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Changing Viewpoints With STEVEN WILSON · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, this is Stephen Wilson and I'm coming to Australia
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: really soon to play my new album The Overview with
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: my amazing band and a lot of stuff from my
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: back catalog.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I really hope you can make it along. See you there, bait.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, awful, Steve, thanks for joining us this evening.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: My pleasure as well, my friend.
• 0:17
  Speaker 4: So, as you say, you head to Australia in November
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: for a run of show, starting in Perth on November
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: the twelfth, then hitting Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney before finishing
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: in Brisbane on November seventeenth. That follow is a massive
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: run of UK, European and American days, mate, So it'll
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: be nice and warmed back by the time you get.
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  Speaker 1: You that's the theory. That's the theory. Unless we're all
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: sick by then and fed out.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: We're doing it now. I'm choking, of course.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I'm really looking forward to come to Austraight, it's been
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a long time. It's been a long time. One of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: my favorite plays in the world. I'm really looking forward
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to coming back.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: And it's say it has been a long time.
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  Speaker 4: Bro. Richard adds like what's changed in your world since
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: last time you are out here?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Wow, Well, obviously we've had COVID in the interim. I've
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: probably made it, but I can't remember the last time
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: then maybe.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Twenty sixteen was it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: So I've probably made about three, four even five albums
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: since then, got a lot of new repertoire to play,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: got married in the midtime, have got step children now
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: as well. So actually a lot of changes in my
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: life for the better.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: The better, I should say. Yes.
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  Speaker 4: Now, you mentioned at the top of the amazing band
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: that you're bringing over made so introduced. The focus is
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: always on you because you're the season professional. I guess
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: everyone knows. But introduce us to the rest of the lineup,
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: man and tell us what their role is with your music.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Oh you see, No, I'm my band. I'm the amateur.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I always do that thing.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I think it was Frank Zappa that said, always be
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: the worst musician in your band, and I am that person.
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  Speaker 2: I am the worst musician in my band.
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  Speaker 1: I mean it's a great position to be in where
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: you you know, you kind of surround yourself with these
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  Speaker 1: world class musicians, but you're the guy with the ideas
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and you're the guy that's kind of captain of the ship,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: as it were. And that's that's me in this band.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I have incredible people. I have so I have long
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: a couple of long term members, Nick Bags on bass
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  Speaker 1: and Adam Holtzman on keyboards.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: My drummer is Craig Blundell.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Some people may know he's played with a lot of
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: people over the years, most recently with Steve Hackett. And
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I've got a new guitar player young, well I say young.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: He's in his thirties, young compared to me. Fantastic young
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  Speaker 1: American guitar player called Randy mcstein is going to be
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  Speaker 1: joining me for this tour.
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  Speaker 2: So that that's my band.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, oh nice.
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  Speaker 4: And the tour is on the back of your eighth
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  Speaker 4: studio album, The Overview, which came out on March of
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: fourteenth made. So it's only been a couple of weeks
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  Speaker 4: with a healthy holy reception been for it?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't really know, to be honest, I'm very
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: good at avoiding any any sort of you know, feedback.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I don't go on social media, I don't read comments.
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  Speaker 2: I don't I don't know.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I mean it sold really well, and I mean the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: press reviews were very very positive. So I've got used
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: over the years to being, you know, to the fact
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: that I always to confront my listeners a little bit
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: with each album because I try and do something different
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: every time. So I, you know, I don't know. I
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: hope they like it. I mean, it's a big chunk
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  Speaker 1: of music. It's quite a journey. I think that's what
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: my fans like about what I do. This, this kind
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: of sense of journey across an album, something that takes
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: you a few listens to kind of discover and to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: understand and decode. But I'm very much looking forward to
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: playing it live and seeing how people respond to it.
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  Speaker 4: In that context, the album is conceptually based and inspired
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  Speaker 4: by the overview effective astronauts giving Earth from space, but
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  Speaker 4: the betefit people like myself who honestly have no idea
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  Speaker 4: what that is.
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  Speaker 3: Can can you explain the concept.
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  Speaker 1: So very simply when astronauts the first time they go
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  Speaker 1: into space and they see the Earth from space, they
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  Speaker 1: have a kind of very profound shift in perspective because
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  Speaker 1: they see for the first time how insignificant the Earth
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  Speaker 1: really is in a kind of beautiful way, just how
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  Speaker 1: insignificant and how insignificant and lost in space the Earth
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  Speaker 1: really is, and therefore, by extension, how insignificant the human
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  Speaker 1: race really is. And I think that affects people in
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  Speaker 1: very different ways, and that was one of the things
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  Speaker 1: that appealed to me, is that some people have a
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  Speaker 1: very positive reaction to that, and some people have a
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  Speaker 1: very negative reaction to that, and of course the whole
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  Speaker 1: spectrum in between. So it's one of those things that's
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  Speaker 1: very hard to predict exactly how you will apparently how
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  Speaker 1: you will feel, and how you will respond to that
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  Speaker 1: sudden moment of having so much perspective. So I was
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  Speaker 1: fascinated by that idea, and I wanted to kind of
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  Speaker 1: write about, you know, essentially, write about that word perspective,
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  Speaker 1: having perspective on just how small our I mean, the
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  Speaker 1: numbers are insane when you go into it. The numbers
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  Speaker 1: are insane. There are trillions and trillions of planets in
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  Speaker 1: the universe, and ours is just one. There is a
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  Speaker 1: there is a billion planets for every grain of sand
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  Speaker 1: that there is on the planet Earth. That's mind blowing
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  Speaker 1: to me. So it was kind of just a way
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  Speaker 1: to explore some of those numbers and some of that
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  Speaker 1: idea of perspective.
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  Speaker 3: Really, what sort of research did you do that?
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  Speaker 4: Did you just did you write it just based on
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  Speaker 4: your own knowledge that you already had, or did you
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  Speaker 4: go in depth and researching.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, So I kind of I kind of approached it
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  Speaker 1: like a bit of an idiot. Really, I didn't want
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  Speaker 1: to you know, I didn't want to do it as
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  Speaker 1: a science project, if that answered your question. I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to do it more from the kind of emotional perspective,
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  Speaker 1: this idea of you know, understand that kind of profound
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  Speaker 1: moment of understanding just how tiny we are. And I
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  Speaker 1: think we all have kind of moments like that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it could be just standing at the edge of the
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  Speaker 1: Grand Canyon, you know, or looking up at the stars.
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  Speaker 2: I think we're all used to that feeling.
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  Speaker 1: Of, you know again that again that word perspective, having
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  Speaker 1: a sudden moment of understanding just how small we are
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  Speaker 1: in relation to everything else in the cosmos. So I
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: wanted to explore that feeling rather than sort of go into,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you know, deep scientific rigor.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it answers your question.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the overview.
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  Speaker 4: Overview contains just the two tracks at forty two minutes
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  Speaker 4: long way, so and you're you're known for doing your
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: extended sort of songs, but running through the thought process,
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: like in the creative stages, Like most people write, they
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: know it's going to fit. Youre a four and a
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: half minutes, five minutes, but you haven't got to start
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  Speaker 4: an endpoint, So how do they create, Like how do
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: you know when to stop when it's enough?
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  Speaker 1: So I think it's a bit like if you imagine
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: sitting down to write a novel or you sit down
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  Speaker 1: to write a movie script. You're basically going to tell
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  Speaker 1: a story, and you have an idea of your characters,
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  Speaker 1: and you have an idea of your starting point, or
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  Speaker 1: at least I did. I knew I knew how it
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: was going to start, and I knew I knew broadly speaking,
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  Speaker 1: where I wanted to end as well. So it's really
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  Speaker 1: a question of how do you tell that story? How
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  Speaker 1: do you take the listener on that journey. And in
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  Speaker 1: the sense of the writing, it was very much written
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  Speaker 1: in the order that you hear it, so each idea
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  Speaker 1: kind of suggested the next idea, So each each doorway
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  Speaker 1: kind of led to the next room in that sense.
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  Speaker 1: So I just kind of followed my instincts and I
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  Speaker 1: didn't have any you know, I didn't have any particular
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  Speaker 1: length in mind. I didn't know it was going to
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  Speaker 1: be fifteen minutes or twenty five minutes. I just kept
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  Speaker 1: writing until I felt that the story had been told.
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  Speaker 2: If that makes sense, how to.
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  Speaker 3: Go with the modern age? Where I did?
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  Speaker 4: The modern age, people's attention spends just getting less and
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  Speaker 4: less and less. Like, does that never a factor into
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  Speaker 4: it for you when you're writing compositions like this that
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: are lendy, that maybe a lot of people just won't
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  Speaker 4: have time to listen to it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, the simple answer is I try not
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  Speaker 1: to think about the listener when I make arks. Now
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  Speaker 1: that that's when I make my music. That sounds very
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  Speaker 1: That sounds very selfish and self indulgent, and it is.
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  Speaker 1: But I've always believed that artists, if I can pretentiously
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  Speaker 1: call myself that should never thinking about their audience when
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  Speaker 1: they create the art it is. I think, by definition,
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  Speaker 1: it is kind of a selfish act. And you just
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  Speaker 1: hope that people want to go with you on that journey,
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  Speaker 1: and you hope that people will give you the benefit.
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  Speaker 2: Of the doubt.
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  Speaker 1: And I have a fairly loyal fan base that kind
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  Speaker 1: of listen to everything I do. Even if they moan
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  Speaker 1: about it and they complain it's not what they want,
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  Speaker 1: they kind of still go with me on that journey,
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  Speaker 1: which is I think something that I've built.
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  Speaker 2: Up over the years, that kind of loyalty.
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  Speaker 1: And also I think there's a sense of providing the alternative.
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  Speaker 1: You know, there's always been this notion in pop and
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  Speaker 1: rock music of alternative music providing the alternative to whatever
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  Speaker 1: is the mainstream at that moment. Now, the mainstream at
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the moment, as you suggested, is very kind of immediate, short,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: synthesized pop music, usually sung by female solo artists. That
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  Speaker 1: seems to be very much the prevalent mainstream at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: So here I am kind of providing the alternative to that.
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  Speaker 1: And there are people that want that. There are people
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  Speaker 1: that want to engage with music on a deeper level
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  Speaker 1: and are prepared to sit and listen to a longer
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  Speaker 1: piece of music. So in that sense, I see myself
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  Speaker 1: as the alternative to the mainstream, and there's always an
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  Speaker 1: audience for that always.
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  Speaker 3: And how about playing library like your songs are that long?
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  Speaker 4: Like You've got so much music that people that love,
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: they love and when they come and see you live.
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  Speaker 4: If you play the compositions like that, you can only
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: play four songs in an hour and a half, you know,
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  Speaker 4: So you're not going to be able to please a
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: lot of people.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's true, but I have a lot.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, I have a lot of different kinds of
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: albums I've made over the years. I've made albums of
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: pop songs, I've made albums of long, conceptual suits, and
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the show will be a mixture, you know, of all
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of those things. So the second half of the show
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  Speaker 1: is going to be a complete performance of the Overview
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  Speaker 1: from beginning to end, and so that that will be
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: very much the meat of the show. The first half
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  Speaker 1: of the show will be a journey through my back catalog.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: There'll be short pieces, long pieces covering all the different
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: sort of aspects of my musical personality, so hopefully something
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: for everyone.
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  Speaker 4: The Overview is also punctuated with cinematic electronics and a
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: falling mercy of atmosphere.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I guess why I listen to it? How difficult is
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: it to elicit those feelings through music?
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  Speaker 1: Well, the answer to that question is I don't really
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: have an answer for you, because I'm not aware of
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the process. When I'm creating these things, I'm just kind
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of trusting my instincts.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: So how hard is it. I don't know.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, it may be that I've failed to communicate
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: that stuff to certain listeners. I don't know. I mean,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: I hope not. I hope that the emotional quality and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: the subject matter.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: And all of that does come across well.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm really just I'm really just following my instincts
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and trying to convey what I feel. And that's all
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I think anyone can ever do when you're creating a
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: piece of art and you you kind of you have
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to trust to that kind of process and the hope
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: that it will communicate to an audience. Whether it has
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: or not, I time will tell, I guess.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: There's another part of the press release that mentions spatial
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: audio wizardry when describing the sound of the album, like
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: can you run us through what that actually is.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: And why it's important with your music particularly?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: So Yeah, So one of the big kind of developments
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: in music over the last few years has been this
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: idea of space audio or immersive audio Dolby atmos five
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: point ones around town, and in a way, this is
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: kind of mirroring the way a lot of things are
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: going these days. So one of the buzzwords you'll hear
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: a lot these days with regard to film, computer gaming,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you name it, is immersive, immersive experiences, and music is
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: also is also responding to that. So we now have
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: a big push in the direction of space audio Dolby
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: at Moss having speakers not only in front of you,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: but also behind you, beside you, and above you, so.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: You can have sound coming from.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: In the vertical plane as well as the horizontal plane.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: And I've mixed the overview very much. I've created the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: overview very much with that particular medium in mind, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: it's becoming much more common now. A lot of people
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: have cinema systems at home. We've done a lot of
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: playback events for the album where people can come along
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and hear the overview in cinemas in Dolby Atmoss rooms,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and it's really an opportunity for me to put the
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: music all around you, so you're literally sitting insight, you're
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: literally floating in space when you're listening to this record.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: And I love that, and I love the fact that
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: this is one of the big movements in music these days.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: It's very exciting now much more.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Why could it say a few to create people, you
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: write your music, that your creator, that you commit the album,
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: but then to make it so that it is fully
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: in merci of and r like. Is that is that
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: another like another style of writing or is it something
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: you put in someone else's hands and they add things
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: to it.
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  Speaker 2: No, I do it all myself.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: I've been I've been working in surround sound for about
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: twenty years now. I mean I started off doing five
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: point one many many years ago when pretty much when
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: nobody else is doing it.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: But I've always loved it. And now that Dolbi.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Atmos has become a thing, you know, since people are
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Apple and Tidle have all really adopted it and really
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: heavily promotes it. I'm in my element, you know. I
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: think there is a there is an art to it.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: You do learn by your mistakes. As with anything, not
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: everything works, but with an album like The Overview, where
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: there's so many layers and there's so many textures, and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: there's so much of what I would call sound design,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: little moments, little details in the music, which I think
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: you answer to your question. When I'm making the music,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I am kind of aware, Oh yeah, there's going to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: be an ATMOS mix, and that's going to sound great
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: in atmosph So I'm kind of I'm adding things I
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: think which I might potentially not add if.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I knew it was just going to be in stereo.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: But I'm kind of adding them knowing that they're going
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: to sound amazing coming from above the listener or behind
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the listener, or moving around the listener. Because of course
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you can create movement also with these surround mixes as well,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: which is also perfect for an album like the Overview.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's an art form all in itself. Ro that's
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: really impressive.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: It's really exciting, and it's gaining traction all the time.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I'm very excited about the way it's going.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: Four I say it, well, thanks very much for your time, Bro,
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: it's very informative. Thanks.
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: It's You'll be out here on tour from November the twelfth.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: The album Overview is out now, and I'm going to
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: make sure I get myself some good speakers and sit
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: there and quiet and have a good proper to listen
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: to it.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: After speaking with you, there you go. Thanks a lot, Chris,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: pleasure to speak to you, mate.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: It's funny.
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: Joy.
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: Address of your night,