Ed Kuepper: Lost & Found.

By his own count, Lost Cities was Ed Kuepper's 50th album. Under different circumstances, that number might have been a lot higher. Or could have stopped at three.Even as he reached that #50, he wasn’t really expecting the gold watch in recognition of the landmark.

“I’m not even sure ‘the industry’ would even know. But if someone wants to debate the number, I don’t care - I’m the one keeping the books here,” he laughs drily.

From the original Saints, to a myriad of solo work that now includes soundtrack work for the likes of the Last Cab To Darwin movie and that most recent work of new material, Lost Cities – described as ‘solo-orchestral’ in style - it’s quite a catalogue.

But he still wonders if he could have done more: “I might have hit the 50 mark sooner, if things had run smoother at various times - putting records out can get difficult when your label is collapsing underneath you.” Faced with that some years back, Mr Kuepper now runs his own Prince Melon label imprint.

Having got just about everything from history back under this own control, there's now a very handy compilation of his singles from that purple patch of late-'80s to mid-'90s solo work where there sometimes seemed there was new Kuepper product every few months. Not that there was anything wrong with that.

But such control comes with trade-offs: “If people expect me to say that every minute of everything I do as ‘Ed Kuepper, the musician’ is an absolute pleasure - then fuck off, it’s really not the case. There’s a whole bunch of things that are a drag, but I have to do the grinding boring stuff – because I still want to put music out.”

Then again, if things had worked out differently back in the mists of time, none of it may have happened at all. As Kuepper reflects: “Oh I’ve often thought of walking away from it – periods where you think you really should be doing something more sensible.”

“Although it’s probably too late to stop now, but when The Saints first broke up I really did think that was the time to move into something else.” There even was a Plan B: “I had a ton of records, books, comics – and thought I’d just go into the selling of ‘rare stuff’. That lasted for a month or so.” Ed Kuepper, the quiet guy in the corner record shop who used to be in a band?

“Not even that – The Saints weren’t even well-remembered when we broke up. But I decided I was more interested in creating than just collecting. Deciding I might be the worst retailer outside of Black Books also did occur to me. So I started writing songs again.”
So, in the around 50 albums following that epiphany, does Ed Kuepper have favourites - or red-headed stepchildren he’d like to disown?

“It’s the experience of the writing, the making of a record where I find the enjoyment. Once it’s done, you kind of have to step back from it. After doing Lost Cities, there was probably a week where I was playing it four or five times a day. Reassuring myself that the whole process was worth it. But after that, you really do have to let it go.”

“And no, you can’t really disown anything you’ve done,” he concludes firmly. “You have an investment in whatever you do. It would be a bit shoddy and cowardly, really. You have to own your mistakes - you’ve earned them. Although some days, that second hand shop still looks like an attractive option.”