Words matter. These are the best Steven Wilson Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I’ve never been one of those people who say, ‘Oh, well, if you play this kind of music, you can only like these kinds of bands.’
So many things influence me in one way or another. Some might be surprising, but that’s OK.
I never wanted us to be an exercise in nostalgia, living in the shadow of other artists.
The definition of an artist, for me, is someone who is quite selfish about their creativity.
I think having artwork, lyrics, credits and such like are things that people really value. It’s hard work to come up with something like that, but I think it’s worth it.
It’s possible that Israel will be my second home, but it won’t be my only home.
People have asked me about doing an autobiography, but I don’t think my life is that interesting.
When I was younger, I worked for several years composing music for commercials, but I was very happy to give that up. I didn’t really like it, it was a way of financing my bands.
I am a great believer that you should record more than you need and then use the absolute best.
We live in a world dominated by fear and paranoia.
I think there’s something very peculiar about living in the city and not part of the major metropolis; that actually makes it remarkably easy to disappear.
It’s nice to be in the position where you’re the guy with the vision, but you’re able to work with people who can bring your vision to life – and then some.
My autobiography would be ‘Loves music, loves art, works hard, writes music, tours the world, makes records.’
I’ve seen a fair amount of concert DVDs – some of them are great, some of them are not. If there are problems with them, it’s usually because of budget limitations and camerawork.
You cannot please everyone, and I think that what’s important, ultimately, is to make sure you please yourself. If you start trying to please other people, you’ll just go around in circles.
It’s a cliche that music rises above it all, and it’s a cliche for a reason – it’s very often true.
Israel is a wonderful country, especially Tel Aviv.
When I was a very young kid, the first music that really turned me on was a new wave of British heavy metal – big, dumb rock music. There was a band called Diamond Head – they were basically the band that inspired Metallica. But I also liked bands like Saxon and Iron Maiden.
If I want to do an orchestral record, if I want to do an acoustic record, if I want to do a death-metal record, if I want to do a jazz record – I can move in whichever direction I want, and no one is going to get upset about that. Except maybe my manager and my record company.
Human beings find change very difficult. They find change is something that can be quite an awkward thing to adjust to. It applies to music. It applies to life. It applies to everything.
We are living in dystopia, in a world that is dominated by technology and disconnect, alienation, loneliness, and dysfunction.
Is it sad that Storm Corrosion needs to be explained to people before they can accept it? I don’t think it’s sad; I think it’s inevitable. I think it’s just human nature.
I’m not one of those guys who can just take a guitar into a room and come out with a song. I need all my instruments dotted around.
My musical tastes are very diverse. I just never felt like listening to certain kinds of bands. There’s too much great stuff out there.
I think my fans are much more open-minded than some other bands’ fan bases are.
It’s too easy now to find music, and it’s therefore too easy to dismiss music, particularly music that doesn’t hit you the first time you hear it.
I grew up with vinyl records and remember the pleasure and the kind of buzz that I got from buying a beautiful vinyl record with the sleeve and the lyrics – all that kind of tactile experience that you could get from an old vinyl record.
When I did ‘Hand Cannot Erase,’ I didn’t have a specific singer in mind.
I think I’ve become a better storyteller over the years.
We live in the physical world, the age of the Internet, and it’s very easy to disappear from view and isolate ourselves from the rest of world and become invisible.
When you’re in a band, you’re all in it together. You’re always available. You’re always available for the albums; you’re always available for the tours. There’s no question of that.
In the mid- to late ’70s, there was no one better than ABBA at writing and producing great pop.
The truth is I got rid of 100% of my vinyl in the ’90s. All the vinyl I have is re-bought.
That’s what made me fall in love with music in the first place was the idea of being able to take listeners on a journey across forty or sixty minutes.
I’ve put out records over the years, whether it’s with Blackfield or No-Man or Bass Communion or Porcupine Tree, that are pop records, ambient records, metal records, singer-songwriter records.
When I was growing up, I was always looking for the most willfully uncommercial music: Whether it was Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa or King Crimson, that’s what attracted me.
Owning vinyl is like having a beautiful painting hanging in your living room. It’s something you can hold, pore over the lyrics, and immerse yourself in the art work.
I never made a distinction, really, between music and sound. Let me explain what I mean by that. I grew up near to a train station, and the sound of the trains became a very important part of my world. It was a very musical sound to me.
I think there is something about the Internet which gives people almost an opportunity to role play and to create a facade, an image. I see that as quite a dangerous development because I think what we call social networking, Twitter, Facebook, etc., is actually quite antisocial.
My first love is making records, and whatever’s necessary in order for me to achieve that, I’ll learn how to do it.
One of the beauties about going solo was being able to start from scratch and say, ‘What do I really want? What kind of band do I really want? What kind of live show do I really want to stage?’ Without any of the baggage of being something with history.
My favourite chord? Bb6th with added 9th.
You will hear ambient in our music. You will hear trip-hop.
The city can be the loneliest place of all.
The one thing I do believe is, if you make the songs about the human aspects of things, you’ve got a much better chance of having the music transcend the times. If you make them very political and very topical, it’s going to date very quickly.
