San Francisco psych-rock legend Kelley Stoltz recently stopped by West of Twin Peaks to chat with MJ about his new (18th!) LP, La Fleur, a creative flowering that he credits to a new family member: his daughter.

MJ: I got the feeling that you were acknowledging and embracing your role as a now legendary, older San Francisco artist because you have seen these scenes before. I got the feeling you were talking to younger people throughout this whole album.

Kelley: Well, that's a very apt and smart catch on your part. To be honest, a lot of these songs are for my daughter. I became a father two years ago at the age of 50 years old - my god - I'll be "who's your grandpa" picking her up at high school. So I think the advice to younger generations that you picked up on is true, and a lot of it is sung to her. There are two or three songs in particular that are written about being a new dad, about fatherhood, about having a little one depending on you, and also sort of some admission of the world's insanity and the things that I worry about now, wondering what will the world will be like for her....there are some fearful messages and also some hopeful messages for my daughter [in the album].

Is the flower (la fleur) your daughter?

Yeah, I mean, I guess she would be the flower. The flower represents creativity, too. It's all those things. Renewal. It's springtime for me. My life is completely new for the first time in decades. You make a new record, you write a new song, these are all small rebirths. But this was a major rebirth.

Do you feel like you're kind of reinventing yourself?

I don't know! I definitely had to reinvent how I worked and how I found time to do things and how I found energy. I reinvented what I would write about, although it wasn't a conscious reinvention. It's happening, whether I know it or not. It's happening in the biggest way of my life in the last few years.

You've got all this going on, and then you get this gig with KEXP. Tell me about that because that kind of lands you again as "the legendary San Francisco artist." [Laughs]

The elder statesman, I know! [Laughs]

...I wrote the people at KEXP and said I'm so grateful and this really came at a good time for me. It's another little bit of spirit uplift that is helpful to keep this ship sailing. I look at KEXP coming here as another great record store. We don't have to be Amoeba. We don't have to be the tiniest shop either. The more places that are playing this stuff, if we put it aside in a selfless way, our job is to help music that we believe in. We're another good record store where people can go get stuff, that's how I'm looking at it.

High tide lifts all boats. It also fits into this new era of Kelley Stoltz because you're looking at the younger acts and you're recognizing what your developing role is in the scene. This is all part of it.

It's true, isn't it. A lot of this is slowly revealing itself to me. I don't want to upset the retrograde or whatever the hell's going on in my life, but ever since that [recent] tour I've been just filled with good fortune...good attitude, a renewed enthusiasm for music of my own and of others. When you have a great tour experience like I did, you come home and your tank is full. You're ready to write, you're ready to sing, you're ready to take your kid for a walk. All of it is a joy. A lot of that had to do with having a great tour and feeling like my sense of self was renewed. And then getting the KEXP was just bam - another good thing.

The flower that's blossoming is you.

Woah! I love it. That's a good line. Can I use that in a song? That's beautiful. I hope you're right...Thanks for pouring more water in the garden.

Listen to the full interview here. West of Twin Peaks Radio airs every other Sunday from 6-8:00am.

La Fleur is out now.