English singer, composer and producer Steven Wilson, 55, tells us that he was recently walking through a London cemetery with one of his two stepdaughters. They played a game and looked at the gravestones of a person who had died on the same day as their birthday. By chance they found a gravestone with the girl’s birthday written on it (October 5, 2011). It turned out to be the grave of Bert Jansch, the great guitarist and founder of the band Pentangle. Wilson and his stepdaughter then went to the local record store near Hampstead and bought a vinyl Pentangle record. Now the 12-year-old listens to the song nonstop and combines her time on TikTok with contemplative folk-rock passages from the 1960s that play on the record player in her living room.
This anecdote makes Wilson happy, “because my way of educating them is to give them an alternative to the current trend where everything happens on the screen and in just a few seconds,” he says. He’s not bitter, but Wilson is somewhat melancholy about the world of analogue culture – which may or may not be faltering – but which many young people simply see as a fetishistic environment. “I often wonder how to make songs when there is a generation that only has a 20 or 30 second attention span. I made an amazing music video for my new single “What Life Brings” that’s four minutes long, but I know that only 5% of those who click play will watch it to the end. [It’s the] Same with the songs…It breaks your heart,” says the five-time Grammy Award nominee. “Now it’s all about the vocals: if your track has an instrumental intro or a solo, it’s impossible to play it on the radio.”
In a gray T-shirt, fresh-faced Wilson is happy to be able to talk about music, no matter the genre, even if it’s 10 a.m. and he only arrived in Madrid in the early hours of the morning on the Redeye from London Morning. Mentioned during our 45-minute conversation are Robert Wyatt, Billie Eilish, Chic, The Cure, James Holden, Kate Bush, Sleaford Mods, Pentangle (of course) and the holy trinity of Wilson’s career: King Crimson, Prince and Pink Floyd. But – why not say it? – At this point, many readers won’t know who the hell Steven Wilson is. But there’s no reason to feel bad about it: Wilson will go down in music history as one of the greatest music fans of all time, not a rock superstar.
He is the creator of over 50 records for various projects; Three of the most important of these are the atmospheric noise of Communion, the progressive rock psychedelia of Porcupine Tree and the trip-hop of No-Man. It’s easy to imagine this Englishman – who has small, clear eyes, straight hair, metal glasses and an exquisite southern England accent – at the age of 10, composing songs with a guitar and hanging out with friends who are just as nerdy are like himself. Buying records and fanzines. This process reached its peak in the late 1980s, when Wilson became one of the most important modern exponents of progressive rock, a style pioneered by groups such as Genesis, King Crimson and Yes. With Porcupine Tree, the band he founded in 1987, he defended – almost like an acolyte of an endangered religion – dense songs with rich and sophisticated arrangements.
As Porcupine Tree grew in popularity, Wilson began experimenting with other genres until he arrived at what he described as “conceptual rock”: eclectic music that made room for electronic pop, jazz improvisation and 1980s guitars which is the melancholy of Pink Floyd always floats. The Harmony Codex falls into this category; The album features 10 songs that ditch guitars (during this interview he admits he’s gotten “a little” bored with them) and instead turn to keyboards and analog synthesizers. On the album, Wilson emphasizes a narrative that is a constant in his lyrics: the transience of life and alienation as the true pandemic that plagues us.
Another current advertising image by the English musician Hajo Mueller
“There was a time, from the late 1960s to the 1980s, when music told a story and took the listener on a journey. Now everything is immediate, bright sound and pop. When I was growing up there was alternative music. And alternative meant Pixies, The Cure, Nirvana… Well, alternative is what I do because it offers an alternative to what has become mainstream,” he muses. He continues: “There are more people making music than ever before in history, and almost everyone wants to share it because that’s part of human nature.” 125,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. It’s absurd. With this mindset, people my age tend to gravitate towards the familiar, which is why the prevalence of deluxe reissues of classic albums with demos, live sets and remixes is increasing.”
Wilson has a podcast about music with Tim Bowness called The Album Years. It has a 4.8 rating (out of 5) on Apple Podcasts and glowing comments from listeners, all of whom have male avatars, reinforcing the idea that there’s no line for the ladies’ room at a King Crimson concert. “Let’s see. This is based on real experiences and there’s a lot of truth behind it. Porcupine Tree did a tour last year and 20-25% of the audience were women. And that’s pretty rare for a progressive band,” he says.
Since beginning his solo career in 2008, Wilson has released various albums as part of his eclectic rock concept and polished the music catalogs of legendary bands such as Jethro Tull, Roxy Music, Tears for Fears and Yes. For example, he was responsible for improving the sound of King Crimson’s discography, a task he carried out in the studio in close collaboration with Robert Fripp. As a result of these sessions, reissues of the British band’s legendary albums were released: the most recent, King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (50th Anniversary Edition), was released in 2019.
Wilson never achieved the same level of fame as the other musicians of his generation; In fact, British newspaper The Guardian called him “Britain’s least starry musical megastar.” With this in mind, we read the verse “And if you turn the shit into gold, it won’t be appreciated” from the track “Actual Brutal Facts” of the new album. “I understand that it made you think that the lyrics were autobiographical. I don’t think I’m particularly good at making gold. But it’s true that I often think that if I had been born ten years earlier, I would have found recognition more easily,” he says.
For the new album, he was finally able to build a custom-made studio in the house he bought five years ago in London with his wife, who can often be seen in the photos the musician posts on his Instagram page. Wilson leads a healthy life and lives from and for music. “This is the first time I am building a studio with the surround audio system in which I am an expert. At least I’m number one [laughs] in this. I also filled the room with analog synthesizers instead of guitars. With them I returned to the feeling of approaching music as an outsider, as an idiot… For me, that’s what an experimental musician is: when you don’t know what you’re doing and at the same time you can see when you’ve got something, has the potential,” he says, citing Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno and Roger Waters as his role models.
After learning that the author of this article listened to his new album with the compressed sound of a telephone, Wilson smiles unfazed: “I don’t feel bad; The important thing is that you heard it. I like to think it will still sound good, because I’ll take care of that too. At the same time, I offer an alternative so that if you have a hi-fi system, it sounds wonderful,” he says. His eyes light up like a true sonic wizard.
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