Anton Newcombe, founder and consistent core of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, sees his work as conceptual art. Via abstraction in musical score, Newcombe masters a psychedelic, moreish canon that translates to performance art on stage. Aufheben, the title of his 2012 album, is a German word meaning at once ‘to abolish’ and ‘to preserve’. It’s a sentiment echoed by Newcombe’s own work: his music annihilates, stirring the imagination to the point of total absorption – a preservation of the mind’s creative ability.

Leading the 1990s psychedelic revival, The Brian Jonestown Massacre broke the mould. Dissecting the musical rulebook they approached ideas from viewpoints unknown to most; Newcombe’s continual dedication to this philosophy underlies his relevance today and cements his status as a cult figure.

There’s also the prolific back-catalogue of fourteen albums in twenty-five years. True to form, only two years since his last release Newcombe is back with his new record, Revelation. Each track here holds a dynamic and pace that provides a basis for identifying relationships between disparate elements, from trippy dance beats (Memorymix) to ‘doot-doot’ backing vocals à la Sympathy For The Devil (Goodbye (butterfly)). Pulsating Motorik beats filter through Stonesy guitar and melt into a heavy dose of psychedelia, layer upon layer forming a textured collage of infectious syncopation.

Newcombe’s momentum is relentless, after fourteen albums nothing has faded, nothing has dampened. His rock ‘n’ roll circus has managed to dodge and weave through revolving door personnel and years of drug fuelled mayhem miraculously unscathed (documented for all to see in Ondi Timoner’s 2004 rockumentary Dig!). His ability to straddle the line between paying homage to past influences whilst simultaneously tapping into the zeitgeist, and urging it forward, creates an innovative impetus, a desire to challenge and innovate.

Alex James Taylor: Looking through your back catalogue do you split it up into certain sections, or do you see it as a progression to where you are now?
Anton Newcombe: I don’t think about it very often to be honest. I’m not sentimental and I am very forward thinking. To me an old song that I wrote maybe twenty-five years ago lives or dies in the live context. All of the recordings are and were and will be conceptual art in my mind and in fact, are conceptual art. I am the artist, creator and I define my work as I feel…I own it, I share it…live, it takes on a performance art aspect, like I said, it lives or dies right there.

AT: I read that Revelation was your first album to be fully recorded and produced at your own recording studio in Berlin. Did you find it more relaxed and comfortable being in your own studio?
AN: I think so in some ways, I get up every morning, I cook with my family, then I go to work, if I feel like taking a nap there I do and I leave when I feel like it. This is my third studio, but before I would spend so much time thinking to myself “man this will all go away soon” or if I didn’t feel like working, I would feel like an asshole for owning a bunch of gear and not using it for a day or whatever… I don’t have those problems anymore.

AT: What attracted you to Berlin?
AN: I planned to move to Iceland because I love it so much, but the economy crashed so I moved to Berlin. The Germans are very civil and I like the way they run their country, they are conservative and they don’t live off credit like a bunch of slaves and masters. I respect that. But the truth is I see the Western world slipping into a new form of corporate fascism and it stinks.

Since 9/11 people have their heads up their own asses and believe the bullshit that allows the wars to go on. Fuck them. Germany is the last place I will live free because they have actual checks and balances against the police state and surveillance society because of the legacy of national socialism and of the Stassi from the DDR days. Also, they keep to themselves, and I can just mind my own business like a ghost and do my art, alone with my thoughts.

AT: Your latest release is titled Revelation, is it a personal one?
AN: It is a personal one, I took a leap of faith for a record and presented a group of songs with no hidden meaning to myself at face value and left them for other people to interpret as a gift.

AT: Your music is sometimes labelled as being esoteric, do you see it as being negative within music?
AN: No, it’s a great thing, god is not good or bad, he is great, that is the problem with men and their minds, they don’t know the difference and then they try and control those that do.

AT: Having said this, Revelation seems very accessible and feels euphoric at times, does this represent the period within your life at present?
AN: I think it reflects a full spectrum of human emotion, and I am very happy these days even in the problems I face… life is good.

AT: The whole album incorporates a Krautrock style blend of influences, with each song having a personality of its own. Do you see it as a retrospective piece of work?
AN: I have always blended all of my influences and used them like Lego to create objects that fascinate me. I was never the type to say, “Oh, The Jesus and Mary Chain are in fashion again, let’s be them”… screw that. I create for my own pleasure. Any resemblance to Krautrock, and by that I am going to say Can or Neu, I will put down to the fact that I really seek, like them, to escape conventions at times.

AT: You always manage to be innovative and original with your output, this is your fourteenth album now, do you ever feel under pressure to maintain such a high level of creativity?
AN: Only on a personal level.

AT: You constantly manage to transcend genres and labels, indulging in many different categories of music, are there any in particular which you haven’t been able to connect with for any reason?
AN: Well only in the sense that I cannot create for an imaginary demographic… like trying to write a hit for radio. What does it really mean besides a major label pulling a string? Because trust me, I’ve heard an awful lot of garbage played on radio in my life. Absolute useless shit, like Marilyn Manson – who needs that fucking moron? His music was awful, somehow I am worse than him? No… fuck the music industry.

AT: Have you noticed the current 90s revival taking place?
AN: It’s global. Part of it’s the twenty-year Madison Avenue marketing thing, the other part of it is a search for quality. I ignore it all and will see you when I am sixty-four.

AT: Your career has always appeared very convoluted, did you thrive on this? How is it different now that your life has, dare I say it, mellowed out?
AN: I chose for whatever reasons including sheer desperation to work with total fucking idiots and assholes from day one, got frustrated and angry… and copped the blame for it.

AT: I’m interested to hear your take on social media and the immediacy of the music industry nowadays, you have an active Twitter account, do you like the way it facilities an instant engagement between yourself and your fans?
AN: Let me put it this way, I don’t mind being a regular person and talking or even blocking people. Who is Kim Kardashian? The child of a fucking asshole that helped get a butcher off scot-free on behalf of the USC alumnus mafia, and a fear of racial riots… oh and she fucked some dude and made a crappy porno… yawn. I’m just keeping it real.

AT: a-recordings – this is your own independent record label, how do you see the role of independent record labels within todays music industry?
AN: I think they are important because digital audio is a crock of shit, and Bandcamp and Soundcloud are kind of like the sound your Facebook profile makes… and your babysitter has a new EP coming out every two weeks. I think vinyl and all this stuff, YouTubes and playing live, all of it together make for “reality.”

AT: You’re an avid fan of Jim Jarmusch right? He blends cultures and genres in a manner both ambiguous and thought-provoking, not unlike yourself…
AN: Jim is one cool mother-fucker. Mad respect for that guy on many levels. I don’t compare him to myself because I don’t focus on me and what I do and what it means in that way.

AT: You’re playing in London tonight at the Roundhouse, what can we expect?
AN: A really good show I hope. I hope.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre plays tonight at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8EH

Follow The Brian Jonestown Massacre on Soundcloud and Anton Newcombe on Twitter.

Revelation is out now via a-records.