Aug
07
2.50pm

STEVEN WILSON // Lifestyles of the Famously Obscure


In modern music history, it’s hard to find an artist as successful, yet still relatively obscure (by general standards) as Steven Wilson.

MORE: TROPHY EYES: The Dreamers And The Doers // ALPHA WOLF: … And Out Come The Breakdowns // OUTRIGHT: Don’t Holler Atcha Girl
REVIEWS: TROPHY EYES: The American Dream // AS IT IS: The Great Depression // PLINI: Sunhead`// THE SPIRIT: Sounds From The Vortex

The British prog-icon, late of prog superstars Porcupine Tree, dubbed the “Most Successful Musician You’ve Never Heard Of” might quietly sell out three shows at the Royal Albert Hall, but will do so without the toxic ‘overhype’ that plagues so much of mainstream pop today.

The result is LP after LP of sensational, thought provoking, and ultimately genuine music. Flirting with 80s disco and 70s prog on his recent, genuine dark horse triumph of To The Bone, Wilson took time ahead of his November Australian tour to talk about playing shows with Sting, his extensive back catalogue and, of course, ABBA.



Where are we catching you today?

I’m in Athens because we have a show here tomorrow, but basically we are in the middle of the European summer festival season, which is great!

What are your thoughts of the festival circuit, because I know in the past you’ve said that you haven’t been as keen on them?

I’ve really changed my view on this. I used to think they weren’t my thing because I can’t do my full production, I can’t have all my visuals, and very often you’re playing in daylight so you don’t have the same atmosphere, but this year I’ve had a show which has been a bit more festival friendly because the last album has got a more of an ‘accessible’ aspect to it, so the show has been completely revamped, and every time I go out onstage I feel like we’re winning the people over. That’s the whole point for me, you play to people who aren’t already your audience, you you’re going out and having a battle and you have to win the people over, and I really feel like we’ve done that this time around. I’m enjoying it a lot more than I ever have, put it that way.

A look through your Instagram is funny, because your playing these beautiful outdoor European theatres, but then you’re also playing Hellfest! That seems like such different clientele. Which brand of festival do people not know you at as much anymore?

I was having this discussion with my partner the other day! There aren’t many artists who could play Hellfest in the same week that they play a show with Sting, which is what I did. They were both in France. at Hellfest we were on with these really extreme metal bands, and we went over really well, and then at the end of the week we went on before Sting at a much different, much more chilled out fet, people in their forties and fifties, and we also went over well, so to me that’ sa great testament to how eclectic the music s and how potentially the audience for this music can be anyone. It’s not difficult music. I think when you focus on songwriting and craftsmanship the potential is there to appeal to anyone. I don’t think that would have been true with the last album, I think that it is something that To The Bone has brought much more to the forefront because there are these more accessible songs now.



I know that over your career you have been very careful to do what artistically feels right. However, To The Bone really took things to an unprecedented level. Does that play on your mind looking ahead, knowing that you were neck and neck with Ed Sheeran for awhile on the charts?

I’ve been doing this for a long time now, so I do think that I have a healthy view on how things work, and one of the things I’ve always been very sure about is the need to make music in a vacuum, meaning I have to make the music that any of the things outside of the art are influencing. With To The Bone some people accused me of trying  to do things for more contrived reasons, which wasn’t the case at all. It was very natural steps for me into doing something which I really wanted to do which was harking back to the records that I remember growing up with in the 80s, where artists like Kate Bush, Depeche Mode and Peter Gabriel making very uncompromising music, but very much still with a mainstream appeal and accessibility, like a pop sensibility. I didn’t know if that was going to work for me or not, but I didn’t care, so I did it because I wanted to do it, and it has really worked well. It’s definitely given me more of a mainstream fanbase than ever before. Does that affect me going forward? Not really, the only thing that affects me is thinking “what do I want to do”, and actually, I do do find that I want to continue down that path to an extent. I think the important thing here is that when you do these things, you don’t lose sight of what’s special about your musical personality. There’s no aspect of selling out or compromise. You just take what’s special about you and you present that in a slightly different way, and that’s all I’m doing really.



One of the downsides is that songs like Permanating has not picked up as much airplay as I think I would have liked, partly because it still sounds quite different to most mainstream pop. It still has a quirky edge, it’s still distinctively me. It has a guitar solo in it! You will not hear a modern pop record that has a solo these days, so these things are still quite strange for mainstream radio. It’s been more difficult to get that on the radio, even something that joyous and accessible. I still think it sounds like me. It’s very recognisably me. Some of my fans from the more metal or prog sphere might object to these themes, but they’re missing the point that it still sounds like a Steven Wilson song.

Today I actually opened up a CD for the first time in years and felt the artwork and out it on a stereo, which felt incredibly strange given how used to streaming I and many others have become. I know that buying music and experiencing the art is something that is a passion of yours; so knowing that people have such shorter attention spans, does that tendency to just hit ‘skip’ now play on your mind more than before?

Obviously this is my battle with my life because my music is conceptual rock music, and that means that ultimately it’s designed to be listened to in the same way that you would watch a movie or read a book. I’m hoping that people will out the album on and listen to it from beginning to end and get the flow and story. It’s hard to persuade people that you can engage with music in that way because of playlists and Spotify and the jukebox mentality of cherry picking songs and putting them together. I am still happy you can do that though—I used to make mixtapes when I was a kid. at the same time thought if that’s exclusively the way how people engage with music and no sense of engaging with things in the long form, I would be very sad about that because there would never be albums again like Sgt. Pepper or Dark Side Of The Moon, because those records are designed to be experienced in the long form. So I have this battle going with the 21st century of trying to persuade people to listen in that way. I’m not saying they are a majority, but there is certainly a minority that do this, because they form a large part of my fanbase. People that still enjoy that idea of the musical journey.

I think the important thing here is that when you do these things, you don’t lose sight of what’s special about your musical personality. There’s no aspect of selling out or compromise. You just take what’s special about you and you present that in a slightly different way, and that’s all I’m doing really.
[STEVEN]

Taking a left turn, the musicians that you have together onstage for this run is unreal. a lot of the time that can go overlooked in the solo artist world. How did this group of gentlemen come together as your backing band?

That’s a long story so I’ll be really brief. One of the things about being a solo artist, I really can work with whoever I want to depending on availability. I’ve tried to keep a fairly steady lineup, but obviously I’ve had a few drummers and guitar players because of schedules, but I’m very lucky to have had the same bassist and same keyboardist. I just ask around. There aren’t a lot of gigs like mine for the kind of players out there. These are the kind of guys that in the 80s might have played with Frank Zappa

or Peter Gabriel, but there aren’t a lot of those gigs around now for creative but technically very gifted musicians. Certainly not in the way that there was in the 70s and 80s when there was a lot of gigs for those guys. We talked earlier about how it’s unusual to even hear a solo on a modern pop record. There was a time when great musicians could be in the service to songwriters, but still make their musical personalities very much felt. I’m living in a very lucky time that I can attract these amazing musicians, because there aren’t a lot of gigs out there for them where they get to play this good material, good songs, but still get to express their musical personalities. I’ve been very lucky to cherry pick these guys.



Something that’s great with the tour is that there are more Porcupine Tree songs popping up in the set than ever before. Given that To The Bone is more accessible. What’s made you then put songs like Arriving Somewhere But Not Here in the set as oppose to, say Piano Lessons, that might sound more like To The Bone material?

Well there are still some of the more accessible ones in the set, like Lazarus & Sound Of Muzak. There is something about putting songs from 10-15 years ago from the Porcupine Tree era in the set that feels more connected to say, the last few solo records. That’s meant I’ve gone back to that era of writing, because those songs were quite accessible at that time. We don’t do arriving Somewhere every night- it’s certainly not my favourite song. Sometimes it works and it’s quite epic, but the simple answer is that I don’t think of these songs as either Steven Wilson songs of Porcupine Tree songs. To me they are all my songs. When I put together a show, I’m looking for other songs which fit with the newer material, and I found myself going back to In absentia & Deadwing a bit, but those songs existed before Porcupine Tree recorded them. They were Steve Wilson songs long beforehand.

To finish – ABBA are back which is crazy. Is that something your looking forward to given their influence, and do you think it’s a coincidence that as soon as you put out Permeating, ABBA is back in the studio!

When one of your favourites get back together there’s such a mixture of trepidation and anticipation, because you don’t want them to sully their legacy. Of course, I’m really curious to hear what they’ve done, but I want it to be at the very least, good, so that it doesn’t become and anti-climax, because we all know of those examples. Band’s have tremendous fanfare, and then inevitably this sense of disappointment. at the end of the day, there’s always a difference between working together, touring together every day for years, and building that chemistry, and after 30 years of not doing that, it won’t return overnight. You see that in history. The same feeling isn’t there, and how and why should it be? You know what though? I hope ABBA will prove me wrong!

Catch Steve Wilson at the following dates:

Thursday 8th November // Eatons Hill // Brisbane
Friday 9th November // Enmore Theatre // Sydney
Saturday 10th November // Palais Theatre // Melbourne
Monday 12th November // Bruce Mason Centre // Auckland

Tickets available here.





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