Porcupine Tree

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Written by: Jullyane Del Rosario

Arriving at the venue, I was a bit apprehensive about meeting Steven Wilson, the lead singer and founder of the band, Porcupine Tree. Having been musically active for 23 years (which is coincidentally my age), I found it awe-inspiring to be in the presence of one of the most creative musicians of the progressive rock genre. In the interview to follow, he discusses the band’s origins, as well as their fascination with surrealistic cinema and how it inspires them musically, and lastly, about how an audience contributes to their overall performance onstage.
Confront: So what time did you guys arrive?

Steve: Sometime in the night, I think. I don’t know when, because we were asleep. I woke up this morning, and I was here.

C: Finish the sentence: “I have never…”?

Steve: Jumped off of an airplane, and I would like to. With a parachute, obviously. (laughs)

C: How about… “I would never…”?

S: I would never eat an animal again, for as long as I live.

C: What are the first and last albums you bought?

S: The first album I bought was Pink Floyd’s “Animals”. And as for the last album I bought was by a band named Trans AM. They’re from Chicago and they’re very good.

C: What about your first and last shows you’ve attended?

S: The first show I’ve ever attended was by a band called Hawk  Wind. It was a classic British space rock band when I was 10-years-old, around the ’80s. And as for the last show I’ve attended –not including my own, of course– would’ve been… Well, we did the Coachella festival a couple of weeks ago in California. I watched LCD Soundsystem, and they’re thoroughly amazing.

C: Yeah, actually they’re going to be here later this month.

S: Don’t miss it! They’re amazing.

C: I won’t! (laughs) I’ll take your word for it. So the last Confront Five question is: Where do you see yourself in 20 years from now?

S: Well, I try not to, in a way, because a part of what’s appealing with what I do is that it’s constantly surprising. You get invitations to work with musicians, or to work in films. I’ve started to tap into other kind of media as well, like films and books, and those kind of things. I’m kind of keeping my horizons open. But you know, I’m still hoping I’m making music too but as long as I enjoy what I do and it’s still great… I’ll be doing it.

C: I guess the whole point of it is that it’s unpredictable.

S: Well that’s kind of why I do it, because I didn’t want a job that was predictable. I’m a very curious person, so if somebody gives me the opportunity to work in some other media or with some other musician that I’ve never worked with before, I’m more likely to do that than I am to do what people think. I already do. And so that could lead me anywhere in the next 20 years.

C: Your band started in 1987. How old were you at the time?

S: I was 18. No, I’m 42 now, so I was 19 then. The band didn’t really start until much later, in 1993. But I started to make music in my bedroom studio that would later become known as Porcupine Tree.

C: From what I read, you guys started the band as more of a joke.

S: Yeah, it was just me and my buddy, who wasn’t a musician. We used to go on record-buying trips together. We would travel up on train to London and come back with armfuls of records. We both loved 70′s music, some late-60′s psychedelic, space rock and progressive rock and all that stuff. So, me being a musician, I started making that kind of music for fun, with him egging me on. And we sort of created this imaginary back history. And it was a bit of fun, but out of that came obviously something that I could develop into more creative, more serious work. And so here we are, 23 years later.

C: That’s awesome. So who came up with the name Porcupine Tree?

S: I did. I can’t remember why. It was probably one of many, many options I had as something silly.

C: And it just kind of stuck?

S: It just stuck, yeah. Regretfully, it did. (laughs)

C: Now, a lot of people categorize your kind of music. These days, they’re saying it’s more like progressive metal. But what genre best describes the band, in your point of view?

S: Well, I don’t really understand the metal thing. We use occasional heavy riffs but then we use occasional pop songs as well as a pop band. And we use occasional electronic rhythms, as an electronica band. And we use occasional industrial stuff. I find there’s more of an affinity with the progressive thing, even though I’m not quite sure that is anymore. For me, when I listen to Nine Inch Nails or LCD Soundsystem or Massive Attack or Trans AM or Radiohead, those have all got elements of progressive music, in the sense that you can trace a very clear line between what Radiohead or Massive Attack do and what Pink Floyd were doing 40 years ago. It’s very clear. It’s intellectual, cool, very much about the album and not the pop songs, experimental with different textures and different genres… For me, that’s what progressive is all about. Certainly, I would say that yes, that’s what we do but some people use the word “progressive” to mean “more narrow” or something “more generic”. But I like everything, I would be influenced by the FX twins as much as I would with Pink Floyd or by Frank Zappa. All of that kind of finds its’ way in. And in a way, that in itself is a progressive philosophy: To take things that shouldn’t go together and put them together. By definition, that is progressive, in the true sense. But we’re definitely not a progressive metal band. Progressive metal for me is like Dream Theater or something. We have occasional heavy riffs. We have occasional.. lots of things!

C: So it’s more about just being “creative”. That’s basically the kind of genre that you would put yourself in.

S: Kind of. It’s about the album, it’s not about the individual songs. It’s about the idea of the album as a musical continuum, a musical journey. Of course there is an influence from traditional progressive music but there’s also all sorts of influences of other kinds of music too.

C: On that note, who would you say are you biggest influences in the music that you make?

S: Not musicians; film makers like David Lynch and Stanley Cooper. For me, the musicians that were influential were auteures, people who weren’t necessarily musicians, but they had a vision for a whole sound, for a whole world. People like Frank Zappa; when you buy into Frank Zappa, you’re buying into a whole universe of his personality. He’s a guy that makes serious classical music, some rock music, jazz rock music. He made films, wrote books. This, for me, is an auteur. Those kinds of people have always been the most inspiriational to me. I’ve never been interested in technique or being the best guitar player or any of that stuff. I’m very limited as an instrumentalist. But yeah, it’s those kind of people who have this idea in their mind and who have the force of will, passion and creativity to realize it [that are influential to me]. They also have a pretty surreal and twisted [approach], like David Lynch. I love the way people like David Lynch and surrealists tap into dream kind of logic, as opposed to Hollywood logic, where everything ties up really neatly and you understand how the story unfolds very nicely. His films are not like that; his films are more about dream logic. In a dream, you could go from one situation to another and there’s seemingly no apparent relationship at all… but somehow, that’s what life is like, isn’t it? Life is not neat.

C: Life is not a neat package.

S: Yeah, so I love that. And that kind of applies to our records too. Our records are not just a bunch of nice songs neatly tied together. The tracks go off a tangent into unexpected terrains. So those kind of cinematic influences for me are more important, in a way, than the musical ones.

C: So would you say that in your own way, you translate the cinematic aspect –what you see–, into music?

S: I try to. People have always said about our music that it is very cinematic. One thing I hear a lot is “you should do a movie soundtrack” and all that stuff. I think what they’re tapping into is the fact that the music is very much about creating images. It’s not complicated music. But if there is any complexity, it’s in the layers of the production: the creation of sound worlds and that sense of moving, that sense of the unexpected just around the corner. So an ambient section can be interrupted by a death metal riff. A beautiful pop song can be destroyed by a war of noise. I love that. Those are very cinematic devices, because most popular music –rock music–, if you take any song by any band, you can pretty much describe it by saying “it’s a happy song” or “it’s a sad song” or “it’s an angry song”. Very rarely does a song actually shift from mood to mood in the way that cinema or literature does. So I think, in a way, trying to apply that music is still quite an unusual approach.

C: It is really interesting though, because it’s creative and not the typical song that you would hear on the radio, let’s say.

S: I hope not!

(both laugh)

C: You guys created your own label, “Transmission”. What made you decide to do that? Is it centered around your band or are there other artists signed to it?

S: I think a lot of bands do this now. The thing about the way the record industry right now is that we have a situation where band tend to release an album every three years or more [compared to] say 20 or 30 years ago, where a band would release an album or two every year like the Beatles. And that’s just because the whole process of marketing and  selling music has become so diffused. You have to tour a lot more, and there’s a lot more countries to tour. The whole  nature of getting music out there has really changed. So what we have is a situation where a band –realistically– can’t release an album every year now; it’s too much. So bands release an album maybe two, three –sometimes five or six– years. But of course, creativity means you’re producing a lot more than that. So what we set up Transmission for was to put out the non-proliferal releases that fans would appreciate, like EPs of songs that didn’t make the album, high quality live recordings, solo projects; those kinds of things that are proliferal to the main albums. The average Porcupine Tree fan –if there is such a thing– probably wouldn’t be interested in those things, but the more obsessive and hardcore fans love that stuff. So Transmission was a way for us to release live albums, side projects, those kinds of things; and not have to go through the traditional record company distribution route, which for starters, takes a lot of money from you. And you don’t need distribution if you want to sell directly to your fanbase; you’ve got websites now. So it was to cut out all that stuff out. We looked around and we saw that there was a lot of bootlegs, and we wanted to provide them in high quality. So we released three or four live things through it; for example, one from each tour, as a rule. It provides this sort of quality option, if you wanted a live document where you could see the band on tour. So we recorded a couple of shows on this tour and we’ll probably put something out on the Transmission label later.

C: Does the band play a big part in running the label?

S: Yeah, well I do. (laughs) We mix and master the music, and we have our designer who does most of our sleeves. We send it to the factory and we have a mail order company that we’ve applied to do all of that mail and ordering business. So there’s not actually that much “running” to do, which is what makes it so good. You don’t need to market all of that stuff. You just post it on your websites.

C: And I guess it cuts down costs.

S: Yeah! It seems to be kind of a model now for most bands in the 21st century. And the fans love it.

C: Yeah, some of them are running their own labels themselves.

S: I’m very much in awe of people who not only run their own music career, but actually sign great artists. There are some artists I would love to be able to sign, but I just don’t have the time. Because then you’d got to get into accounting for your artists, paying for royalties… It must be mind-blowing to do.

C: Well, I guess there’s a lot involved in that.

S: There’s a lot. It’s a full-time job to work with other artists so I’ve shyed away from that, as much as I would have loved to do that. There are certain artists that I believe are not being represented properly by their labels, and I would love to say “I want to put out a record by you”. But as much as I’ve been tempted, I’ve stopped short of it because I know the amount of work and grief involved. It’s not an easy industry.

C: So out of all the albums that you’ve released thus far, which one are you most proud of? The one that you really liked and thought was really amazing?

S: Honestly? (whispers) It was probably my solo album. (laughs) I did my first solo album last year and I’m really proud of that. Well, in a way, it makes sense, doesn’t it? When you’re in a band, there’s always compromise. There were certain things that I couldn’t bring to the table with the band because I know they wouldn’t be into it, and vice versa. So my solo album was the first time I actually managed to, in a way, bring all of the strands of my musical personality to get together in one record. It’s a bit more experimental, a little bit more alternative-sounding, a bit more twisted and I was really proud of that record.

C: So you had full creative freedom.

S: FULL creative freedom! And I didn’t have to think about anyone else, including an audience. I didn’t have to think about an audience because there was no audience. Now there is, I’m doing my second record now. But when you do a first record, there’s no expectation.They don’t know what to expect, so you can do what you like. I did something extremely eclectic. So yeah, I’m very proud of that record.

C: If someone were to listen to Porcupine Tree for the first time, what song would you suggest that person listen to?

S: Well I can tell you the most popular ones. They’re not necessarily my favorites but they’re songs [that were highly rated] on last.fm. I think with all artists, it would be the same. It’s often that the songs that become the hits that [aren't necessarily their favorites].

C: Which one do you think well describes and really embodies the band?

S: Probably a song on our last record, called “Anesthetize”, which is 18 minutes long and 3 distinct sections to it. And in each of those sections represent an aspect of the band. So in a way, it’s kind of a summary of the band. You’ve got heavy stuff in there, very dreamy stuff in there, pop melodies, solos, complexity, musicianship… it’s kind of all in there.

C: Is this your first time in Montreal?

S: No, we’ve been here about 3 or 4 times now.

C: And what’s your favorite city to tour in, and why?

S: There are a few. There are cities where we have great chemistry [with]. I think sometimes the audience forgets how much of a part of the show they are. Sometimes audiences can be passive and think that they’ve paid their money and have just come to see the show. And I understand for some bands, that is the way. But it’s not the way for us. For example, for today['s show], it’s seated, which I don’t like. Because it gives the audience, in a way, a license to be more passive. We did a show in Buffalo a couple of days ago, and that was fantastic! The audience were terrific. There was that chemistry [there]. Paris is always great to play, Mexico City is an amazing place to play.

C: You feed off of each other’s energy.

S: Yeah, totally! The Mexicans totally understand that they’re part of the show. In fact, they won’t accept that they’re not part of the show! They will force themselves into the situation, whether you want them to or not. And that’s great for us, because we love that! But [that might not be the case] for other bands.

C: So last question! You mentioned earlier that you were working on your second album. What about the rest of the band? Do they have any solo or side projects?

S: I’m sure they do! I don’t honestly know, but you’d have to ask them. But I’m sure they do. One thing we’ve all decided is that next year, we’re pretty much going to take the year off from PT. But everyone has already released side projects, solo projects, what have you. So there’s definitely that tradition of being creative, even outside of the band.

C: So that’s it! Thanks so much for your time!

With the breaking news of their one-year hiatus next year, it is very difficult to imagine Porcupine Tree taking some time off to pursue other things. However, we need not worry. As Steven has confirmed, they will never stop creating music.

To find out more about Porcupine Tree, visit them at:

www.myspace.com/porcupinetree