As much we love Maynard James Keenan, move over, Tool.
Enigmatic and beautiful, English-originated band, Porcupine Tree pushes artistry in music to an even more psychedelic and progressive level. They often collaborate with graphic artist Lasse Hoile via sonic and visual stimulation experienced during their live shows. Formed and led by the self-taught producer and songwriter, Steven Wilson challenges himself and the band with each album release. Even though their style has evolved since 1987, their tenth and most recent album release, The Incident is influenced by ‘70s rock music. According to Wilson, “[the ‘70s] was the greatest era for album-based music.” The Incident was created as a song cycle in attempts to release an album length piece of music, analogous to a novel with recurring themes and lyrical motifs.
Not an obviously commercial band, Porcupine Tree is in a good position, selling out shows all over the world and standing behind traditional album making. In speaking with Wilson, I found that he still believes in the record as a piece of art and not a commercial, consumerist product. The music, along with the packaging does matter. He has even called up his record label to see if they could print one of his album booklets on a matte-coated paper, a little detail most bands would overlook.
Although Wilson can be seen as a bit of a control freak and workaholic (with the additional release of his debut solo album, Insurgentes), he still finds time to choose whether or not to delve into other acts for inspiration. Even though he is passionate about different kinds of music, I found out that he was not the biggest Megadeth fan. The charmingly smug Wilson admitted that he had never heard a single note of their music and told me “I couldn’t give a shit.” He followed that up with, “It’s just very hard to find music that I’m really excited about. Maybe I’m just getting old and jaded.” Lately, he has been listening to doom metal act, Sunn O))) and the Mars Volta’s new album, Octahedron.
When I asked him who he would want to collaborate with in the future, with no hesitation, he brought up Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). He is a huge fan of Reznor’s production style and classic yet modern approach. Both Wilson and Reznor similarly take proper advantage of today’s easily available recording technology; Wilson encourages producers and songwriters to utilize it too. “If you have a sound in your head, there’s no excuse for you not to do it yourself. Really.”
Porcupine Tree will finish their final leg of The Incident international tour at the end of the year, and who knows…maybe Trent will finally hit him up.
Porupine Tree’s The Incident is available now worldwide. For more info, check http://www.porcupinetree.com.
-Kateri Lirio