The Star that is just out of Range: an Interview with Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots

         You are in a club — in an altered state of consciousness. Suddenly, a recognizable dance single penetrates the blur and haze. Colors vibrate as vintage synthesizers pulse. Overtaken by movement, for seven minutes you are lost. The song is from 1989 — a subversive cry against Thatcher’s England — and while you’re listening to “Blacklist,” you may not necessarily know that that is The Legendary Pink Dots, depending on which of their many albums you have been introduced to. 

      Their name is derived from the pink dots on one of the band’s keyboards and their stylistic range is beyond broad. Starting out in 1980, their albums experiment with everything from demented English acoustic guitar storytelling and gothy neo-psychedelia to abrasive industrial montages and avant-garde museum-core, with their early output tinged in post-punk essence. Sometimes this variance in genre can happen all on one album. The latest addition to their 40-record-plus discography, The Pages of Aquarius, was released earlier this year on Metropolis Records and induces more hypnotic and bizarre states of consciousness. 

    As you can see, the muse of singer, chief lyric writer, and keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel is never exhausted. In addition to LPD, he recently completed an album with Amanda Palmer, and in the past he has also collaborated with cEvin Key from Skinny Puppy (for their mid-’90s side project The Tear Garden) and many others. 

Edward Ka-Spel at the LPD show 10/15/16 at Thee Parkside (SF). Photo courtesy Todd Billeci

We interviewed Edward as he traveled through an unknown California desert during the western portion of the Legendary Pink Dots’ U.S. tour. 

So you’re touring for your new album. What’s going on with that and how did The Pages of Aquarius come about?

The album we just put out, The Pages of Aquarius, actually began about two years ago, when we started working on it. It was a whole process. That’s actually how long it took for us to finally decide earlier this year that it is finally there. Some songs are re-recorded. This is not one of those [projects] where we were extremely perfectionist about it dotting all the i’s and making sure it’s totally right. What do we get right after 35 years???! [Laughs.] But the theme is change, transformation. It’s starting in one place, a very earthly place, someone looking in the mirror and not liking what he sees and in the end basically ascending to nirvana. It’s very loosely combined but makes sense as a whole.

                                               "Mirror Mirror" from The Pages of Aquarius 

I understand the perfectionism side to creating your projects, but has this method (of not dotting all the i’s) been a new route for you?

I can’t hardly explain why it felt so important to us to go this way. I think we were all pretty excited about the advance in technology, the palette of sound that we can have access to. We can access difference shades that we never had at our disposal. Its kind of like going in to an ice cream shop and you want to taste it all. That’s basically what it felt like. We felt like we wanted to give it all because we felt like we never had such a choice. What is important to me, as the Pink Dots evolves, since we have been around for as long as we have, we never could stand to put out something that was merely “O.K.” — it would have to go a step further than the one before and of course the one before that would be our ultimate goal. You're always aiming higher. You always have to be that star that is just out of range. 

I heard that you did move from the U.K. because of all the political ugliness. I heard you live in Holland now? Society does look pretty ugly right now. 

Yes! It does look ugly. No, I moved back to the U.K. in 2011. I’m sad to say that the U.K. is in an uglier state than the U.S. right now. At least the monster that you have in the U.S. has to go at some point, but the monster that we have here we’re stuck with! It’s a very xenophobic, very harsh society and it’s promoted by the government. They’re borderline Nazis. [This] world is changing drastically, on an incredible level at an incredible rate. If you look at the big picture, it’s not in a good way, either. But I’m also an optimist at heart, though. I believe the world is still beautiful and it will always be beautiful — at least until I depart the planet, which hopefully won’t be too soon. 

OK, so you're back in the U.K. for now. However, you have been touring extensively forever. Do you ever get a break from that?

To be honest, it has slowed down in the recent years. For example, last year we only did a handful of European shows. Not so much, maybe twenty or something. It’s a choice. We wanted to step back and do some actual recording. There’s a lot of projects going on.

You have created a vast library of sounds with LPD: psych-rock, acoustic, minimal electronic, darkwave dance. Is this all based on your moods? Feelings of the day? Year?

Well, that’s the Pink Dot world. It is all of those things you just mentioned. and it’s a very tasty cocktail that just might blow your mind. I think it’s about presenting all the shades and all the moods you might have. It’s about looking deep into yourself to see just how much there is there. It’s not so much the mind as it is the soul. There’s a lot of humor in there, a lot of sadness in there, and a lot of joy. I suppose it’s all nuances, all shades and all the questions. It’s always about questioning. It’s always about exploring in one’s self. 

More Edward at the LPD show 10/15/16 at Thee Parkside (SF). Photo courtesy Todd Billeci

You cater to the dimensions of the spirit. That’s probably why you’re so prolific — because you have that range of emotion.

For instance, this set that we’re playing right now is probably the most confrontational set we have ever played. It’s quite extreme. Basically we start off with getting people in a nice mood and then we [chuckles] go off in a very interesting direction. But we have been getting good reactions! It seems to have been getting people talking. 

How is the U.S. portion of the tour going for you?

I would say it’s been the best part of the tour of the year, really. More people are showing up, they're enjoying it, they're taking it well. A lot of good feedback. The plan for the rest of the tour is to finish up the U.S. and then I’m going back to the U.K. and the rest of the guys are going back to Holland. I’ll take a rest for a little while. I still need to have time with my wife and my little girl. We have a few European Dots shows, then doing a few shows with Amanda Palmer. We will probably play in San Francisco for that show next year. It’s probably the most exciting place for us to play on the whole American tour besides Portland!

For more info on The Legendary Pink Dots you can go here to their official website for the latest updates. Here's their Facebook page too!

Photo Courtesy Todd Billeci LPD 10/15/16 at Thee Parkside

A big thanks to Todd Billeci of Noise Art for his revisions and photo contributions as well as John Graham for his editing skills.