Music: Jeff Hemmings

Steve Wilson – Porcupine Tree man talks to Jeff Hemmings

You most likely would have not have heard of Steve Wilson, but he’s a hugely successful musician, with his band Porcupine Tree, and as a solo artist. He’s also a renowned producer, and remixer.
“When I walk around London, I will very rarely get recognised. Not that I have a massive fanbase, but if I walk around almost any other city usually somebody will recognise me. They say you are prophet without honour in your own country. It’s been a constant struggle to have some kind of profile in the UK mainstream,” says Steve. Not that should unduly bother him, because, like he indicates, he has had enormous success around the globe, firstly with his Pink Floyd inspired psychedelic and progressive rock via Porcupine Tree, and now as a solo artist. Not so much for record sales, of which there have been a few, but as a live act, often playing huge arenas, where every attention is made: “It is a genuinely multimedia experience,” he says about the live shows.”I do have world class musicians with me, and I have beautifully produced animations and live action films. I have quadrophonic sound, so there is a very immersive quality to the way the music comes across. I am a great believer in that the moment a member of the audience walks through the door to the moment they leave you have a opportunity to really put them in your world.”

With Porcupine Tree on extended hiatus, Wilson has released a stream of concept-based albums, the last one Hand. Cannot. Erase revolving around ideas of isolation and paranoia.

“For me it’s analogous to making a movie. I’m not interested in making ten pop songs… I want to tell a story; through the lyrics and the music, too. Hand. Cannot. Erase was inspired by a woman called Joyce Carol Vincent who was found dead in her apartment in North London, and her body lay undiscovered for over two years. She was a young, attractive, popular young woman. So, the idea that someone like that could disappear so completely from view, living in the heart of one of the biggest cities on Earth is extraordinary.

Steve has a new ‘stop-gap’ album out this month, 4 1/2.

Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Mon 25 Jan, 7pm, £24-£34