More than two decades removed from her last solo album, Paula Kelley has reemerged with the wonderfully luminescent Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out (Wharf Cat). Following her early run as an integral member of Boston-based shoegaze pioneers Drop Nineteens, Kelley has sustained her craft over the years with behind-the-scenes work as an arranger and composer. Blinking explores the shadowy corners of indie pop, drawing from a well of adversity as it channels the emotional heft and melodic sophistication of such foundational artists as Big Star, Judee Sill and Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone.
MAGNET’s Hobart Rowland reached out to Kelley for some insight into an album that that’s part return to form, part deep dive into something richer, stranger and more self-defined.
It’s been more than 20 years since you last new music. What brought you out of hibernation?
I was actually making music the whole time. In fact, I had an entire album’s worth of songs that I scrapped around 2012. I was in a bad place. My substance abuse was at its nadir, and I ended up in rehab in 2013. The good news is that I’ve been sober ever since. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to write again as a sober person. I had to relearn how to live, let alone find a way to express my creativity. Throughout those decades, though, I was still doing orchestral arrangements for other artists, writing for film and working in theater—anything other than being in a band, really. The songs came organically. I wrote “God Will Someone Tell Me” as I was stepping out of my dark period. It was such a relief. From there, they kept coming.
What did you want to achieve with Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out?
I didn’t “decide” to make this record. It just happened. Once I had the demos, I vowed not to make concessions with the performances, arrangements or production. There had been times on past recordings when I was like, “Eh, it’s good enough,” then certain parts of songs would make me cringe forever after. This time I was exacting. I wanted to make something I was proud of, tip to tail.
I had the honor of interviewing Colin Blunstone recently, which inspired a deep dive into his brilliant post-Zombies solo work. What has his music meant to you over the years, and how did it inform Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out?
One Year is one of my favorite albums of all time. I mean, there’s his other-worldly voice—he could make the theme to Ghostbusters sound gorgeous. The first time I heard “Caroline Goodbye,” it stopped me in my tracks. I love the multitracked tambourine on that song, and I have no shame in admitting I totally nicked that technique for “The Denial.” Chris Gunning’s string arrangements are astounding. “Misty Roses” goes from sentimental to avant-garde, and the way he made that seamless is sorcery.
My husband, Aaron (Tap), got the opportunity to play guitar with Colin last fall, and I nearly fell over in my chair when he told me. They rehearsed in our studio—Colin Blunstone was in my house! He’s so measured and kind, but it still took effort to constrain my fangirling.
Were you comfortable with the shoegaze designation for Drop Nineteens?
Drop Nineteens went through stages. (1992 debut) Delaware is 100 percent a shoegaze record, no question. We had a bit of that hubris of youth, and once we were pigeonholed, we started to move away from gaze and lean into straight-up American indie rock. You can hear the beginnings of that on the Your Aquarium EP (also from 1992).
While Blinking isn’t a shoegaze record, there are gaze-adjacent moments—most noticeable in “Party Line,” “The Denial” and “All I Wanna Do.” My solo stuff has always been more pop-influenced and leaning more baroque over time.
What do you see in today’s shoegaze bands that’s encouraging?
It’s a different time now, and that became apparent as Drop Nineteens played on bills with young bands—they’re so enthusiastic and earnest. We toured with Olivia O (Lowertown), and she was a delight. This is a generalization, but young bands in the ’90s were more cynical. We wore the Gen X “whatever” on our sleeves. Even if we were excited about something, we had to act disaffected and cool. Note: It wasn’t cool. One of the best things about Drop Nineteens’ resurgence has been playing with these young artists and osmosing their positive energy.