The only thing distracting Spiritualized conductor Jason Pierce from this conversation is the cringe-worthy marching music playing in the Palace hotel's bar.

Ironic considering that In The City's spectacular showcase of music is blaring from every corner in town.

Still, it would have been a good setting to meet the man deemed responsible for orchestrating rock and roll over the last 10 years. His persona has been one of an uncompromising master. He did do away with the band after 1997's breakthrough work Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating In Space.

In person, Jason isn't the illusive or intimdating figure you'd expect. Anything but.

He is unaffected by the excitement in the music press about his album Let it Come Down, and uninterested in the fact Radio 1 rants continuously about the first single Stop Your Crying. Instead he is celebrating two years of hardcore studio grafting with a well deserved tour.

"It's always bemused me bands that say they don't like to tour," he begins. "What do you do if you are a musician? That's like saying, 'I don't like playing music'."

Live

So this is what it's all about. Up on the stage. A different animal to an album that uses 100 musicians on 9 out of the 11 tracks. The tour in contrast carries only 13. "Live gigs aren't about replicating the record. People don't want to go out and hear that played back," says Jason. "You can't get that sound without that amount of people in the record. I used the studio albums as a means to get us back on the road, the means to get some kind of funding."

Gettin ever-more animated he continues: "Live has always been the most exciting thing for me. Making music like that. It just works on a night to night basis. Changes so fast, you know. A show is about the lights and the atmosphere, the people. It's gets more charged and more electric."

A spark that has certainly put a smirk on Jason's face. Or was that there already? Along with his demour apparance and unnassuming attitude.

Meanwhile the press continue to speculate on Jason's ability to fuse rock and classics with such endless levels of grandness. Not many bands have followed up one amazing album with another three years later.

"I don't feel any pressure to deliver," he explains. Which kind of makes the whole idea of slagging him off for any reason redundant because it wouldn't matter. You either like it or you don't.

So how does he manage to numb himself to criticism and acclaim: "You can probably fit the world's press in one room. So the actual amount of opinion is v. small and to react against that or with that is not the way to go."

It's all about that love affair with music in the end. "I don't care if all the industry is set on selling records fast. I buy records 50 years after the event, five years after the event. ..whatever. It doesn't matter what the marks out of 10 are. That kind of success is generally on a public whim. They are either going to buy it or they aren't. You could have a fantastic record and sell few copies and fantastic record that sells millions. Or you can have bad records that sell hugely and bad records that don't sell."

And Jason seems modestly unaware of his influence, putting it down to the accessibility of records and public whim. "It just so happens that for the last 10 years one of people's peers has been Spiritualized."

Lyrics

One of the reasons for attracting attention has been his lyrics, which do little to hide his chemical outlook. Take Won't Get To Heaven (the state I'm in) for example. "My lyrics are very important, more so than on my records before, the whole thing had to stand up. It wasn't about the sound, it was about the harmonics and the words.

"Everything is really laid bare because of that. The sonics and the vocabulary of effects now available can be used to cover up the lack of depth or lack of anything to say - whether your making drum and base or whatever. You can use to give people an idea if they like that kind of music even if there's nothing there."

Which isn't true of Jason, who openly admits two writing only from experience.

The video to Stop Your Crying - a love ballad from someone feeling anothers pain - was an eye opener says Jason: "It took a lot of arguments to get that video done the truth that came out of various meeting is that MTV's market is 12-17 year old boys. That's the target, that's what they go for. MTV isn't about selling records it's about positioning you next to people who do sell records."

The video itself was filmed in London's famous Round-house. "I said lets just have it rain or some kind of idea, but director duo Jake and Jim from Godman said lets get the orchestra to smash some records." Why not? "Those things get a bit fraught, but this was really chilled out. We're like that anyway."

1. Don Cherry Penderiki?

2. Terry Riley - You are no good

3. Dune Bademan singing on Believe me darling.

Tweet