Art-rock auteur Steven Wilson defies definition
Art-rock auteur continues to defy expectations with fifth solo album
Steven Wilson is a progressive-rock master in the most literal sense of the term: the English auteur has consistently progressed and evolved through a maze of meticulously crafted albums and a wide array of projects. It’s the more popular definition of the term that has been problematic.
“People decided a long time ago that I was a progressive-rock artist, and I’ve been at pains to point out that I never claimed to be,” Wilson said last week, following a European tour that climaxed with three nights at London’s hallowed Royal Albert Hall, and ahead of a North American leg that includes a return to his Montreal stronghold.
“I’m someone who has a strong element of that in my music, no question, and I certainly wouldn’t deny that. But I also have a strong element of pop, jazz, singer-songwriter, ambient, electronic music, metal music — it’s all there in my musical vocabulary, and it’s all been there for a very, very long time.”
When you work with such a sweeping palette, simplicity can be your boldest move. Wilson’s fifth solo album under his own name, To the Bone, is dominated by startlingly direct songs without sacrificing his skill at subtle shadings. It’s his quickest-selling work to date, and perhaps his most controversial, at least among those who wear biodegrading Pink Floyd shirts.
“I’ve always thought of myself as essentially a songwriter, but then expanded on those songs to create more conceptual album pieces,” Wilson said. “But at the heart of what I’ve done, I hope, has always been strong melodies and strong songwriting … and it’s amazing how it did upset some people that I would choose to do something which is at the very root of my musical DNA.
“I have to say that I expected that reaction, and I kind of relished it, because to me it signals that I’m doing something right: I’m evolving, and I’m confronting the expectations of my audience rather than simply catering to them.”
Wilson breaks down the reception of To the Bone as 95 per cent positive and five per cent negative — “but of course, this being the age of the internet, that five per cent were by far the loudest and the shoutiest.” He suggests the vocal minority may be largely composed of fans who came on board with the supernatural-story cycle The Raven That Refused to Sing (2013) and the sprawling character study Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015), “in many respects the two albums which put me firmly in the progressive-rock genre.”
Those with a deeper knowledge of Wilson’s labyrinthine history can connect To the Bone’s streamlined, often melancholic songcraft to his Blackfield project and to some of his work with Porcupine Tree, the hard-edged band that gave him the most renown before being eclipsed by his solo career. But then there’s Permanating, a sparkling piano pop number that leaps from the speakers at To the Bone’s midpoint. It’s an ecstatic outlier on the album, and in Wilson’s catalogue — a rare opportunity for him to display his unabashed, unironic love of ABBA.
“Night after night (on the European tour), that song was the highlight of the evening and the most rapturously received. Now, I honestly expected there to be a little bit more resistance, but there hasn’t been. It’s the song that everyone gets up and dances to, never mind whether they’re a 15-yearold girl or a 60-year-old hippie guy.
“Everyone has the capacity to enjoy a good, joyous piece of pop music, and maybe that’s borne out by that reaction. Eight months down the line, I think most people have appreciated that it’s actually a quality song. I think that’s the crux of it: (some fans) took exception not to the song, but to the idea that I would write a joyous piece of pop.”
Remove Permanating from To the Bone’s track list, Wilson said, and “there would be no question that this album sounds like another entry in my discography.” There’s room for Detonation, a nine-minute exploration of a terrorist’s mindset; the dynamic ebb and flow of Refuge; and Pariah, a cathartic cry-and-response duet with Israeli vocalist Ninet Tayeb. But there’s also no question that Wilson — a voracious listener of both the popular and the obscure — took his primary influences from a more accessible playlist this time around: “a lot of ’80s pop, the kind of pop music I grew up with — Kate Bush, Tears for Fears, Talk Talk, Depeche Mode, Prince.”
Wilson expressed admiration for such artists as Prince and David Bowie, a perennial influence, who could expand fans’ tastes by stealth.
“You think of Bowie with an album like Young Americans, introducing blue-eyed soul to his glamrock audience. Or you think of an artist like Prince introducing rock music to his black audience and vice versa, introducing soul music and funk to a predominantly pop and rock audience. I think there’s something wonderful about being able to do that. It’s almost like a Trojan Horse thing. And if somebody who’s a real hardcore progressive-rock fan buys my record and ends up with tracks like Permanating and ends up with tracks like (the sinister electronic devotional) Song of I, he or she is being introduced to music that they would not normally like.”
And if they still don’t like it, Wilson
doesn’t sound troubled.
“I have no doubt that some of my fans think of me as someone who should only be making progressive rock. I take great pride and great joy in disappointing those people and upsetting those people,” Wilson said with a laugh.
“I grew up in a house where my parents listened to so many different kinds of music, and I never understood musical snobbery. I still don’t.”