Steven Wilson
Progressive rock mastermind and super producer Steven Wilson explains his abstract approach to guitar on his new album The future bites, reveals the secrets of his studio gear, and makes the shocking confession: “I DON’T KNOW THE NAMES OF THE CHORDS I PL
“When I looked at my schedule and saw Total Guitar, I thought, ‘Oh god, what are we going to talk about?!’” laughs Steven Wilson as he notes that his latest album, The Future Bites, is one of the least guitardriven records he’s put his name to. “There are guitars on there,” he says, “but they’re being used in more of a sound design kind of way. And that goes for even the solos! They’re not conventional muso leads, they’re quite abstract and dissonant in places... More about the way the guitar sound integrates within the overall texture of the song and the rest of the musical palette.”
Though he clearly distances himself from being seen as any kind of guitar hero, the ever-evolving English singersongwriter has become one of the biggest names in progressive pop music, in many ways a modern equivalent to David Bowie in the 70s or Prince the decade after. As well as fronting Porcupine Tree for over 20 years, and working with other musicians in projects such as Blackfield, Storm Corrosion and No-man, he’s also been highly lauded for producing bands including Opeth and Anathema, and remixing famous works by King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Yes.
But it’s his solo endeavours that have led to him playing multiple nights at the Royal Albert Hall and crashing into the top 10 of numerous album charts across Europe, described by mainstream broadsheets as ‘The most successful British artist you’ve never heard of’.
Speaking to TG from his home studio, he talks through the creative process behind The Future Bites and gets into the fine detail about his favourite tools...
You started using predominantly Telecasters for your last album Tothebone. It sounds like that hasn’t changed...
The Custom Shop 1963 Tele was the first thing I reached for every time. The thing about the Teles is that they have this wonderfully cutting sound that slashes through the mix. If you have a lot of bright electronic sounds going on, as we did on this record, all these electronic drums and arpeggiators – you need a guitar that cut through all of that, whether that’s through a funky riff or solo or abstract block of sound. The Tele did that every time. I think I took all my guitars down to the studio. I had my old Goldtop PRS, my Alumisonic guitars – which are also quite bright – and I had my Tele. I don’t think we used anything but the latter!
In your last TG interview, you mentioned that the Tele sound inspired chords you might not have otherwise used.
Very much so. The other thing of course is that you don’t need as much gain on a Telecaster for it to sound aggressive. In fact, it’s almost like you don’t need any gain. There are big blocks of dissonant chords on songs like Self... But there’s not much distortion being used. There’s a natural aggression that comes from that very bright pickup. The low end
that would normally woof it up is just not there. It doesn’t sound like it’s being scooped out, it’s naturally not there. That makes a big difference. You don’t have to drive the amp much to make it sound in your face.
Speaking of which, what was the main amp used on the new album?
I’ve been using a vintage Supro, which I was very fortunate to have been given, making good use of the built-in stuff like the reverb and tremolo. It’s a classic Jimmy Page kind of amp. So I used it on the record, though some of the sounds didn’t go through amps, they went through plug-ins. I am not an apologist for amps. I am quite happy to plug a guitar into a digital converter and start fucking about with plug-ins. Or even put an acoustic through my pedalboard, ramped up to maximum gain, and then into my little Hughes & Kettner practice amp – which I did for the most aggressive and angular solo on the record, on the track Follower. It sounds completely off the hook and of control because it was out of control. It was a bit like trying to control a wild beast! [Laughs] An acoustic guitar through an amp on 11... Of course it’s going to feed back and unleash all this sh*t.
We’ve spotted some pretty high-end pedals on your board over the years – the Analog Man Prince Of Tone being one of them.
That particular pedal I use to get a bit of crunch. I don’t use it for the real drive, I have something else for that. It’s what I’m looking for out of an overdrive pedal because it sounds like an amp. It doesn’t sound like a transistor-y drive thing. It’s very organic, and just pushes the gain on your amp a little bit. I think that’s what most people are looking for out of an overdrive pedal, which is distinct to what you’d use for more aggressive tones. The Prince Of Tone does that beautifully, giving your amp just that little bit more drive. I love it live and use it a lot for recording too, whether into the amp or into a DI to give things a little more aggression.
So which pedal gets used for your heavier driven tones?
For those, I use the Amp Tweaker Tight Rock Junior. When I get back to playing
“WHEN THE OLD CHORDS START TO SOUND BORING, TRY
live and need to start shredding those solos, that’s what I’d kick in with delay or reverb. Very often, I prefer my leads with the ambience in front of the amp for a mushy sound. Very occasionally I might want a cleaner sound, like on this old Porcupine Tree song I’ve been occasionally playing called Dark Matter. That has a more epic clean solo, with the delay after the gain stage.”
Then there’s boutique modulation coming from the Diamond Analog Vibrato, the Option 5 Destination Rotation and the Moog MF Trem.
I love that Diamond pedal so much. It’s on every clean sound I use live, whether I’m playing chords or arpeggios, it just has to be on. I don’t use it on an extreme setting, it’s there for more richness and colour. I’m not a big fan of chorus pedals, they make things sound more gloopy and synthetic. This vibrato, however, is more organic and natural. You almost wouldn’t know it was there! And with the Option 5, I love Leslies and use them in the studio quite a lot, this new record being no exception. It’s really hard to find a pedal that can capture that sound for my live shows in a convincing way. I’ve tried a lot over the years, there were a few I used before but the Option 5 is the one I kept coming back to. One of the best things about it is the speed control. When you kick that in, you hear the ‘Leslie’ start to rotate faster and there’s something about how real Leslie cabinets accelerate. It’s not an immediate thing, they wind up slowly. The Option 5 captures that so beautifully. I defy anybody who can spot it because it sounds that convincing live. The way it speeds up and breaks down again is very close!
The Origin Cali76 compressor is another pedalboard staple of yours.
The Cali 76 is an emulation of the compressor I use all the time in the studio, which is the UA 1176. It’s been my standard limiter compressor for years. I’m very au fait with the sound of that thing, using it for acoustic guitars to vocals to whatever. Being able to have a pedal version of that for my guitar is great. I know how it works, how it sounds and how to get the best tone out of it. Having used a lot of different compressor pedals over the years, this one was like coming home. I saw it and thought, ‘Oh, I actually know how to use this one!’ It’s been such a staple in my studio for so long, I was really happy to get that on the board.
And then it’s generally been Strymon for all your ambience needs.
I’ve had the Big Sky and Timeline in my rig for a long time now. It’s hard to keep up with gear, almost impossible, because every couple of years there are all these new companies coming out with new things. But I love those Strymon pedals, the Timeline can add warble, grime and grit. For me, that’s fundamental to any sound – that’s what gives it life. In the studio I’ll use
AN ALTERNATE TUNING AND DISCOVER NEW SHAPES”
analogue units too, like on the song 12 Things I Forgot, where we re-amped my demo solo through [co-producer] David Kosten’s Roland Space Echo, which is one of the original tape delays. And his one is a bit ropey but in a good way, the tapes inside it sound quite worn out! You get that wonderful glitching or warble from a classic tape-loop-based delay. Some plug-ins I use simulate old cassette tapes. You can add hiss. You can even choose the brand of cassette. Cheap Ferro, expensive Ferro, chrome or metal... You can even choose the age of the cassette – with options for the C90, C60 or C120. It’s just phenomenal. Just a little bit of that age can give music so much character, making it feel more old and broken down or lo-fi. That gives it vibrancy and it sounds real.
Some of your music over the years has been quite advanced and technical. How much does music theory play a part in your creative process?
I’ve never been trained musically, other than a few lessons at school which I hated. I’m not aware or conscious really when it comes to modes, scales or keys. I don’t know the names of the chords I play – other than a few majors and minors. I write songs and then have to teach them to my band. Someone like Adam Holzman [live keyboards] will ask me what chord I’m playing and I’ll have no idea, I’ll just show him the where my hands are or play each note separately. And he’ll tell me I’m playing a G flattened minor 9 with a whatever. I don’t know that stuff. Is that an obstacle to creativity? Absolutely not. There is an argument to say it’s actually the other way round, that having too much theoretical knowledge can be an obstruction to the creative impulse.
A lot of the world’s greatest songwriters didn’t come from a classical or theoretical background.
That’s what I mean! I bet Bob Dylan or Paul Mccartney don’t know exactly what mode they’re in. I’m almost suspicious of theory. Although I’ve worked with some great musicians who know all that stuff, very few have been writers themselves. They’ve been more like players, and to be players at that level, you need the theory. To be someone that writes, however, you can become too self-conscious and it can become no longer intuitive. I’ve never had the wanting to learn more, bar the moments I’m in a session with an orchestra and felt like I’d want to communicate in their language to explain what I'm looking for and I can’t! But those occasions are quite rare. And these days with digital recording and MIDI, it’s all there for you. If I play a string arrangement into my computer, it will produce the music for me and tell the players what to play by putting the notes on the stave. I don’t know how important or relevant it is today. What I’d say is relevant and important is knowing how to use DAWS and recording software. That’s infinitely more important to a writer than knowing the name of the chord you’re playing.
So when you hit a creative block on guitar, how do you get around that?
It’s just a case of letting your fingers find interesting shapes. When the old chords start to sound boring, try an alternate tuning on the guitar and start discovering new shapes. Joni Mitchell did that a lot. Some of her music is hard to figure out because she was using her own tunings and until you know what they are, you’ll never find the sound she had. All the regular chords go out of the window. You have to find things that sound good almost like an idiot. That’s what I do in standard tuning too, because I don’t have a huge idea of what I’m doing. It’s an idiot-savant way of writing, but a lot of songwriters work like that. I’m the same on the piano, I’m not a proper player, but I’ve written a lot of songs on the piano by moving one note here and there. Making music shouldn’t be intellectualised. In the same way Francis Bacon or Picasso didn’t paint paintings based on theory, I don’t think musicians should be making music that relies on it either.