Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosion and No-Man. He is also a solo artist, having released seven solo albums since his solo debut Insurgentes in 2008. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Wilson has made music prolifically and earned critical acclaim.[4] His honours include six nominations for Grammy Awards: twice with Porcupine Tree, once with his collaborative band Storm Corrosion and three times as a solo artist. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph described him as "a resolutely independent artist" and "probably the most successful British artist you've never heard of".[5]
For other people named Steven Wilson, see Steven Wilson (disambiguation).
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson
3 November 1967
Kingston upon Thames, London, England
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- record producer
- Vocals
- guitar
- piano
- keyboards
- bass
1980–present
Wilson is a self-taught composer, producer, audio engineer, guitar and keyboard player, and plays other instruments as needed, including bass guitar, autoharp, hammered dulcimer and flute. His influences and work have encompassed a diverse range of genres including pop, psychedelia, progressive rock and electronic, among others, shifting his musical direction through his albums.[2] His concerts incorporate quadraphonic sound and elaborate visuals.[6] He has worked with artists such as Elton John,[7] Guns N' Roses,[8] XTC, Opeth, Pendulum, Yes, Fish, Marillion, Black Sabbath,[9] and Anathema. He has remixed several classic pop and rock records, such as Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair[10] and The Seeds of Love,[11] Ultravox's Vienna,[12] Jethro Tull's Aqualung,[13] King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King,[14] and Roxy Music's self-titled debut album.[15]
Wilson released his sixth solo album, The Future Bites, on 29 January 2021.[16] A limited edition of a single copy of the album sold on pre-order immediately for £10,000 on Black Friday in November 2020, with all proceeds going to Music Venue Trust to help save UK music venues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] The Future Bites 30-track Digital Deluxe version was made available on 27 August 2021, including remixed versions by artists such as Biffy Clyro, Nile Rodgers and Pure Reason Revolution. Wilson's seventh studio album, The Harmony Codex, was released in 29 September 2023.
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Born in Kingston upon Thames,[18] London, Wilson was raised from age six in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, where he discovered his interest in music around the age of eight. According to Wilson, his life was changed one Christmas when his parents bought presents for each other in the form of LPs. His father and mother received Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Donna Summer's Love to Love You Baby, respectively. It was Wilson's affinity for these albums that helped craft his guitar and songwriting abilities.[19] He said, "In retrospect I can see how they are almost entirely responsible for the direction that my music has taken ever since." His interest in Pink Floyd led him towards experimental/psychedelic conceptual progressive rock (as exemplified by Porcupine Tree and Blackfield), and Donna Summer's trance-inflected grooves inspired the initial musical approach of No-Man (Wilson's long-running collaboration with fellow musician and vocalist Tim Bowness).
As a child, Wilson was forced to learn the guitar, but he did not enjoy it; his parents eventually stopped paying for lessons. When he was eleven, he found a nylon string classical guitar from his attic and started to experiment with it; in his own words, "scraping microphones across the strings, feeding the resulting sound into overloaded reel to reel tape recorders and producing a primitive form of multi-track recording by bouncing between two cassette machines". A year later, his father, who was an electronic engineer, built him his first multi-track tape machine and a vocoder so he could begin experimenting with the possibilities of studio recording.[20]
Performance style[edit]
For live shows, Wilson plays barefoot, a habit that goes back to his early childhood. He said, "I always had a problem wearing shoes and I've always gone around with bare feet."[110] He said that another factor in performing barefoot is the advantage it gives in operating his diverse guitar pedals. He has injured his feet as a result: in one of his early shows, he ended up with a syringe inserted in his foot and had to get a tetanus vaccine. He said "I've stepped on nails, screws, drawing pins, stubbed my toe, I've come off stage with blood just coming out ... I mean, I've had it all mate, but to be honest, nothing's going to stop me."[110] He later started using a carpet, which reduced the frequency of such incidents.[6]
Influence[edit]
In addition to his legacy with Porcupine Tree, some artists have cited Wilson directly as an influence, including Steffen Kummerer of Obscura,[111] Caligula's Horse,[112] Tor Oddmund Suhrke of Leprous,[113] Jonathan Carpenter of The Contortionist,[114] Bilocate,[115][116] and Alex Vynogradoff of Kauan.[117]
In addition, other artists have been quoted expressing admiration for his solo work, including Alex Lifeson,[118] Steve Howe,[119] Robert Trujillo,[120] Adrian Belew,[121] Jordan Rudess,[122] Mike Portnoy,[123] Rob Swire,[124] Seven Lions,[125] Demians (Nicolas Chapel), Jem Godfrey,[126] Jim Matheos,[127] Dan Briggs,[128] Eraldo Bernocchi,[129] and Chantel McGregor.[130]
Personal life[edit]
Wilson prefers to keep a low profile, following the example of musicians like Radiohead, Pink Floyd and Tool,[131][132] but he shares snapshots of his life on Instagram.[133] He shared the news that he married his girlfriend Rotem in September 2019, subsequently sharing the news and a wedding picture on his Instagram page.[134] His wife has two girls from her previous marriage. His family has also set up an Instagram account for their dog Bowie Wilson, named after David Bowie.
Wilson is a vegan[135] and an atheist, and although fascinated by the subject of religion, he is a strong critic of organised religion.[107] He believes in not imposing his views, but to express them through stories and characters, saying, "I think that is all you can do as an artist. Not preach to your audience but just reflect the world with all its flaws and joys." He does not smoke and does not use recreational drugs, except for an occasional drink.[136][137] In a 2016 article he expressed his admiration for Israel and was critical of musicians such as Roger Waters who have boycotted Israel.[138]
In a June 2022 interview with Qobuz alongside Richard Barbieri, he mentioned that Zeit by the German electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream was his favorite album of all time; he called the band the "birth of ambient music."[139]
Awards and honours[edit]
In 2016, Wilson was named one of the 15 best progressive rock guitarists through the years by Guitar World magazine.[147] He was also ranked the seventh best prog guitarist of 2016 by a MusicRadar readers' poll.[148]
Wilson was awarded the UK band/artist of the year by Prog in 2018.[149]
