Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2012

Spiritualized—the psychedelic space-blues project of Jason Pierce—has been making music for over 20 years. From 1992’s Lazer Guided Melodies to 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space to its new Sweet Heart Sweet Light, the band rarely surprises. Yet Spiritualized’s hallucinatory meanderings into the depths of Pierce’s unconscious—infused with blues archetypes, coming home to Jesus and drug-fueled meditations—consistently deliver.

The new album rings with a vitality that Spiritualized hasn’t demonstrated in years. Pierce relates that he barely remembers writing, performing, and mixing it due to the influence of a different type of drug than is typical for him. Neither hallucinogen nor opiate, Pierce’s life-saving treatment with an experimental drug for chronic liver disease scrambled his thoughts, but brought him back from the brink.

Sweet Heart Sweet Light is a life-affirming ode to pushing on. Pierce spoke with Metropolis by phone about the battle with the disease that informed his new album, and his plans for a change of direction.

On the preservationist trend in rock
“People are focusing more and more on the great moments of the past. [But] all the things that you want to hold on to eventually get old and die. Doing the most recent tour [playing Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space], it was almost like doing catering. I went into a period of deep sadness. Doing this kind of thing compromises the audience and the artist. You do the first two songs to sort out the sound, then you do the hits. Audiences are not interested in art. They are looking backwards trying to relive their youth.”

On Sweet Heart Sweet Light
“I look at it as a transitional album. It’s the last of the albums of this band making this kind of music. I made it under a very, very difficult time for me. I was having treatment for Hep C—the treatments are worse than the effects of the disease. I put myself on a medical trial, but it’s not a nice drug to do. I made a record on drugs that were really quite debilitating and it was a difficult year. It’s odd that people like the record cause I really can’t see it like that. I don’t see this as my record. I hear it now as great songs, but I don’t like the production.”

On his future projects
“I’m trying to write complete songs which is something I’ve never done. I’m trying to do things I didn’t do on the last album. There are little bits on Sweet Heart Sweet Light, like “Heading to the Top Now”… I think I want to go that way—to include more freedom. I talked to [pioneering free jazz saxophonist] Peter Brotzmann about playing on the [next] album. He said he would do it. I think that’s where my next album is going. I’m not going to try to get the band to play how I want them to. I want to work with people who are already there.”

On playing Japan
“There’s only three cities I’d consider living and one of them is Tokyo—it’s amazing. In great cities it’s like being constantly bombarded with more information than you can understand. Most culture shock is about poverty, yet Japan is so like New York and London, but you can’t understand any of it—there is no guide—it’s radically different. The weird thing about travelling the world, you don’t see any of it. [You’re] just sitting in the chair and watching the world go by.”

• Buy Sweet Heart Sweet Light here

• Spiritualized. O-East, Dec 12. See concert listings (popular) for details