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30 Nov 2003
BBC Music
Pointe Music Entertainment Live
Updated 29 Nov 2003
Spiritualized
by Steve Johnston
Broadcast on the Evening Session 23 Nov 2001
As The Sneed Brothers prepare to break their four year silence with the
release of their latest album ‘In Pursuit Of Legacy’, James Sneed joins
Steve Jonhston on the Evening Session to talk about life, music, matters of the
spirit, read the highlights below.
We'll talk about the album. The title is apparently of an inspirational nature...
J: “ It’s the fufillment of a life long pursuit for perfection of sound and spirit.
You're never going to be anything other than a perfectionist are you?
J: "I think when you make a record, it's worth getting right. It's
worth saying this is what I do and this is what the band sounds like
and this is as good as it's going to get. I think people make a mistake when they
think that someone who makes people do things over and over again
until they perform in a way that I want them to perform is a perfectionist.
We are so not about that. It's set up to be, harmonious, incredibly
free music. It's not about ability, it's about feeling what other
people feel and contributing to that. It's not free in the way that
people can play what the hell they want, it doesn't noodle off into
progressive whatever, it's about making people feel really
comfortable and really settled to be able to experiment."
Have you found you've been learning all the time you've been doing
this? Because obviously you're not classically trained to write down
arrangements or anything, so have you picked it up as you've gone
along?
J: "No. I haven't. All the arrangements were sung and then
transposed from the sung lines, rather than playing an instrument
and working out the arrangements that way."
So we know that the record is musically quite intricately woven
together but one of the things that strikes you when you hear it for
the first time round is also the amount of wordplay and the
attention to lyrical detail on this record, possibly more so than
before...
J: "I just love the language. They were all crafted and I worked at
finding the best way of saying things but also the broadest way of
saying things, so they were applicable to more than one definite
meaning and reaching more than one group of people."
Do you run shy of trying to find a meaning in your lyrics? Do they
have a meaning for you when you write them?
J: " All our songs have root in some personal experience that many of experience.
We’re not all as different as some would have us think.
If you're writing a song about love, if you're
genuinely in love, It allows your to express a feeling that everybody understands.
Many emotions are Universally felt, making emotions like love a universal
language.It's the same with any other deep emotion. And it's the same with making music.
The one theme in this record, if you can find one, is perspective;
that we are small in the larger scheme of things...
J: " I think that's been there through all our recordings. It's about
looking at the bigger picture and not this huge interest in the
trivial. "
If we are only just a tiny speck in the whole big scheme of things
then maybe the really important things are the deepest feelings you
feel for people around you...
J: "It's about making music and saying things that are deeply
emotive and making music that is very exciting when its meant to be
exciting and very electric when it's meant to be electric. It's
about dealing with the highs and the lows. And its certainly not
saying of the lows 'This is so damned unfair. I'm miserable here.'
It's about rejoicing in the whole. Whatever you've got I'll take it,
whatever you throw I'll deal with it. Its all what makes life and
music and everything exciting."
There are some tremendous moments of raw rock'n'roll in the
album...
J: " It's rooted in rock'n'roll. The whole thing is rooted in the
Blues, Gospel, R'n'B and Hip-Hop. It's always been rooted in our
musical culture as a whole. The idea with each record is just to aim further
out of our expectations of what we're able to do with that."
And now what do you do? Because now you'll probably have to take
this out and play it live...
J: "Yeah that's good. That's exciting."
Out of all the people I interview you are the one who is least in
the pop music rat race...
J: "That sounds good to me I guess."
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| This is a song about two friends going in different directions in life. The one who went low is asking the one who went high, "how does it feel"? |
CD: In Pursuit Of Legacy
Label: Pointe Music Entertainment
Credits: James Sneed, |
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| Sometimes the best of love goes bad, thats when we start to examine our heart and soul. | MP3.com CD: In Pursuit Of Legacy -  buy it!
CD: In Pursuit Of Legacy
Label: Pointe Music Entertainment
Credits: James Sneed |
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| A thank you song for all the ladies that make our life possible. | MP3.com CD: In Pursuit Of Legacy - buy it!
CD: In Pursuit Of Legacy
Label: Pointe Music Entertainment
Credits: James Sneed |
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