Spiritualized and the lost art of music archaeology: “Same thing with Silver Apples”
The music Jason Pierce released at the start of his career still sounds ahead of its time. His relationship with sound is light-years ahead of any kind of other human comprehension.
This is a real achievement, given how much technology has advanced during this period, and how much of an impact it’s had on the music that we listen to. People now rely on the internet and on technology more than ever before in the history of music, and opinions on whether this is a good or a bad thing are divided.
There have always been debates surrounding the introduction of technology into art forms. When the electric guitar was originally invented, while most people saw it as a practical development, others felt as though it provided an unearned shortcut into achieving a certain sound. It became easier to make music that conveyed certain emotions by adjusting pick-ups and sound on guitars, which is why some people hated them.
Of course, with the power of hindsight, we now know that these reservations were misplaced. The electric guitar only enhanced how people were able to engage with their creativity; it didn’t limit creativity. The issue is, technology these days imposes a lot more than the electric guitar is, which some believe can make it a real negative. Is it?
If you were to ask a man like Pierce whose music seems to transcend technology advancements, he believes there are pros and cons, and they both come in the form of accessibility.
He said the benefit is that people can take the pressure off themselves when it comes to creating. When you have access to so much music in a matter of seconds, you can push yourself to create something which is truly original. He said that creative people should think outside the box, and that the accessibility the internet provides means it’s easy to work out the parameters of said box.
“There’s a lot of convergence in art. There’s a lot of stealing. There’s a lot of people taking ideas of stuff that’s not well made and passing it off as their own,” he said, “And when you suddenly realize that you’re not working in a black hole and your ideas aren’t unique or totally original, that kind of puts pressure on people. It should put pressure on people just to say, ‘Well, I’ve got to rethink this or push this to somewhere it hasn’t been’.”
That being said, while he believes it’s a positive for creative people, he also believes it can ruin a lot of the anticipation that used to come with music, so fans miss out on a bit more. He spoke specifically about music as a form of archaeology, and how even if you hear about some albums, before music was as accessible as it is today, it might be a while before you actually listen to the record. Pierce said there was more of a mystery surrounding art, which often made it more enjoyable.
“I do think that the access to music is so different than when I was younger, you know? I had a Kraftwerk record when I was younger, and I knew bands that kind of related to them. But I carried that information for seven or eight years before I saw any of those records,” he said, “They’re sort of archeological ideas. Same thing with the Silver Apples: I heard about the Silver Apples through The Scientists, an Australian band. Again, I didn’t see the record until I was in New York—like nine years later, or something like that. It just remained this kind of idea. And now you can type into a search engine and find all of the material, and another 12 references, and all of their references.”
