In an Interview with Goetia Media, Steven Wilson reacts to “Go back To Porcupine Tree” comments from Prog fans and whether he feels obligated to put the PT songs in the setlist.
Here’s the complete statement:
“I think if I could just sort-of correct you on one thing – this is fine detail. I don’t play any Porcupine Tree songs. I play Steven Wilson songs. Now, I also play a song that was originally recorded on by Blackfield in the show right now.
“I play three songs that were originally played by Porcupine Tree, some nights we play 6-7 songs, but whether they were originally recorded by Blackfield, by Porcupine Tree, or by my solo band, to me, that’s all secondary.
“The most important thing is every single one of the songs I play in my show tonight with the exception of the Prince cover version, but every other song I play in my show tonight was written by Steven Wilson, and that’s all that matters to me.
“Some people will say, ‘Oh, that’s Porcupine Tree song, that’s Steven Willson song.’ Honestly, I don’t even remember myself which is which.
“It’s not relevant to me, and I think it will become less relevant as time goes on. It’s already becoming less relevant as time goes on. They’re simply songs that I’ve written; and by the way, they existed before Porcupine Tree recorded them.
“I wrote them, and in fact, some of the songs that people think of as Porcupine Tree songs were written for a soundtrack album. [2005’s] ‘Lazarus’ was written as a solo song for a soundtrack for a movie that never happened anyway, so it ended up being put on the Porcupine Tree record.”
When asked about being called ‘King Of Prog’, he said:
“I don’t know because I think that was already self-evident. I’ve made many different kinds of records in my career. I have ambient, drone, noise projects, I made pop records with Blackfield, I’ve made pop records with No Man, I’ve made extreme-metal records, and I never felt particularly that I was someone that was working in a particular genre.
“In fact, I didn’t like the idea of being a generic artist. For whatever reason, I’ve become known as a progressive rock artist, and listen, I’m very happy to admit that some of my records are very clearly in that genre, so [2013’s] ‘The Raven That Refused to Sing’ particularly was almost deliberately designed to be like an old-fashioned progressive rock album, and that had nothing to do with that record.
“‘To the Bone’ I wanted to make more of an intellectual pop record, so still very sophisticated production, arrangements, great musicianship, quite dark lyrical themes, but I wanted to make quite direct accessible pop songs.”
2 comments
Good grief! You might as well tell Paul McCartney to go back to the Beatles.
Steven, you are an inspirational artist one that i admire with great respect and love. Every artist change over time it how we grow and expand on the art we create, life experiences and new learned wisdom come into play and those effects show threw the music you play. Just as a child goes through puberty into maturity the sound of your music will change. I love a lot of your older solo solo music, and ive adapted to the new sounds you are recording today. Some people dont want to grow up. They place themselves in a limbo time they feel.most comfortable in unable to move past the cellophane film that creates a barrier between now and then. But time wears away the things they grasp hold of and all they are left with is dust that falls between their fingers and a new world that has built around their bubble that they dont understand because they didn’t grow with it.
Do your thing man. Live, learn, entertain, keep exploring your imagination is exceptional your artistry beyond a lot of great bands in the genre you play. I know you blow my mind with the songs you create. Your fans have to learn to evolve as you evolve its the nature and cycle of life man.