This week, Spiritualized released their seventh album Sweet Heart Sweet Light via Fat Possum, marking the group's first full-length in four years. As we reported back in 2010, frontman Jason Pierce, aka J Spaceman, sought to make a proper pop album unlike any other in the band's 22-year history.
"It's the bit of Spiritualized I'm the least comfortable with," Pierce tells Exclaim! "I like the abstraction and the distortion. I like the stuff that veers left-field, but the sort of straight-ahead pop stuff is where I feel awkward. I figured this time I would embrace that and go for it, and I wouldn't hide behind anything."
Pierce says the album presented a new kind of challenge, mostly because he was both suffering from debilitating long-term liver disease, and unfamiliar with just how hard it can be to write a pop song.
"It seemed like it was going to take forever," he says. "And another reason why I decided to try and make a pop record was that I thought it might be a little easier. But as anyone who's tried to write pop songs knows that's not gonna happen. I was a little bit naive there think it would be easier."
Word of his poor medical condition only recently surfaced, and Pierce says the reason for not announcing it earlier was because he didn't make it news.
"I guess it didn't come up," he says. "Nobody really asked. Also I didn't want to say anything unless… I now know that I'm cured and I didn't want to say anything without knowing. I didn't tell anyone while I was being treated because I didn't want people asking after my condition all the time. Or treat me different because of that."
You can read Exclaim!'s entire interview with Jason Pierce here. Also, you can check out all Spiritualized's upcoming North American dates below.
Tour dates:
5/2 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
5/3 Chicago, IL - Metro
5/4 Detroit, MI - The Majestic Theatre
5/5 Toronto, ON - The Phoenix
5/7 New York, NY - Terminal 5
5/9 Boston, MA - Paradise
5/10 Washington, DC - The 9:30 Club
5/11 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
5/12 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
5/13 Atlanta, GA - The Variety Playhouse
5/15 Dallas, TX - The Granada Theatre
5/16 Austin, TX - Emo's East
5/18 Tucson AZ - The Rialto Theatre
5/19 Phoenix AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
5/20 San Diego CA - Belly Up Tavern
5/22 Los Angeles CA - The Wiltern
5/23 San Francisco CA - The Fillmore
5/25 Portland, OR - The Wonder Ballroom
5/26 Vancouver, BC - The Rickshaw Theatre
"It's the bit of Spiritualized I'm the least comfortable with," Pierce tells Exclaim! "I like the abstraction and the distortion. I like the stuff that veers left-field, but the sort of straight-ahead pop stuff is where I feel awkward. I figured this time I would embrace that and go for it, and I wouldn't hide behind anything."
Pierce says the album presented a new kind of challenge, mostly because he was both suffering from debilitating long-term liver disease, and unfamiliar with just how hard it can be to write a pop song.
"It seemed like it was going to take forever," he says. "And another reason why I decided to try and make a pop record was that I thought it might be a little easier. But as anyone who's tried to write pop songs knows that's not gonna happen. I was a little bit naive there think it would be easier."
Word of his poor medical condition only recently surfaced, and Pierce says the reason for not announcing it earlier was because he didn't make it news.
"I guess it didn't come up," he says. "Nobody really asked. Also I didn't want to say anything unless… I now know that I'm cured and I didn't want to say anything without knowing. I didn't tell anyone while I was being treated because I didn't want people asking after my condition all the time. Or treat me different because of that."
You can read Exclaim!'s entire interview with Jason Pierce here. Also, you can check out all Spiritualized's upcoming North American dates below.
Tour dates:
5/2 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
5/3 Chicago, IL - Metro
5/4 Detroit, MI - The Majestic Theatre
5/5 Toronto, ON - The Phoenix
5/7 New York, NY - Terminal 5
5/9 Boston, MA - Paradise
5/10 Washington, DC - The 9:30 Club
5/11 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
5/12 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
5/13 Atlanta, GA - The Variety Playhouse
5/15 Dallas, TX - The Granada Theatre
5/16 Austin, TX - Emo's East
5/18 Tucson AZ - The Rialto Theatre
5/19 Phoenix AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
5/20 San Diego CA - Belly Up Tavern
5/22 Los Angeles CA - The Wiltern
5/23 San Francisco CA - The Fillmore
5/25 Portland, OR - The Wonder Ballroom
5/26 Vancouver, BC - The Rickshaw Theatre
