Interviewing Jason Pierce a day after a late night partying is not particularly the best time for an interview. However, Pierce has an air of English gentleman about him. No matter how tired he may be, he will kindly oblige all questions with a sense of candid honesty that is charming.

Amazing Grace, the newest release from Spiritualized, is an album which sounds like a departure in a lot of ways from previous recordings. The gigantic big band sound is gone and while the familiar song structure is still there, a more quintessential rock sound has surfaced as well. I ask Pierce, if after all this time, he still considers himself to be J. Spaceman these days. He bashfully looks down and says,

"I'm always the Spaceman, always. Especially when we're on tour... this is what we do best. Spiritualized is completely freeform, it's about responding to what's going around in the room. Amazing Grace was about doing that in a recording, which we had never done before. We gave the songs to the band the day we were going to record them, so you get this thing that is essentially not rock and roll."

By saying 'not rock and roll' Pierce refers to the state of the music industry today. He remarks that stylistically rock and roll is what he loves but that a lot of what goes along with music these days he doesn't identify with. Spiritualized is its own entity in the ocean of music industry to him.

"Everything we do is without fanfare. A lot of the business of music is less about music and more about publicity like, 'Hey, we're making a record... Hey, we're working with this producer...Hey, we're recording at this studio". It's all this information that leads to these records that are almost not worth the amount of information you've received. We just try to go out and make a record; if it works, you get to hear it. If they don't, you don't."

I bravely comment that Jason is no stranger to scrapping albums... since he notoriously did just that (along with scrapping his band) just before the Let It Come Down album a few years back. He silently acknowledges this and replies,

"I think the key is to always do what you do not think you're able to. The greatest music is made by people who are completely out of control and don't know any of the answers to the questions they're asking... but they ask a lot of questions. That's what we're trying to do."

This integrity keeps Pierce stimulated as an artist yet industry wise, has not been so well received at times. Recently dropped from Arista, rumored to be because of the more garage tone of Amazing Grace, Spiritualized signed to smaller label Sanctuary. When asked what his opinion of the band's new label was, Pierce answered nonchalantly,

"I don't think selling records is rocket science. You just make a record and you sell it. It's not that interesting of a business. What's important with Spiritualized is music, what's not important is the amount of sales or how well it's doing on the charts. The easiest way to make money in music is to make another record like the last record that sold a million copies and everyone knows that. I'm seriously not interested in that."

Point well taken, but to be a bit more specific, I ask Pierce what he thinks about individuals who favor a band from a certain era and want that sound repeated. It is a well-known fact that many U2 listeners hold The Joshua Tree up as the band's Holy Grail or that Bowie fans were elated when they heard the Thin, White Duke had reteamed with producer, Tony Visconti. Pierce knew all too well what I may be referring to,

"Just to be a fan of something, is in its nature, a conservative state. If people want to stop at Ladies and Gentleman, We Are Floating In Space or Pure Phase and say, 'This is about as good as it's going to get for me.' then I'm absolutely fine with that. I do that with music I like. Just because you don't want to make the rest of the journey or go the distance, doesn't mean we have to stay there with you."

Perhaps, despite saying he doesn't read the press, Jason knows what his listeners have attached to. It can't be much of a surprise considering Spiritualized tends to play two-hour-long shows that showcase roughly eighty percent older material. Pockets of people will know the songs from the last five years and yet, once the intro to "Cop Shoot Cop" or "Come Together" begins, the entire hall will erupt into flailing arms and a mass sing-a-long.

It is a fact Jason is probably aware of and quite obviously, a risk he is willing to take as an artist. Although he tried to tell me that the band hasn't changed since its inception, any long time Spiritualized fan might disagree. Between band members getting shuffled due to irreconcilable musical differences or heartbreak, the label changes and the various sonic twists and turns since then, Spiritualized is not the same laser guided band that took off in the early nineties. Pierce may be the same artist but he is also now a father of two with a different band and a different sound. Whether or not it translates to the listener depends on just how far you plan on riding with him.