News of Hope

Update - December 25, 1997

I just received some very provocative news about Hope's possible collaboration with the UK band Spiritualized and my interpretation is that a Hope Sandoval solo album could be the result. Jason Pierce, frontman for Spiritualized, discussed his upcoming plans in a recent NME interview and confirmed that he and Hope have been considering getting together for some sort of project--the details of which are still a little iffy, it seems.

Pierce said "we were...talking about doing some work with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, but I didn't wanna do Mazzy Star meets Spiritualized, because I think that's too easy. It was something to do with maybe producing a record for her and then collaborate and see where it goes."

To me "producing a record for her" means that this would be a full-length album and because it seems more like a Hope Sandoval project than a Spiritualized one it's probably not just a future Spiritualized b-side he's talking about. Pierce also seems to imply that it could evolve into him contributing musically, too.(Note that he never mentioned David Roback, the other half of Mazzy Star. This is just a Hope Sandoval/Spiritualized get-together, somewhat like the Jesus & Mary Chain's Sometimes Always project, though more involved.)

[But, a word of caution: Remember, Jason Pierce is English so he could be talking in some kind of weird Brit-speak I'm not hip to, and I may not have grasped the correct connotation. Or, I could just be plain wrong and it could just be a one-off destined to end up on a soundtrack album somewhere. Or, the writer of the article could have misquoted him slightly, thus changing the meaning, which happens all the time.]

Pierce finished up by saying that "I've been on tour...and I guess she's been putting together stuff in the meantime and so we'll see where that goes next year."

Obviously, this is all still in the "we're talkin' about it stage" and even Jason Pierce can't tell you for sure what's going to happen.

I do plan on doing a little checking on this and I'll let you know if I get a confirmation on any of this

(Thanks to Kalin for sending me this info.)

Thomas
Publisher/Writer/Webmaster/etc

Below is the original Hope/Spiritualized story I posted back in August.
The full text of the NME story follows.

EMF - the source of their musical power?

Spiritualized

^{Hope's
Future Project}News - August 29, 1997
I recently received some news about a probable future Hope Sandoval collaboration. Brad Nicholson was nice enough to provide me with a few Mazzy-related details of a recent interview he did with Jason Pierce of the UK band Spiritualized.

"During the course of this interview, we started talking about future collaborations he has lined up for this year, and one of them is with Hope Sandoval," Brad related. He said it could be Jason and Hope solo, but it would most likely be Hope contributing vocals to a track on a Spiritualized EP. Spiritualized do a lot of collaborations, he said, although usually with lesser known artists. They release a bunch of EP's between albums and use them as an excuse to tour. Any collaboration would probably appear on Spiritualized's UK label, Dedicated, and a US release would be uncertain.

Spiritualized's latest CD, Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, was just released in June and their next album is at least two years off, he said.

Brad explained that if Jason likes someone's music he'll just call them up (and Hope lives in London part-time) and ask if they want to work together, and they usually say yes. Jason, and Spiritualized, are well known and very well respected on the UK music scene.

Not being that familiar with Spiritualized, I--the webmaster guy--hit the web and found a few sites devoted to them.

Dedicated Records' Spiritualized page - with sound samples.
A better, independent Spiritualized site - with complete tour dates.
Spiritualized Electric Online - Another good one.

What do they sound like? Minimalized Brit psuedo-psychedelia with forays everywhere. If that doesn't help you out much, try these:

WAV Sound Samples (300k - 30 seconds)
Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
Electricity
Broken heart

I thought "Electricity" sounded remarkably (in many ways) like the Jesus & Mary Chain, Hope's collaborators on "Sometimes Always." Odd coincidence? But the similarities aren't too obvious on the other tunes.

Spiritualized played some dates on the Horde Festival and toured the US this summer and fall and will be playing some European festivals next summer.

(What is this? The Everything Spiritualized web site?) I think that's probably enough information. If you want more, you know where to find it.

Thomas
Publisher/Writer/Webmaster/etc

This is the full text of the NME piece.
Spiritualized Sign up for Glastonbury

Spiritualized are the first band to confirm a headlining spot at next year's Glastonbury Festival. They're set to appear on the second stage on Sunday night (June 28). Jason Pierce said he agreed to play Glastonbury because he believes it's the least "corporate" festival. "It is as near as you can get to the original idea of a festival," he explained. "You can take your own food, drink and whatever you need for the weekend. You don't have to buy everything on the site and it still retains something of what festivals were about."

Meanwhile, Spiritualized are to release a live album in April. The album was recorded at their Royal Albert Hall show in October. Pierce also confirmed that he was working on a project, possibly resulting in an album, with Dr John, DJ Shadow and Andrew Weatherall. "We're trying to do something that's way beyond Spiritualized meets DJ Shadow or meets Andrew Weatherall," said Pierce. "It might possibly be an album; I think we can do more than just a single. We were also talking about doing some work with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, but I didn't wanna do Mazzy Star meets Spiritualized, because I think that's too easy. It was something to do with maybe producing a record for her and then collaborate and see where it goes. I've been on tour doing this and I guess she's been putting together stuff in the meantime and so we'll see where that goes next year." Pierce is also talking to Holger Czukay from Can and Brian Eno.

Furthermore, Pierce is working on scoring a feature film, Permanent Midnight, after NME passed on his phone number to the film-makers. "It's a movie about Jerry Stahl, an '80s Hollywood scriptwriter, who by day led the normal scriptwriters' life, doing the Hollywood circuit, and by night was working his way through a five grand-a-week heroin habit."