Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires
Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires return with their new album The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams, embracing psychedelic pop, melodic songwriting, and a more cohesive sound shaped by vocalist Ilse Van Der Linden.
1. The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams follows your 2024 debut, Psychedelic Soul & Trash Vol.3, which was praised for its bold and eclectic mix of psychedelic rock, funk, trip-hop and electronic sounds. Looking back, what did you learn from making the first album that shaped the writing and recording of this new one?
The first LP (and, in fact, the band as a whole) was spawned from the unexpected success of the single “Autumn Fall”, which was born out of wanting to produce a Northern Soul-type track. The whole LP was then assembled around songs with more retro styles; however, there wasn’t a common musical thread running through it, as we used various vocalists and just made tracks because we wanted to try out that style. It was more experimental in that sense. Adding Ilse (Van Der Linden) as a permanent vocalist has helped shape the new LP more coherently, and the songwriting leaned more toward making a whole LP than assembling tracks from a pool of individually produced songs.
2. You describe The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams as more stylistically coherent than your debut, while still drawing from very different influences such as Radiohead, Portishead, Orbital and Cyndi Lauper. How did you bring these seemingly different worlds together while developing the band’s own identity?
There are certainly different styles at play on the new LP, but we would say that they all fit under the overall umbrella of ‘Psychedelic pop’. Whereas the first LP deliberately delved into retro styles, we made the new LP with a mind to make a whole LP that flowed in a way similar to some of the bands mentioned above did, whilst still not playing into musical stereotypes. The Cyndi Lauper influence came as a mistake; we were trying to make an ‘In My Life’ (The Beatles) type song and it came out sounding more like ‘Time After Time’ … but we’re happy with that.
3. Dutch vocalist Ilse Van Der Linden is an important addition to the band’s sound, bringing a more melodic dimension to your psychedelic pop songs. How did Ilse become involved with Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires, and what changed creatively once her voice became part of the band’s musical landscape?
We wanted to start to take the first LP out live, so we advertised for a vocalist and managed to nab Ilse. We already had a pool of songs recorded for the new LP, but most of these were scrapped and new ones introduced to fit with Ilse’s unique vocal style and melodies.
4. The album has been two years in the making and features singles including “Come Home,” “Lost & Burnt,” “To Think, To Heal” and “BLEND.” Was there a particular song that opened the door to the album’s overall direction, and how did the record evolve from that starting point?
Initially, the LP was due to be darker, more trip-hop, and Lost & Burnt was the first offering from that idea; however, when we realized what we had with Ilse, we changed track and went down a more melodic psych-pop sound. ”Come Home” was the first sign of this change in direction.
5. Your previous album achieved more than 150,000 digital streams, 7.4 million TikTok plays and airplay from BBC 6 Music, Radio X and Absolute Radio. How has that unexpected response affected the band—both creatively and in terms of your ambitions for The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams?
What we’ve come to realize is that all the big numbers don’t really count for much. In fact, the constant work required to keep these numbers up becomes really exhausting and makes making the music less enjoyable. To this end, although the new LP will be released digitally, we are concentrating much more on the physical side of things, with vinyl and CD copies only available via record shops and undertaking an acoustic tour. Releasing songs just digitally can feel very empty, and then you spend most of your time hunched over a laptop chasing playlists. This time we want to get out there and go old school with the release, as to be honest, as a musician, it’s much more fun!!
6. The Pumphouse of Broken Dreams arrives on October 30, 2026, and you’ll be supporting it with an acoustic UK tour. What can listeners expect from these live performances, and what would you like people to discover about Legends of the Seven Golden Vampires after hearing the new album?
It will be a stripped-down performance of the songs that can be done acoustically, on guitar and keyboard/piano.
We have an LP launch at the LP Cafe Watford on 30/10/2026, but we plan to play everywhere and anywhere we can over October, which could mean that we pop up at an open mic near you!