Spiritualized: ‘We play rock’n’roll, so it’s inherently inept’

Since 1982 Jason Pierce has been exploring experimental noise, psychedelia, blues, and rock'n'roll as half of Spaceman 3 and songwriting anchor of Spiritualized. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this low-key enigma also known as J Spaceman approached recent challenges as an opportunity rather than a setback.

“I felt like I’d been in training for a lockdown my entire life,” says Pierce from his home in east London. “It took all the guilt out of being an obsessive person. When you make music, it feels like the most important thing in the world. It shouldn’t, because it’s just music, but there was absolutely nothing else to do. It was preferable to going crazy in other ways. It was an enforced beautiful solitude.”

Pierce takes nothing for granted. In 2005 he suffered double pneumonia. Both his lungs filled up, his weight plummeted to seven stone, and he was technically declared dead twice. “If I didn’t survive I wouldn’t have made all the albums since Songs in A&E [2008], so I’ve a lot to be thankful for,” he says. “I said at the time that I was the same disappointing person when I came out of hospital as I was when I went in.”

The singer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist is now poised to release Everything Was Beautiful , the follow-up to And Nothing Hurt from 2018. A line by Kurt Vonnegut links both albums. "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt" comes from Slaughterhouse-Five, a classic war novel that has influenced and inspired Conor O'Brien from Villagers, Moby, and Factory Records supremo Tony Wilson. The title of Wilson's Granada television programme So it Goes comes from the phrase Vonnegut employs after each death in the book.

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Simplicity and a rudimentary approach create that thrill. It can be hard to chase but we get very excited when we get it

“I like Vonnegut’s sarcasm and cynicism,” Pierce adds. “I love his dark wit because it is also deeply good-natured and rational. About 10 years ago, I started to re-read a few books I loved when I was younger. You listen to music over and over again and commit it completely to memory in a way you don’t with other art forms.”

On Everything Was Beautiful, Pierce plays 16 different instruments. “Yeah, but I’m master of none,” he laughs. “We play rock’n’roll, so it’s inherently inept. Simplicity and a rudimentary approach create that thrill. It can be hard to chase but we get very excited when we get it. However simple you think it is, it’s actually simpler than that.”

Studio crawl

Spiritualized used 11 studios to record Everything Was Beautiful. “It wasn’t an endless quest to find the perfect environment, it was more of a practical case of booking the studio nearest to whatever pedal steel player was available at the time,” Pierce says. “There are a few studios in Notting Hill we use a lot because most of my band are based around that part of the world.”

Outside a core line-up who've worked with him since 1999, which includes long-term associate John Coxon from London drum'n'bass duo Spring Heel Jack, Pierce tends to favour a revolving cast of musicians.

“Sometimes I find it hard to get people on board because most people want to work to their strengths. but I’m not always interested in that,” he says. “A lot of people go to engineers and producers asking them to replicate what they did for someone else. I want to find a unique place for the songs to dwell. This requires trial and error. People sometimes lose their way or get angry about not being able to fall back on what they’re more comfortable doing.”

Pierce lives in a beautiful old Huguenot quarter of Spitalfields where his neighbours include Tracey Emin, and Gilbert & George. He has a keen appreciation of the area’s history and heritage. On his new album he uses the unique sound of bells acquired from the former Whitechapel Foundry.

"The foundry used to be just around the corner," he says. "It's such a tragedy that it closed, which was partly to do with closing down anything emitting nasty chemicals and foul smells. It's been there since the 16th century and manufactured the Liberty Bell, Big Ben, and the 10 bells of Nicholas Hawksmoor's Christ Church. I used to bring my kids up there to watch the bells being made when they were little. They were probably considerably less interested in it than I was."

Speaking of his children, his daughter, Poppy, features on Everything Was Beautiful. “She sings bit and pieces all over the record,” says Pierce. “She also announces the album, which is a kind of a steal from Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space. We reissued all those records last year, which gave me a very useful overview of how albums should be.”

Audience groans

Listeners who are familiar with that 1997 classic will instantly recognise the motif. “I lost my way making this record, which I always do,” he says. “The first track wasn’t really working. So I put an announcement and tiny little transmission, which is the signal from Apollo 11. Suddenly, it became otherworldly.”

Doing a reissue while simultaneously working on new material is how Pierce likes to operate. “I feel like most people my age make new records as a means to get back on the road to play their old records,” he says. “It’s become a bit of a joke for bands to say they’re going to play a new song while the audience groans. This puts the bar higher. There must be a reason why you want to still make records without losing your passion or focus. They must be worthy of being made. Otherwise, it’s just a pointless exercise in commerce. I felt this especially with the last two records. They had to have songs that were better than ordinary, and original. Last time we played live we performed a new album in its entirety. It didn’t feel like it was enforced at all. It’s exactly the same with this one. In an odd way it feels like my records land out of time. They’re not fixed in the world where they arrive.”

When we reissued the first four albums last year I thought the music still sounded like it had just been recorded

Thirty years ago this spring, Spiritualized released Laser Guided Melodies, a rapturously received debut album reportedly recorded for £3,800. “I honestly wouldn’t have known it’s been 30 years had you not told me,” says Pierce. “When we reissued the first four albums last year I thought the music still sounded like it had just been recorded. Music often follows the latest trend of sounding like whatever is popular at the time in order to sell a little more. We were always aghast that you’d ever want to do that – to force an ill-fitting idea into a box that was currently hip. It’s nice to hear them again, and they sound like they don’t belong in any particular era, whether it be 30, 20 or 10 years ago. “

Industry vagaries

He intends to continue to plough on regardless of the vagaries of the music industry. “It’s a boyhood dream to continue to make music,” he says. “It’s elusive and strange and always a thrill. It was really emotional rehearsing after three years of not seeing other people. To be making noise with this group called Spiritualized again had me in tears.”

The first record I ever bought with my own money was Raw Power by Iggy & The Stooges. I just saw this beautiful man in silver pants on the cover and wanted to know more

He is still deeply moved and inspired by the music he loved when he was younger. “I was listening to [US garage rock band] The Seeds yesterday,” he says. “They still make me feel like I did when I was 18. I still wonder how the hell they did it because it sounds like it just dropped out of the sky. The first record I ever bought with my own money was Raw Power by Iggy & The Stooges. I didn’t know anything about the contents. I just saw this beautiful man in silver pants on the cover and wanted to know more. It started this whole thing and my love of rock’n’roll. I’m incredible lucky. It’s such a simple art form but the most thrilling and visceral. When the music hits, it feels like you’re inside it. I don’t understand it. But I don’t want to understand it. I want to feel it.”

Everything Was Beautiful is out on April 22nd on Bella Union. Spiritualized play the Olympia, Dublin on May 7th