Steven Wilson
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Steven Wilson

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So when Wilson tours Australia this October, he’ll be bringing with him a quadraphonic PA system as well as multimedia visuals for a truly immersive experience.

“The show is in many ways the most ambitious live event I’ve ever staged,” Wilson says. “Some people may think that because I’m doing a solo tour it’s more stripped down. In fact, no, the opposite is true. In many respects I’ve taken the philosophy of what I was doing with Porcupine Tree – the film, the visuals – one step further. We have films, multiple projectors, and we also have a quadraphonic sound system.” This approach makes perfect sense. After all, Wilson has made a name for himself as someone who has made many surround sound mixes, including the Jethro Tull and King Crimson back catalogues. It’s a medium he understands better than most, in both its creative potential and its creative limitations. It’s not just a matter of putting different instruments in different speakers and letting it be. “It’s not as simple as that because it can’t be as simple as that,” he says. “The problem with quadraphonic sound is that every room you go into is different. Every room has its own dimensions and its own logistical and acoustic conditions. So we have to be very careful what we put in surround sound.”

Wilson is no slouch on the guitar, but he finds himself taking on more of a multi-instrumentalist approach on his solo material. Each of the band members is an established player in their own right, with their own voice and their own following, something Wilson is happy to emphasise in the form of plenty of spots for improvisation and solos. “That was almost fundamental to the whole philosophy of putting this band together.” Virtuoso Guthrie Govan (whose band The Aristocrats just released their second album, Culture Clash), takes the lion’s share of big guitar moments. “Guthrie is absolutely extraordinary,” Wilson says. “Not only is he a brilliant technician, he’s also someone that completely understands how to do the right thing for the music, and those things very often don’t go together. What I love about Guthrie is, if I ask him to play two notes for ten minutes, as long as he understands why he’s doing it and he agrees it’s the right thing for the song, he’s just as happy to do that. I love that about him. The thing with Guthrie and the thing with a lot of these guys that are very well known within the circle of great musicians is that you’ll never break out of that unless you’re actually in a band that goes beyond simply appealing to the muso mentality. And I think that’s a problem with Guthrie: he’s never been in a band before that’s reached beyond that muso sensibility. And he’s been discovered now by all my fans that are not interested in the technical feats of guitar playing, but know an amazing player when they hear one, and respond to the emotional quality and the feel when he’s playing.

“It’s a foolish thing to do, to walk away from an established band and brand, and drop all of that material and play material which is new,” Wilson concludes. “I think in a way I’ve earned the opportunity to do that by virtue of the fact that anybody who’s followed my career has learned to accept that I’m someone that needs to constantly develop and evolve, and I can’t just stand still. You accept that as part of the deal in a way that you wouldn’t with AC/DC.”

BY PETER HODGSON