PROG ROCK KING?

Inside the playing style of Steven Wilson

To quote the opening line of Porcupine Tree’s Time Flies, Steven Wilson was “born in ’67, the year of Sergeant Pepper”. Indeed, Wilson’s playing style is strongly rooted in The Beatles’ brand of psychedelic art-rock, with further influences ranging from Pink Floyd-style prog to industrial rock a la Nine Inch Nails, as well as metal inspiration from Opeth. His guitar style centres around drop-d tuned riffs, lush chord progressions, and melodic, emotive leads, and we have four tab examples here to help you get inside his musical mind.

Gear-wise, Steven has been a longtime user of PRS guitars (though a ’63 Relic Telecaster has featured in his rig in recent years) and Bad Cat amps – so you’ll need a high-gain valve-based basic tone. We don’t have space here to look at his experimental approach to effects, suffice to say, make sure to experiment!