When KTP's lead singer and songwriter Nick Whitecross finished the last of his recording company's
chores before returning to England, he made one last stop, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
That was his idea of a good way to wind down from the pressures of the U.S. trip, a crucial one for him and his teammates
(keyboardist John Kingsley Hall, guitarist Simon Aldridge and drummer Stephen Cusack).
The band's present album, Certain Things Are Likely (Polygram), had produced a hot dance single, "One Step," and a new song
"Never Too Late To Love You" was just released for airplay.
For Whitecross and his band, this try for the American pop scene is an effort for them to balance the intellectual and the
visceral. "This record is like a ticket," explains Whitecross, "for us to make KTP go to as many people as possible. On our
previous records we could get quite intellectual. But with this record I think we can incorporate some of the stuff that was
previously deemed too weird."
As Kissing The Pink, Whitecross and a slightly different crew took a decidedly stranger tack, beginning their recording career with
producer Martin Hannett, the man who brought doom-and-gloom major-domos Joy Division to the world. Says 31-year-old Whitecross,
"His whole sound was completely different; he not only would remix a sound, he would twist everything, including us, around." Yet
when they signed with their English label, Magnet, they found themselves pegged as a pop act.
"Right from the start there was a problem— they wanted a pop group and we had our brains completely turned around by Hannett. There
was always that dichotomy with us; for example, our next producer worked with Duran Duran."
Since KTP's video hit on MTV, they've been a dance band, but for the cerebrally inclined singer/lyricist they now have the
experience and the intellect for success. "Though we've come to the right point now, having options can be terrifying. If
you have too many it's like a panorama; your head's moving all over the place. I think we now know where we're headed."