Steven Wilson Interview

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth are both UK music journos. I know them both mainly as past presenters of The Old Grey Whistle Test in the UK. Man, I wish this show was still going.

It's a nice interview, although I am (still) of the opinion that he is a bit too superficial for my tastes. I kinda think that he believes that if he says something in his own music, that it is what it is about, and the music, supposedly supports it. This is a bit of a fallacy, in that if you take the words out, and no one else knows the music, and you ask ten people to "interpret" it, they will all say something different, and no "composer" with enough experience fails to understand that what he does and puts together is an illustration of his inner self, not a "concept" that he is trying to create which can only exist inside the head, and not visible for others.

I'm OK with his "oeuvre" (or whatever the French word is) and he has earned a reasonable amount of respect, however, I think that we need to stop thinking of him as some kind of pop musician, although in many ways, he still is, and I am not sure that he knows how to "trip" any more than 5 or 6 minutes. 

In the end, it is all about the MUSIC and not the song, and his liking different things in albums is kinda neat, and showing TD as one of the biggies is even better, but we also know that he likes Klaus Schulze, and has been around him, and watched his technicians work on KS's music (Lisa's DVD) ... and probably saw and learned more than we give him credit for. In the example, the little bit is so invisible that you and I will never find it in the music along with Lisa, just to give you an idea of the depth of "seeing" for these folks, and how much/well they understand KS's music. I don't think that SW has that kind of depth, probably gives him a headache, but there are things that are curious, and I think they tend to relate to his finding it by accident ... and Ninet screaming in that song, is one far out example ... and when that happened, I doubt that he EVER wanted to touch it or take it out ... and that it made his song even better! A good "producer", knows how to take advantage of the artists abilities and I think here was such an example, but he lacks the emotional maturity to do something like this himself ... he's too tied up to his thinking and intelect to "let go" and find out how much more (or less) he can do or not do. But I do think that he needs to get out of the pop world completely to learn more, so he can clean up and improve his composing skills which for now are all pop oriented and not quite as strong as they might otherwise be, if possible.

Nice to hear him, and he's mellowed out some and is more friendly than in previous interviews ... but I'm not sure this is a sign that any new music will be stronger or better. Right now, I see the possibility of something so mixed up and confused with so many ideas and concepts as to make it a very poor next album by PT. Also the lack of Colin might be an issue, because if anything, both he and Richard, are much more into different and interesting soundscapes than SW who always tries to make a song of it ... those two don't always do that, although it is clear (sometimes) that Richard is seriously experimenting with what he can come up with, which I think SW will intimidate some!

I thought so too....

To each his own Pedro. 

Although this interview showed him being very reflective of his career to this point, admitting he has accepted the thought that he will never have that "hit". As well clarifying that in 2010 he was done with PT group, he had nothing else to say within that setting. They are bigger today than back then it seems......

Take from the interview what you want.

Hi,

That comment is not meant to be bad ... we ALL DID THAT at one time or another. It's not a judgement, but a thought that at the time we wanted to feel grown up ... and get more attention that we were not, otherwise getting.

His look at some of the things in the past are rather strange for me. His very early material, and specially "before" PT was sort of weird pop music, or maybe it was meant to be different and a sort of satire on the way it was done. As he got into PT, it became the "trips", which he does not discuss, and I think that he doesn't want people to think that he is not a rocker ... he is and then some!

I'm not sure about his comments on PT. I think that the fact/idea that they sell better today than they did way back when they were touring a lot, might be something that gets his attention, and the obvious result of that is a lot of folks wanting the group to get back together again. 

His comments, about things in general are rather bland/blank for me, and likely he is very aware of the fact that a lot of folks criticized him for his attitude towards "progressive" music, and what not, and his sticking with the ideas and thoughts that stimulated and helped him more, which became much wider and clearer as a solo artist, since now he was able to define/decide things for himself for most of the parts of any piece of music. As such, he did not discuss a whole lot about his ideas and designs for what his music really is ... and the light discussion about albums and A to Z and such ... were nothing new, although I would find a lot more fun and discussion, if I were interviewing JOSE for the PA folks. Your story is just as good and interesting and can easily be spread around  over 30 minutes of 50. The same for James, Guld, Lewian, and several others. Heck, I would like to interview DE, if he promised not to quote Ian every 3 minutes! And specially his background combined with the music!

See?

I'm beyond a lot of these interviews, in the sense, that they satisfy the majority of the FAN CONTENT OF THE STAR ... but do not say a whole lot about his music and his ability. That one interview about his putting together an album and each piece, and even having Nick ... say .. let me do this first, and then see if you like it or not. That would explain a lot more about his ability to work with other musicians, and his own "design" for a song that he has already formulated, which is going to be a problem with PT, since there was a lot more on the free side for that band, than we might see, although "The Incident" might come across as a SW solo album!

You want to know more about his art ... and how he paints it, or writes it, and how he ends up adding some music to it, or some music adds to a lyric of equivalent. The kind of information and stuff that helps you learn more about what music really is, than anything else... YOU LEARN TO EXPRESS YOURSELF through it, and this is not something that is exclusive to artists at all!