self-titled - no. 1 - (Page 13) 13 QUESTIONS Spiritualized's J. Spaceman When I get on the phone with Jason Pierce—aka J. Spaceman, the godhead that is Spiritualized—the first thing he asks is “Why does everything sound so distant?” Because I can’t help myself, I respond that that’s exactly the point of Spiritualized and our interview. “Ah, embracing the philosophical,” Pierce responds. “Very good.” And very fitting. Since 1990 Pierce has provided a dense soundtrack for mankind’s inner soliloquies and downfalls—most pertinently the druggy, romantic success of 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. After surviving a myriad of figurative and literal sicknesses—including a rare bout with pneumonia and respiratory failure that left doctors reviving him twice in 2005—Pierce returns with his first new releases in eons: Spiritualized’s Songs in A&E (Castle) and the J. Spaceman side of the soundtrack to Harmony Korine’s latest film, Mister Lonely. (Sun City Girls contributed the other half.) a.d. amorosi 1. From the sound of Songs in A&E, your voice is starting to age. Anyone told you that before? It’s getting tired. But it’s not a bad thing for your voice to age, if it fits the person it comes from. Aging might also have to do with the way my voice is featured on the record. The vocals got louder and louder and I made them dryer, too. 2. Was that an organic thing, or did you say to yourself, “Must make ‘louder’ and ‘dryer’ before recording”? Even if I arrive at an idea accidentally, I’m still not satisfied unless I go, “Let’s try every idea under the sun, and make sure it’s the best thing.” I threw a lot of effects at it. It didn’t work. A lot of records that have this massive production are due to the fact that there’s no substance to the record—no song even. Applying stuff to this record didn’t work. 3. What made you want to do the album's “Harmony” interludes? Do they mark two distinct halves? No [laughs]. Those pieces allow the rest of the songs to be in their own distinct spaces. See, I’d written most of this album a while back. When I got sick, I was away from it for two years. I tried to go back and finish it as it was, and it was impossible. There’s no point on working on something unless it’s contemporary. I don’t mean to popular culture but rather to your life. I couldn’t find a way back to working on this record that was technically old. Then I met Harmony Korine, and he asked me to do the soundtrack to his next film. Suddenly, I found the music I was writing for Mister Lonely liberating because it was something I didn’t have to have a lyric that meant something to me. So these “Harmony” pieces made the record have its own space, its own atmosphere, rather than be a collection of ten old songs. 4. How did he even consider you for a film about celebrity impersonators? He came to an acoustic show we did—one for Daniel Johnston—after I got out of hospital. I never had the confidence for that sort of thing, a cover thing. Plus, I’m not a guy who imagined himself with an acoustic guitar strapped around my neck. Yet, the audience was moved by that—that and the gospel choir I’d brought in as heavy guns [laughs]. 5. On your Web site you gave a shout out to Roky Erickson after seeing him in London. Is it strange that even though I didn’t know you loved him, I imagined that you did? That’s weird, only because I don’t know you that well [laughs]. I don’t know if the show was great, but he was. When he sang, “I’m home to stay,” it was as if he was back from some amazing fucking journey. As a kid, in the way people looked at the Beatles and the Stones, I looked at Roky and guys like Alex Chilton. They could fail. I could fail. I don’t mean that how it sounds. They did what they wanted to do, fucked up and found their way in again. They were true. 6. It’s as naked as you can get with zero consideration toward what the mass audience thinks, right? So much is about commerce, money, charts. Being number one isn’t any better than being number two. 7. You were so sick that you nearly died. Was there anything remarkable about coming that close? I don’t want to feel like all I talk about is dying or that experience, but I was pretty ill. Did I see a light? I don’t know. There’s little to report in that regard. I don’t have an idea, honestly, of what my circumstances were like. http://www.spiritualized.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of self-titled - no. 1 self-titled - no. 1 Contents Spiritualized No Age Les Savy Fav The Teenagers Booka Shade Michael Gira Ellen Allien Magik Markers Jens Lekman Yeasayer Daptone Records Tipping Point Boris Fiery Furnaces Black Dice Black Mountain The Black Lips self-titled - no. 1 self-titled - no. 1 - self-titled - no. 1 (Page 1) self-titled - no. 1 - self-titled - no. 1 (Page 2) self-titled - no. 1 - self-titled - no. 1 (Page 3) self-titled - no. 1 - self-titled - no. 1 (Page 4) self-titled - no. 1 - self-titled - no. 1 (Page 5) self-titled - no. 1 - self-titled - no. 1 (Page 6) self-titled - no. 1 - self-titled - no. 1 (Page 7) self-titled - no. 1 - Contents (Page 8) self-titled - no. 1 - Contents (Page 9) self-titled - no. 1 - Contents (Page 10) self-titled - no. 1 - Contents (Page 11) self-titled - no. 1 - Spiritualized (Page 12) self-titled - no. 1 - Spiritualized (Page 13) self-titled - no. 1 - Spiritualized (Page 14) self-titled - no. 1 - Spiritualized (Page 15) self-titled - no. 1 - No Age (Page 16) self-titled - no. 1 - No Age (Page 17) self-titled - no. 1 - The Teenagers (Page 18) self-titled - no. 1 - Booka Shade (Page 19) self-titled - no. 1 - Michael Gira (Page 20) self-titled - no. 1 - Michael Gira (Page 21) self-titled - no. 1 - Ellen Allien (Page 22) self-titled - no. 1 - Ellen Allien (Page 23) self-titled - no. 1 - Ellen Allien (Page 24) self-titled - no. 1 - Ellen Allien (Page 25) self-titled - no. 1 - Ellen Allien (Page 26) self-titled - no. 1 - Magik Markers (Page 27) self-titled - no. 1 - Jens Lekman (Page 28) self-titled - no. 1 - Jens Lekman (Page 29) self-titled - no. 1 - Yeasayer (Page 30) self-titled - no. 1 - Yeasayer (Page 31) self-titled - no. 1 - Daptone Records (Page 32) self-titled - no. 1 - Tipping Point (Page 33) self-titled - no. 1 - Tipping Point (Page 34) self-titled - no. 1 - Tipping Point (Page 35) self-titled - no. 1 - Boris (Page 36) self-titled - no. 1 - Boris (Page 37) self-titled - no. 1 - Boris (Page 38) self-titled - no. 1 - Fiery Furnaces (Page 39) self-titled - no. 1 - Fiery Furnaces (Page 40) self-titled - no. 1 - Fiery Furnaces (Page 41) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Dice (Page 42) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Dice (Page 43) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Dice (Page 44) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Dice (Page 45) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Dice (Page 46) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Dice (Page 47) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Mountain (Page 48) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Mountain (Page 49) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Mountain (Page 50) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Mountain (Page 51) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Mountain (Page 52) self-titled - no. 1 - Black Mountain (Page 53) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 54) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 55) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 56) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 57) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 58) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 59) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 60) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 61) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 62) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 63) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 64) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 65) self-titled - no. 1 - The Black Lips (Page 66)
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