My Discovery of Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree

I have been meaning to write about my musical idol for some time and @jalayn’s recent excellent article pulled the trigger for me.

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Both the band and solo artist have been creating music for so long that when I did discover them, I was a more than a little aggrieved. It had come too late for me; the band had split 6 years prior which meant that I could never see them live.

The year was 2015, and I was in a local game store in Blackburn, Lancashire which sells comic books and Magic the Gathering cards amongst other non-standard items of merchandise.

The Bat Cave is an independent store, one of those rare diminishing species we have in the plethora of clone stores that populate every English town and city. Finding it is a challenge, but helped by this sign.

Heading up the alley, one could feasibly get mugged if venturing under the wrong conditions and arriving at ones destination the prospective visitor is not exactly welcomed by a dazzling store entrance. Does it look a little like a scene from Gotham City?

The owner, an Asian guy is a complete non-conformist and tends to greet his customers with Mikael Åkerfeldt’s growling vocals resounding from the Hi-Fi entertainment system that plays almost constantly.

Opeth - Godhead's Lament – Typical music from ‘The Bat Cave’ in Blackburn, Lancashire

Yes walking into the Bat Cave is not for the likes of most old ladies, Frank Sinatra or Jim Reeves fans, but it's still the finest store in the entire town.

One day Nas, the owner was playing some of his typical music and I picked up on a riff. I have no idea to this day what the track was but casually mentioned -

‘Who is that playing?’, Of course it was Opeth, who else?

Noting my interest, Nas sent me a playlist of some of the bands more serene tracks. This band is not your typical death-metal band. They are very technical and have a lot of different sounds, and Mr Åkerfeldt has quite a decent ‘regular’ voice when he decides to use it.

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I noticed that a lot of the songs on the playlist came from their album, ‘Damnation’. No songs contained growling vocals and they are quite progressive in nature.

I picked up on the track ‘Windowpane’ right away. What a great song!

Months went by and the album ‘Damnation’ got into my head, but I didn’t check out the band any further as it was all ‘that noisy stuff’.

Then something happened that I cant explain.

I noticed the producer of the ‘Damnation’ album was a guy named Steven Wilson. To be honest what do I care who produces the music. It’s all about the artist right? I have never taken any notice of producers before.

Was it some kind of fate that was leading me to discover who I deem to be the most talented ‘still writing and performing’ artist ever?

I found myself on Wikipedia next and looking at the page for Porcupine Tree.

Why didn’t I check out Steven Wilsons’ solo discography first? Again, I have no idea.

The Wikipedia page is extensive. These guys have been around and created a lot of music. There are some clips halfway down the page, and the first one is "The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1". I listened to this and to my amazement I heard something I loved on my first listen.

Is this Pink Floyd back from the dead?

I was to discover later that Steven Wilson (the band’s vocalist and songwriter) is a huge Pink Floyd fan, such is the similarities to ‘Wish you were here’ in terms of the number of tracks on the album and in particular the Part One / Part Two of ‘The Sky Moves Sideways’ vs ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond’.

The Sky Moves Sideways became a success among progressive rock fans and Porcupine Tree were hailed as the Pink Floyd of the 1990s. Wilson later lamented this, stating, "I can't help that. It's true that during the period of The Sky Moves Sideways, I had done a little too much of it in the sense of satisfying, in a way, the fans of Pink Floyd who were listening to us because that group doesn't make albums any more. Moreover, I regret it."

I did listen to the full album of ‘The Sky Moves Sideways’ and initially was really only taken with the title track. Was this one of those bands where there was just a single song that I liked again?

Another two months or so went by and then again as if something was pulling me toward some more listening, I discovered this song and was instantly hooked. The resemblance with Pink Floyd again caught my ear and that soaring guitar was incredible. This just doesn’t happen to me!

That was it; I was hooked this time. I started hunting down songs using YouTube and next on the list was this 12 minute long absolute masterpiece (below). It still gives me goose bumps listening to the extended introduction.

I had simply never heard a band like this before. Progressive melodic music and then proper METAL, followed with more of those melodies. Metal music is usually just that, all metal and little else. This was very different and fresh.

Listen to this one and tell me. After 3 minutes of listening would you be expecting METAL riffs later on during the song?

During the following months I went through the entire discography of the band. I was to learn that Steven Wilson is extremely well respected in the progressive community and has worked with respected artists such as Robert Fripp, Alan Parsons and Adrian Belew.

I have since seen Steven Wilson live twice and both have been the finest concerts I have attended. If I was to have a wish it would simply be to meet this guy, shake his hand and thank him for all the great music over the years.

Hopefully he wont remember me from this concert and chin me instead for distracting him while performing!