Ready To Take America
But Is America Ready for Porcupine Tree?

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>> Chances are, if you're not familiar with Porcupine Tree, you live in America.  That's because, with over ten full-length releases, a number of international number one hits and plenty of success, most of the other rock music fans on the globe are familiar with them.  But America is traditionally the toughest place to 'break.'

Until now, making inroads in the U.S. wasn't high on the list for Steven Wilson, the creative genius behind Porcupine Tree.  But with the release of In Abstentia, which many cite as the most cohesive PT album to date, Wilson knew that if there was going to be an opportunity, now was the time.

For starters, check out the PT player link above and get familiar with the music.  Then check out our interview with Steven Wilson, below.  Once that's all done, enter to win the complete PT catalogue and an autographed photo!

VOX: What is a Porcupine Tree?
Steven Wilson: Whatever you want it to be.  It's open for interpretation.  I can tell you it is nothing rude.  It's sort of a philosophical question: what is it?   It makes you think.
VOX: I sort of thought it was a cactus or something like that…
SW: It could well be if that's what you think it is.  It's an attempt to bring some of the early influences that I love…back from, say, '67-'77, the heyday of the album, the album as an art form, and bring it to the 21st century.  Back then the band names were as interesting as the music.

VOX: I understand you started this all as a joke?
SW: Kind of…but I think 'joke' is the wrong word…it started as a spoof band, really, for a couple of reasons.  One, we started it in the spirit of fun.  It was 'lets start out to find what turn us on' in a way.  In an ambitious way, I think. Sort of 'let's make up this thing and see how far we can take it.'  Second, there was a pragmatic reason, in that we wanted something that people could take pleasure from.   It was just us in a bedroom, overdubbing and working on these ideas.  From there, we created these stories, an imaginary back catalogue, like Spinal Tap, and so on.

VOX: You've been at it, as Porcupine Tree, for over ten years, and went through a number of changes.  Where does the band go from here?
SW: Hmm.  I suppose I have, for 7 or 8 years as a band, and solo for some time longer…it's been a long road for me, but it's all happened in an organic way, really.  There hasn't been a master plan or marketing scheme.  Musically, there hasn't been a goal - I haven't had the stress of sales worries or that sort of thing.  Porcupine Tree has been able to exist and grow in a vacuum.  I don't consider what the audience has been listening to or what the record companies or you [the media] are expecting.   Musically, I have no idea of what we're going to do next, and I'm not all that concerned with touring, releasing singles or doing videos to meet some sort of timetable to support the record. 

Lately, I've been doing a lot of press, which I've actually enjoyed.   America is quite new territory for us, and it's good we're doing some American press.  We’ve got some great fans in Italy, Poland…Holland…and the UK, to a lesser extent.  Elements of the world are already familiar with us, but America, now there's a bit of interest and we're seen as sort of a new band, which is interesting.   It's a little strange, to be thought of as a new band again.

VOX: How did you get involved in the Opeth record, and is producing something you want to do regularly?
SW: It's not something I want to do a lot of.  Not because I didn't enjoy it, but just because I see myself principally as a songwriter and not as a producer.  I do love to make records, though.

Metal music isn't known for the depth of production.  Metal is basically straightforward, and rightly so, but Opeth, and their fans, are a bit different, I think, and I thought this was an opportunity to build a sort of bridge.  There's a depth to Opeth's work that is fantastic, and I loved working with them.  I saw this as a chance to expose Opeth fans to Porcupine Tree and a chance for some Porcupine Tree to explore metal.  I felt Opeth's music was great opportunity for that because this is such an intense album and the dynamics are so amazing.  It's not something I set out to do, to make that connection with Porcupine Tree, but it worked out that way.

VOX: Is No-Man still a serious project for you?
SW: Yes, it is.  We've just finished a new record, Together We're Strangers.   We've gotten more and more ambitious, and the songs have a very epic feel to them.   By some accounts they're extremely pretentious.

VOX: Where does the title for In Absentia come from?
SW: It comes from…it's related to some of lyrics.  It's about people on the fringes, on the edges of humanity and society.  I have an interest in serial killers, child molesters and wife beaters…not in what they did but in the psychology of why, what caused them to become unhinged and twisted?  Why are they unable to empathize?   It's [In Absentia] sort of a metaphor - there's something missing, a black hole, a cancer in their soul.  It's an absence in the soul.

VOX: Can you tell me about "Lips of Ashes"?
SW:  I'm gonna dodge this question…I could answer this for you, but I've got a problem with explaining what songs are about.  In the past, when I've answered this sort of question, sometimes it has spoiled it for someone who had come up with an idea of their own about what the song meant to them.  They've drawn their own conclusions, and I wouldn't want to ruin that.

To me, one of the beauties of a song is the ambiguous nature of it - it demands that the listener make some mental decisions of their own about what it means to them.  It's the process of experiencing the art.  Music is a filter in that way - sometimes the interpretations is as important as the music itself.

VOX: Any tour plans coming up?
SW: We did some dates in October and November…the record hadn't come out yet in Europe at that time.  We'll be touring Europe again at the end of April, then back to America in May, and maybe hop on the back of another band and tour with them.  We'll see what happens. >>