Intergalactic Planetary

Spiritualized are usually described as space rock after founder Pierce's former band Spacemen 3, and have had more personnel changes than Sydney FC has had coaches. Each occasion they release an album a new band member seemingly joins the mothership. Pierce and the latest members of Spiritualized are currently two months into a world tour and are in Stockholm before heading to Australia. He says he's looking forward to his second visit Down Under after the chaotic nature of his first. “The first time I played in Australia I was suffering from Hepatitis C. The audience may not have realised it but it was probably the hardest and toughest show I've ever played. I thought that it would be the only time I'd get to play in Australia and literally jumped on a plane despite suffering from the illness. The irony is I've got another chance to perform and this time around I'm fighting fit.”

As Spiritualized, Pierce has released seven studio albums, the most recognised being 1997's Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space. Now in his late forties, Pierce has done the lot. He's had, and won, a gruelling battle against a degenerative liver disease, waged war alongside Hepatitis C and battled his own mind and body against drugs. He's also faced an apparently ongoing fracas with critics who don't always 'get' his music. He says nowadays his drug of choice is wine. “I adore (wine),” he admits wryly. His other addiction is music, and on that he will be ever opinionated. Longstanding fans will be familiar with his hymn and trance-like approach to melody. Chorus and strings dominate. For newcomers unfamiliar with Spiritualized, Pierce is more about regurgitation than innovation – repetition is what he, and the band, does. There's also an aspect of sacred prose to Pierce's lyrical bent – gospel and blues references are frequent. Much was made about the lyrics on Walking With Jesus, where Pierce sang about humanity and mortality. He puts the religious descriptions down to language. “The language I like is the language that explores love and relationships. Music should always be truthful as it's important to be honest, particularly when people pay to see you and buy your music. It's important to be honest.”

Integrity and straightforwardness remain constants for the Brit. He reckons a lot of what is played today is little more than a rehash of tried and tested ideas and formats. “So much of what's heard today is people passing off someone else's ideas as their own. More than ever we need to look to the future as the music industry is continuing to look back. The industry is like a catering or service industry.” Pierce adds that making music is a lot about fashion and the media: “People are blind to ongoing trends or the latest hit record that it doesn't matter if the music's actually any good or not.” The ongoing reformation of bands also troubles him. “We're seeing more and more bands reform to create 'best of' albums that it's simply another case of going backwards and not forwards.” He reckons though his local café in London is a source of encouragement and inspiration. “I visit this café to see artists improvising and free-forming. You can't rehearse improvised music and it's good to see originality.”

If '97's Ladies And Gentleman We Are Floating In Space was his tour de force album – lauded as a triumph in Britpop that merged gospel, sweeping strings and orchestral actions with the raw sound of rock, following up the success has proven difficult, albeit from a critical perspective. The primary criticism of Spiritualized is the long-established view that all Spiritualized albums have a prognosis of déjà vu. Well, déjà vu is incorrect; familiarity is Pierce's intent. That Pierce continues to stimulate debate has him baffled. “I'm astounded by it all really. We've played to half-filled halls to absolutely huge venues. I don't know.” He taking a sigh and then remains silent.

Latest album, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light, follows a similar theme. The record's copped a battering of negative reviews for its sameness, lyrical vagueness and clichéd arrangements. It's been described as tripe, egocentric and bland. Yet ironically, it's also been tagged as his finest hour since Ladies And Gentleman… with many exclaiming it as a more heartfelt, emotional and reflective body of work. He debuted some songs from Sweet Heart, Sweet Light in London's Royal Albert Hall in late 2011 to widespread approval and reckons he hasn't listened to the album since. “The album's more transitional and is really a stepping stone to the next album. At the time I said it felt like a pop album, but it's certainly more transitional than pop and leading towards the next. The songs are concise and fully written but I haven't revisited it and don't feel connected to it as I was suffering from Hepatitis C at the time. It was like it wasn't really me making that record.” 

Pierce is no perfectionist, particularly when performing live. It took a while for him to get over his fear of live performances and material ending up on YouTube and says the band's live performances are pushing forward. “We're a better live band than a studio band. Making a record is capturing the music and recording it. Performing live is exploring possibilities.” He first discovered music after his mother bought him a guitar. He grew up in England's north in a single-parent family and says his mother didn't have much money so she bought the guitar second-hand. After strumming a few chords, he was hooked. Still, Pierce was no vinyl junkie but got his musical kicks listening to the BBC's easy-listening station Radio 2, and remains an admirer of the Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen and Iggy and The Stooges.

Pierce's influences and ideas are as big as the spiritual world and vast stillness of space that interests him. A complex character, he's poignant with lyrics – often with tales of sorrow and hardship, linking back to his love of gospel and doo-wop, the latter being the vocal heavy-R&B spawned by black America in the '40s. “I read something by Lou Reed where it said doo-wop is the sound for angels, which goes with my belief that music should be truthful and honest. Just because Jesus appears in a song doesn't mean that I'm religious. The first time someone makes contact with my music is the most important. It's like a first kiss.”

That his vision of combining spirituality, musical ideas and emotion sits within the rock-gospel-orchestral sphere sees him compared with few. Not that it bothers him. “It's not about comparisons or money. It's about music.”