(CNN) -- Pink Floyd are not who you think they are.





With effects-laden production, Hipgnosis-illustrated concept albums and expansive live shows, the band is famously associated with rock 'n' roll excess. It wasn't for nothing that the Sex Pistols' John Lydon scrawled "I HATE" on a Pink Floyd T-shirt (though he later admitted he loved the band).





But, almost 45 years on, a closer look at the band's catalog reveals as much hardcore pile-driving ("Run Like Hell") and wistful melodies ("Wish You Were Here") as the long-form "Interstellar Overdrive" space rock with which it's frequently classified.





Still, drummer Nick Mason says, it's hard to escape the pigeonholing.





"I think these labels are generally delivered by people who sometimes haven't listened to the music," he said in a phone interview.





Longtime fans and new listeners will have another chance to size up Mason's words. The band's entire studio catalog, including the Syd Barrett-led 1967 debut "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," the Roger Waters-dominated "The Wall" (1979) and the career-concluding "The Division Bell" (1994), has been remastered and is scheduled for release on Tuesday.





"The Dark Side of the Moon," the band's 1973 classic, which still holds the record for longest run on the Billboard album charts, will be issued in three versions: a single CD, a two-disc "Experience Edition" that includes a live album, and a six-disc "Immersion Edition" boxed set.





Mason talked to CNN about the band's evolution, the pitfalls of playing live and fantasies about being the Monkees. The following is an edited version of the interview.





CNN: How often do you go back and listen to the old material?





Mason: The answer is, I would never willingly put on one of our old records at home for entertainment. But with this project, that all changed -- and I was forced at gunpoint to listen to everything, again and again. (laughs) Actually, it's really interesting. It's a bit like a diary -- looking at old photographs. What you get is not only the music but the memories that come with it of what you were doing, and how it was in the studio, and all the rest of it.





CNN: There's been the label placed on Floyd as "space rock." How did you guys take that label?





Mason: One tends to try and reject any labeling anyway, as a matter of principle. And I think the labels tend to reflect whatever you were doing before. So we were labeled psychedelic -- well, "Dark Side of the Moon" was the least psychedelic album you could hope to listen to. It's terribly specific and measured and not floaty-off anywhere.





I think these labels are generally delivered by people who sometimes haven't listened to the music -- sometimes by just looking at the photographs. If the band have got curly hair and flared trousers, then they're prog-rock or space rock, and if they're very, very grubby, with waistcoats and jeans, then they're an R&B band.





CNN: Also, it probably has something to do with what you were smoking or doing when you were listening to the album.





Mason: Yeah. Always be very careful if you're listening to country and western and doing drugs.





CNN: Let's talk about "Dark Side." Were you aware that you were creating something different?





Mason: I don't think so. My opinion was that we knew we'd done the best thing so far. But as I've told people, even if you think you've done the world's greatest record, that does not guarantee that the public will feel the same way.





What happened with "Dark Side" was we were out touring with it and it began to come up the American charts
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