Against all odds Kayak have returned with their 18th studio album, Out Of This World. Prog catches up with co-founder Ton Scherpenzeel to find out more and take a glance over the Dutch band’s career so far.

Words: Johnny Sharp

There haven’t been too many reasons to be cheerful for musicians in the 2020s so far. But Ton Scherpenzeel, founder member of Dutch prog mainstays Kayak, freely admits, “The last year, 18 months, have been very good for me. I’ve learned a lot.”

That’s not the result of enforced isolation, though. Rather it’s an upbeat attitude that’s been reinforced through the relentlessly turbulent history of a band that have released their 18th studio album and are approaching 50 years since their original formation in 1972.

The most recent tribulation to confront them could have spelled the end not just of Kayak but of their driving force. Keyboardist and songwriter Scherpenzeel suffered a heart attack in 2019, which forced him to re-evaluate his lifestyle as well as his attitude to his art.

“It made me realise how precious life is,” he tells Prog. The lean, fair-haired 68-year-old looks sprightly enough on the other end of a Zoom call. “I mean, I’m not going to make another 20 albums. So now I’m approaching every album as if it’s the last. I’m as dedicated to this one as I was with the first one.

“Over the last 18 months, I’ve learned not to trust my body anymore. So I’m working more on the body, which I never did. I’m not an excessive drinker or smoker, but this can happen to anybody. So I’m walking every day for an hour, which for me is exceptional. You know, I like playing piano and normally that’s enough movement. But my attitude has changed because I still want to go on for a little while yet…”

The hoary old wisdom that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger may be a cliché, but for Scherpenzeel it’s proving true, spiritually and also creatively, judging by the quality of the band’s new album Out Of This World, a 15-song, 70-minute set that blends vintage symphonic prog with stridently tuneful AOR.