward, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

Henry Schneider- http://www.expose.org

Legendary Pink Dots vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter Edward Ka-Spel talks about his love of sci-fi and fantasy themes the their music and why a certain astromech droid would be welcome to join the band when he’s done hanging out with C-3PO.

starwars.com: As a fan of sci-fi films and the Star Trek TV series, what was your initial reaction when you first saw Star Wars?

Edward: Strangely it took me many years to see even the first Star Wars movie, but my oldest son Calyxx insisted that I was missing something that could potentially change my life — he was just six at the time. As a result, we rented the initial trilogy of films out from the video store. Shame on me! My passion for “Star Trek: The Next Generation” had blinded me to a new exquisite adventure. I confess I thought nobody could compete with Jean-Luc Picard.

Of course, Alec Guinness swung it for me right from the start. I guess he must have been so old when he appeared in Star Wars, but seeing him in his finery, uttering those wise words gave me my most blessed Star Wars experience.

starwars.com: Which of the Star Wars films is your favorite?

Edward: Definitely A New Hope. It’s just an old-fashioned adventure in space. Even so, what I really like is that it isn’t so utterly black and white. Darth Vader is a complex, intriguing character — that pulls you in and makes you want to go on the whole voyage.

starwars.com: What’s your take on the prequels and Anakin’s back story?

Edward: Anakin’s struggle with the dark side moved me the most. I believe that the dark side resides in all of us, though in most of us, good will prevail. I did find the scene in Revenge of the Sith where Anakin strikes down the younglings to be particularly shocking.

starwars.com: Why do you think the Star Wars films are so popular with generations of fans?

Edward: I guess it’s down to the morality tale. We need our heroes. We need characters who give us hope, take us away from what would seem to be an ever darkening planet.

starwars.com: As a musician who likes to experiment and utilize unusual sounds to evoke feelings from your audience, what did you think of composer John Williams’ score of the films?

Edward: Music is an expression of emotion. John Williams captures intense emotions extremely well. The score for a film is so important because sometimes, in scenes without dialogue, music must convey everything that is happening on the screen and inject each character’s emotions into the audience.

starwars.com: Now that all the films are available on DVD, do you find yourself watching, rewinding and watching again certain scenes?

Edward: I never return to individual scenes from a movie. It feels like just playing one or two songs from a favorite album. I always choose the greater experience and plunge in all the way. So my thumb never strays to the rewind button.

starwars.com: Have you ever dressed up as a Star Wars character for a costume party or for your son who’s a big fan?

Edward: I admit the celebration of Halloween only began in England perhaps 10 years ago. If it had been there, I’m sure I would have tried to hide in the corner as an inauspicious R2-D2. For sure as a kid I would have been using the Force on the mirror in the bathroom.

starwars.com: Since you wouldn’t mind using the Force, which character would you say you identify with the most in the entire Star Wars saga?

Edward: Probably Obi-Wan Kenobi. The secrets he can reveal, the wisdom of the character, also the complexity. He is so very multi-dimensional.

starwars.com: Which character would feel right at home playing in the Legendary Pink Dots?

Edward: R2-D2 would be just fine in the Legendary Pink Dots. He has plenty of sonic possibilities and there would be no power struggles or ego issues. He’d be fantastic for the image too, though I would insist that he wear a red scarf.

starwars.com: That being said, who in your band would best blend in well with the Star Wars galaxy?

Edward: It has to be the Silver Man, especially when his machines take over and start rolling and bleeping around the room. Actually, the old analog synthesizers probably are machines that blend in the best — so utterly alien and unpredictable.

starwars.com: Do you ever play any of the Star Wars video games?

Edward: I confess that I’ve played computer games very rarely. Maybe it’s a fear of ending up like the character in “Dying for the Emperor.” Normally, I observe as my kids are quite obsessed with space games. Of course, they are now far, far more advanced than the beloved old Space Invaders.

starwars.com: Do you ever go to sci-fi fan conventions or Comic-Con? What was the experience like for you as a fan of the genre?

Edward: Many years ago in London I visited sci-fi conventions. They were important for me as I met like-minded people and made friends that I could talk away the nights with. These days, time just doesn’t permit as Legendary Pink Dots takes up so much of my time. No complaints — I chose this path.

starwars.com: Why do you think sci-fi and fantasy films like Star Wars are so important — especially as a creative muse?

Edward: They remind us of how small we are and how great and beautiful the universe is. They perpetuate the dream, they make the colors brighter, they allow us to laugh and cry in public. God knows we need that.

starwars.com: Your song “The Saucers Are Coming” was a great update to the War of the Worlds story! What kinds of sci-fi/fantasy themes do you like to explore in your music? And how have Star Wars and other sci-fi and fantasy films influenced your music?

Edward: I have my favorite authors — Harlan Ellison, Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg. I cannot believe that this beautiful little pebble named Earth is the only spot in the universe where life exists. There simply has to be more than that and I will not rest until I’ve contacted a few of those “others.”

starwars.com: Why will Star Wars always be cool to you?

Edward: Star Wars made my peculiar universe a richer place. I can revisit these films again and again and always see a little more. This is rare in a movie.

Questions That Actually Make Our Interviewees Think

We Got Tired of the Same Repetitious, Boring and Mind Numbing Interviews

earX: what was your favorite toy as a child…

ek-s: a miniature london bus

earX: who is more powerful…god or satan…

ek-s: the grey nameless…shapeless…blob in the middle

earX: if you could walk in the shoes of anyone living or deceased for a day…who and why…

ek-s: i wouldn’t want to change shoes with anybody

earX: where would you choose to go if you could time travel…

ek-s: 100 years forward because i want to see if the pictures in my head are accurate. they are not as depressing as some may think.

earX: what would be your ‘last meal’ and ‘last words’…

ek-s: SHIT! i told them not to put any bacon in my burrito.

earX: if you could play in any other band…past or present…which and why?

ek-s: here are no other bands that i would want to be a part of…past or present.

earX: what was your first recorded purchase…

ek-s: be my baby by the ronettes

earX: what would you choose to be reincarnated as…

ek-s: a human being with a little more influence

earX: if you had to lose one of your senses…which and why…

ek-s: smell. because the bad odors out number the good odors…massively

earX: what do you find scarier…love or anger…

ek-s: love and anger are connected at the hip in my experiences. perhaps loving someone grants a license to explode at that person. perhaps it shouldn’t be that way. i’m an englishman…anger terrifies me

earX: three people you’d most like to meet…

ek-s: david bowie – because of what he meant to me growing up george w. bush – to try and understand why and how? i confess…i find 5-headed signs from venus more relatable kim basinger – because of those sad soulful eyes

earX: name three of your favorite legendary pink dots songs and what makes them your favorites…

ek-s:

– ‘a triple moon salute’ – because it came closest to the sound i had in my head when writing it

– ‘lisa’s separation’ – because it’s so sad

– ‘the way i feel today’ – because it was how i felt that day

earX: most reoccurring nightmare or dream…

ek-s: a pair of scissors trying to cut a piece of string but never quite severing it

earX: what influenced the following three legendary pink dots songs…

– ‘the grain kings’

ek-s: the need for ritual in order to connect with the rest of humanity

– ‘voices’

ek-s: i wrote this when i was 12 and find it embarrassing lyrically these days. even so…i was troubled by voices in my head at that time

– ‘lent’

ek-s: miserable people who are not prepared to do anything for themselves

earX: if you were to be stranded on a desert island with only one item…what would it be…

ek-s: a photo

earX: how would you describe the legendary pink dots to a deaf person without sign language…

ek-s: i would make strange signs and wave my arms around hopelessly

earXtacy.net

An Interview with Edward Ka-Spel of the Legendary Pink Dots

Posted: Sunday, June 25, 2006
By: Matthew Johnson, Assistant Editor, ReGen Magazine

While their music incorporates everything from early experimental electronics to industrial, the Legendary Pink Dots have often been lumped in with the psychedelic scene. The simple fact of the matter, though, is that the Dots’ music doesn’t require mind-altering drugs, it replaces them. Even the soberest of individuals will have a hard time staying grounded after exposure to front man Edward Ka-Spel’s hypnotic rhyming chants, synth wizard Phil “The Silverman” Knight’s ambient soundscapes, and saxophonist Niels Van Hoorn’s experimental playing style. Even the band’s most traditionally structured songs are otherworldly enough to render hallucinogens unnecessary, while their more freestyle jams are some of the most eccentric sounds ever recorded, yet somehow remain eminently listenable. A distinct mythology featuring such concepts as the Terminal Kaleidoscope, a metaphor for the world’s increasing acceleration towards cataclysm, adds to the band’s mystique.

Unlike most bands, whose sound follows a more or less straightforward progression, the Dots skip effortlessly back and forth between clever songwriting and freaked out acid industrial jam sessions. To reconcile these two seemingly divergent elements, the band often releases multiple albums at once. The subtly beautiful ballads of 2002’s All the King’s Horses, for example, were released alongside the enthusiastically chaotic album All the King’s Men, while 2004’s The Poppy Variations served as an avant-garde alter ego to the comparatively accessible The Whispering Wall. The Dots’ latest collection of songs, the evocatively titled Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves, is preceded by Alchemical Playschool, a series of extended musical meditations built from field recordings of urban India. As if this weren’t enough, individual Dots are constantly working on various solo and side projects and have participated in a number of fairly high profile collaborations. The Tear Garden, a collaboration with Skinny Puppy’s cEvin Key, has actually produced several club hits, for instance, while the ambient project Mimir, featuring Christoph Heeman of H.N.A.S., among others, is a cult favorite of ambient aficionados. In an interview with ReGen, Dots co-founder and lead vocalist Edward Ka-Spel reflects on the band’s history.

It’s been 25 years, and you’re on your anniversary tour. Looking back at when you started the band, did you ever expect that it would become such an underground sensation?

Ka-Spel: In a way. I always thought we would go the course. When we began, we were very serious about it. It was never exactly a hobby. There was always a sort of belief in what we did. We had our own little vision, and we thought it was worthwhile, and we thought that there would be enough people out there to listen and share it with us. Whether we could’ve seen 25 years into the future is another thing; you don’t think of that at the time, but I’ve never actually envisioned a time when I’d want to stop, either.

Has your perspective on the music industry in general changed since you started?

Ka-Spel: I think I’ve mellowed a little bit towards the music industry. There certainly are plenty of crooks and sharks around, and we’ve encountered a few of them throughout the 25 years, but in some ways we’ve also been quite lucky. We haven’t really ever been too much a part of the business. We’ve always gone our own way, and we’ve never been tied to long-term contracts. I think we’ve been quite lucky in not being bruised too badly by the whole thing. I think that no label ever had particularly high ambitions where we concerned, and why should they? We are far too independent and far too wayward.

What can you tell us about your latest albums, starting with Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves? How does the music compare with some of your other recent albums?

Ka-Spel: It’s a very melancholy record, very much like the feeling of the moment, the feeling of the band and the feeling of the times, rather confused and a little frightening. It’s a little bit forward-looking; in another 20 or 25 years, what will the planet look like? Will we be here? How are we going to explain this to the children? Will there even be any children? It feels like we’re sitting on a time bomb.

Do you think your metaphor of the Terminal Kaleidoscope for the condition of the world today is still an accurate one?

Ka-Spel: Sadly, too accurate. I see nothing to discount the idea behind it.

You’ve also released a more experimental album, Alchemical Playschool, that was based around field recordings from India. Have you been to India?

Ka-Spel: I’ve never been; none of us have, actually. It very much came from talking with Charles Powne [owner of the Soleilmoon Recordings label], who walked around with a mini-disc player trying to catch the sounds that he encountered. Actually the travelogue CD that he released is an extremely evocative listen. You can taste the spices and smell the air. It’s a really interesting listen, but he wanted to take it further. He really wanted to turn it into a musical journey, and that’s where we came in. It’s odd doing something about a place you’ve never been to, but it’s the sort of place where you do have pictures in your head, and there was a lot of research done as well.

It’s not one of your more structured releases, and in general it seems like you skip back and forth between comparatively straightforward songwriting and really experimental free-form material. On your experimental works, like the Chemical Playschool series, how much of the material is planned ahead of time, and how much is improvised on the spot in the studio?

Ka-Spel: I think it’s about half and half, nearly. It’s very rare that we make decisions like, ‘This must be for Chemical Playschool, and this must be for the other record,” or whatever. Everything we do is composed really as an album, and the stuff that is spontaneous—the improvisations—they are developed, and they are molded and honed away into something that is more than just improvisation.

Some of your solo albums, like the trilogy that ended with Pieces of Infinity, are very minimal and experimental, but at the same time they seem like they have very definite ideas behind them. For somebody that’s never been exposed to your music before, what would be the perfect way to hear it?

Ka-Spel: In some ways I think that the perfect way is when the lyrics sink into you without you even realizing, so you’re not even listening to the words, you’re experiencing a totality, a perfect mix of sound, not just the lyrics themselves. My idea was never to have the lyrics printed inside the covers, because I think it takes away from the totality of the experience. I’ve been persuaded over the years to include them, but I’m still really reluctant. To me it should be a perfect blend, and it should be something overwhelming. It should never be something just there in the background. It should be something that you experience completely. There should be no dividing in your head into words, sound, music, melody. It should not be reduced to, ‘This is a nice track or that is a nice track.’ It should be a totality from beginning to end. That was very much the idea behind the Chemical Playschool box. It was designed to be a three and a half hour experience which you enter at your own peril, but you’re meant to listen to it from the beginning to the very end. It’s not an easy journey, but I think the best things never are.

While we’re on the topic of lyrics, one thing that sets the Dots apart from other bands is that your grasp of rhyme and rhythm has a definite literary feel that’s not present in a lot of music. Who are some of your favorite authors?

Ka-Spel: A lot of sci-fi. I don’t read as much as I would like to, but I read authors like Harlan Ellison and Robert Sheckley. These guys have often fired my imagination. Just recently I’ve been discovering a lot of Ray Bradbury. I love his ideas; I love the pictures he paints with his words. This all certainly plays its part, but the actual way of writing—the internal rhythms and rhymes and so on—I think is sort of mine, really.

You definitely have a distinct style, but it’s very clever than a lot of your contemporaries in whatever scenes you touch upon. That brings up another question; the Dots touch on a lot of scenes, like the psychedelic scene, the industrial scene, and the noise scene. Do you consider yourselves part of any of these scenes?

Ka-Spel: We tend to operate in our own little universe, but having said that I do certainly love psychedelic music, for instance. A lot of the good stuff is the wild stuff, the old German stuff and things like that. The best noise bands, too, like Pere Ubu. These are bands I still listen to a lot.

In other interviews you’ve mentioned everyone from Acid Mothers Temple to Morrissey. Do you have any guilty musical pleasures?

Ka-Spel: Guilty musical pleasures? Italian prog. I really like Italian prog rock, like P.F.M., and that’s quite a guilty pleasure, I think. A lot of it’s on very much on the pompous end of prog, but I just have a real soft spot for it, I must say. I usually listen to it alone, because I daren’t put it on when somebody else is in the room.

What about undiscovered pleasures? What bands do you love that you think more people deserve to hear?

Ka-Spel: I can think of one band that comes to mind, but they only ever released one album. Out of California there was a band called Science Fiction. They made an album called Terrible Lizards, a very obscure but wonderful record. Trying to find someone who’s actually heard it is quite difficult. Somebody needs to reissue it.

Speaking of reissues, have you ever thought of reissuing the Mimir albums, maybe as a boxed set?

Ka-Spel:That was talked about not so long ago. I don’t know if it will happen. The first Mimir is reappearing quite soon, but completely remixed, and actually little bits of it were even re-recorded. It’s actually a much better CD than it was the first time around.

Do you have any more solo projects in the works? What’s next after this tour is over?

Ka-Spel: There’s a little bit of work going on with the new Tear Garden. There are a lot of ideas that are not quite finished at the moment, the start of new recordings, experiments, and things like that. Where these will go and how they will emerge at the end of it all, I don’t know yet, but certainly a lot of seeds have been planted into the ground.

Is there any chance of a Tear Garden tour this time?

Ka-Spel: I still hope for it. We still talk about it. I don’t want to promise anything; too many promises have been made in the past. I’m seeing cEvin in a couple of weeks, and we’ll probably talk about it again. I’d love to do it. I think it’s time.