Q&A WITH ACCLAIMED PROGRESSIVE MUSICIAN AND PRODUCER STEVEN WILSON
Porcupine Tree founder says he was always meant to be a solo artist
Steven Wilson June 20, 8 p.m. | Vogue Theatre Tickets and info: coastaljazz.ca
Steven Wilson has rarely been one to take inspiration from the most obvious place. He’s more likely to take inspiration from everywhere: psychedelia, extreme metal, ambient meditations, intelligent dance music, vintage progressive rock, jazz fusion and industrial cacophony have all been touched on in his sprawling, Hydra-headed catalogue.
Best known as the (possibly former) frontman for barbed art-rock quartet Porcupine Tree, which entered a hiatus in 2010, Wilson is touring behind his fourth solo studio album, Hand. Cannot. Erase. — one of the British polymath’s most Catholic projects in scope, and one of his most daring in concept. The song cycle is loosely based on the life of Joyce Carol Vincent, whose story was recounted in the 2011 dramatized documentary Dreams of a Life. Vincent died in London in 2003 after severing ties with family and friends. It wasn’t until two years later that her body was discovered in her apartment.
Ahead of his Vancouver jazz festival performance June 20, Wilson spoke about the new album’s source of inspiration, his delight at being a solo artist, and why Porcupine Tree’s fans shouldn’t be anticipating a reformation any time soon. Q Did you know as soon as you saw Dreams of a Life that Joyce Carol Vincent’s story would be the backbone of your next project?
A No, not at all. In fact, I think it’s always true of me that when I sit down to write something new, I’m not really sure what I’m going to channel. I don’t mean to sound pretentious, but sometimes it’s almost like the subject matter chooses you. It’s a result of the things that haunt you over a period of time, as opposed to the things that impress you for a short period of time. And certainly in the case of the Joyce Carol Vincent story, and the documentary Carol Morley made about her, Dreams of a Life, these are things I carried around with me for weeks and for months after I saw them or heard about them. Q The album doesn’t sound like a tragedy, despite the content. A Yes, and that’s one of the things I think people miss a lot about the character (on Hand. Cannot. Erase.). And even when we talk about Joyce Carol Vincent — Joyce Carol Vincent was not a terribly tragic figure. Of course she died in very tragic circumstances, but actually her isolation was a choice. She did effectively erase herself, and it was her choice to do that.
Q Was it getting to a point by the time of The Incident (the band’s last album) where you felt too constricted by Porcupine Tree?
A Porcupine Tree (began as) a solo project, and I think in a sense I was always meant to be a solo artist, because I was always this kind of guy who had this grand design in my head. I wanted to be the director and I wanted to be the auteur and these other pretentious things. I started out that way, and Porcupine Tree became a band. I enjoyed being in a band. It was fun for a while. But I guess I knew in my heart that I was always going to go at some point back to being what I’d started as, which was a solo artist — without needing a band identity. In a sense, it’s what I was always waiting to be able to do.
Q It seems that with the four albums you’ve released on your own, the impression of you being limited to the progressive-rock ghetto has faded a bit. Or do you still get the sense that that’s how most people see you?
A There’s certainly some people who do see me as that. I mean, I don’t think you’ll read any review of anything I do without that word coming up. It’s not a word I use; just on a literal basis, I don’t think it’s possible to be progressive in music anymore. If anything, I use the word “conceptual” rock — it’s rock music, but it’s trying to use the medium to tell stories. But one thing I love about my audience now is that, yes, I will still see the guys in their 50s wearing the Genesis T-shirts and the Pink Floyd T-shirts — which is great, because I understand my music definitely has a strong element of coming from that tradition. But at the same time, I will see kids wearing death-metal shirts, or see kids wearing Flaming Lips or Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails T-shirts.
Q Despite the fact you’re a solo artist now, Hand. Cannot. Erase. sounds in a way like your most collaborative work, even i ncluding Porcupine Tree.
A I think one of the reasons for that is, in fact, the other performers on my solo records are given much more opportunity to stamp their mark on the music. And it would be silly of me to employ these world-class musicians and not allow them to do that. Whereas when I was in Porcupine Tree, for example, I was such a control freak that I didn’t really let anyone play anything that deviated from what I’d written. And I blame myself for that.