Interview by Neil Crossley
Steven Wilson is launching The Overview Tour (May 1) with a show in Stockholm, followed by a run of European gigs over several weeks.
The UK leg includes multiple dates at the London Palladium for what is described as an “audio-visual experience” based around The Overview (Fiction) album, which peaked at No.3 and has sales to date 20,024 (Official Charts Company).
The space-themed album features just two long pieces of music, so it promises to be an epic performance. It also marks a busy year of performing for Wilson, whose first tour since 2019 also includes a run of dates in the US, South America and India later this year. He will also be performing music from 2023’s The Harmony Codex for the first time.
Here, Steven Wilson discusses the challenges of performing his ambitious albums, as well as his Dolby Atmos mixing projects and the impact of AI on recording…
On May 1, you embark on a tour of the UK, Europe, the US, South America, India and Australia. Are you looking forward to getting out there and playing The Overview album live?
“I'm very excited to get out there again and to play this. One of the things I'm very committed to is the idea that you don't limit yourself in terms of, ‘Oh, we'll, we'll never be able to do that live, so I won't do it in the studio.’ But I love that challenge. And I think one of the other things to say is you don't have to produce something exactly. You can interpret. So it's a combination of interpretation and certain things will be reproduced from backing tracks, just the things I feel are important to the integrity of the piece of music that would be impossible to play live.
“Of course I'm in the fortunate position of having an incredible band. [Craig Blundell (drums), Adam Holzman (keyboards), and Randy McStine (guitar), Nick Beggs (bass)], I work with the best. Everyone in my band is better than me. You know, Frank Zappa always said, ‘always be the worst musician in your own band’. And I'm very much of that opinion. I surround myself with people that can do anything I throw at them.”
Are you striving to emulate the music exactly every night or is there room for spontaneity and flexibility within the framework of the pieces?
“A couple of the guys in my band actually come from a jazz background. Adam Holzman played with Miles [Davis] for many years, so these guys know how to improvise and of course I want to take advantage of that. So there is a looseness in some of the music. There are sections where they are able to recreate or reinterpret on the spot every night. And I think that's great for the audience too because a lot of my fans come to multiple shows. So there is a sense of improvisation and variation from night to night.”
I surround myself with people that can do anything I throw at them
Steven Wilson
You are playing four shows in India on the tour. What is the demographic of your fanbase in India?
“Well, that's the funny thing. My fanbase in India is young kids. And I think the same is true largely of Latin America and South America. It's almost like they are where America in the UK were in the 70s and 80s in the sense that rock music is the music of the young people. Right now, you can't really say that about the UK and America in 2025, [where] rock music appeals generally to an older generation. Nothing could be further from the truth when you go to places like India, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. There is a new generation of people that are really excited about the possibilities of rock music.”
The reviews for The Overview have been overwhelmingly positive. You must be elated by the critical response?
“I haven't read a single review but I'm aware that the reviews have been good, because people tell me. One of the things I've noticed with this record is that the timing of it was good. It's quite an uncompromising piece of conceptual rock music and the British music press particularly have been very ambivalent – that’s putting it kindly – about conceptual rock or progressive rock for many years.
“But one of the good things about the streaming era is that a lot of those prejudices have finally been laid to rest. So even the people who might not necessarily like that form of conceptual rock are admiring the audacity of doing something quite bold and [of] unashamedly reaching for the stars, quite literally in the case of this album.”
The Overview peaked at No.3 in the Official UK Albums Chart in mid-March with 17,367 physical sales. How did it feel to have your conceptual rock album charting so high?
“I'm very happy, you know, particularly in an era when it's increasingly hard to get physical products sold. I think my audience, my demographic, is still a lot more interested in physical product, which is great for me. Conversely, I do very little on streaming but physical product does really well for me.”
The Overview consists of two huge tracks but you’ll only receive the same royalty rate as much shorter tracks [a version with the two song suites split into 10 tracks is also available]. Does this album work with the current streaming model?
“You know what, I thought about all that stuff, but at the end of the day, I had to sort of sit back and say, ‘well I shouldn't care about that stuff’... I mean, I wanted to do something bold. I wanted it to be two continuous pieces of music. I wanted people to go on that journey with me. So to start giving consideration to that particular issue, I think would have been a real mistake here. So I'm aware of it… It is what it is.”
You have been with Universal Music Group’s Caroline International, Virgin Music and Fiction Records since 2017. Are there specific people there that really understand what you are trying to achieve?
“Yeah, I think that's the thing for me. I feel like working with Jim Chancellor at Fiction and Michael Roe at Virgin, these guys have a kind of independent sort of approach in a way. They have the vibe of being an independent record label but they have the power and the clout of this big multinational company behind them too. So you kind of got the best of both words and it's very important to me to have a strong creative relationship with my record label.
“I mean, first and foremost, they're music fans. And one of the things I found really pleasantly surprising was when I presented this record to Michael and Jim. I was kind of scared because I'm like, ‘Okay, guys, come over to my place to hear the new record’. And I had to say before they listened to it, ‘By the way, it's a two-track conceptual rock album’, you know, and far from being horrified by that, they were like. ‘F****** brilliant’, you know? So to have that kind of enthusiasm and support for someone that's kind of essentially, on the surface, doing willfully uncommercial things, is amazing.”
In addition to your solo work, you are one of the world’s most in-demand remixers of spatial audio, creating new stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos surround mixes of classic albums by an array of artists. Is this work that is particularly rewarding?
“It's been very exciting for me to find myself, for the very first and only time in my career, actually at the forefront of something rather than being 30 years behind everyone. Tomorrow [April 17 – the interview took place earlier this month], the premiere of the Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is happening at Imax in Waterloo, so my Atmos mix of that is being premiered with the film. And with a Q&A with myself and Nick from the band. So that’s very exciting for me because, growing up, Floyd was basically my Beatles. They are the foundation of my musical DNA.
Steven Wilson, Nick Mason and journalist Michael Hann at the Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII premiere (credit: Dave Benett)
“There’s a whole bunch of things coming up, some of which haven’t been announced officially yet. I did the New Order catalogue last year. That's already on streaming and coming out on physical Blu-Ray soon. My remix of Welcome to The Pleasure Dome by Frankie [Goes To Hollywood] is supposed to be coming out… The Tears For Fears catalogue, that’s been a pleasure to work on.”
Do you sense that there is a growing demand for the spatial audio surround experience?
“One of the reasons why I think Atmos is prevailing and seems to be actually building is because you can listen to an Atmos mix on a pair of headphones, right from Apple Music or from Tidal or from Amazon. I think that's a game changer because you're not expecting people to reorganise their living room or spend any money on extra speakers.
“No, it’s not the same as hearing an Atmos mix through a [discreet sound system]. But there is a very fanatical niche for that too. It’s given me a whole new career, remixing classic albums and trying to be faithful to the original mix but surrounding the listener in a more three dimensional way.”
Any plans for Porcupine Tree in the near future?
“We don't have any plans, per se, but I think a couple of years ago we kind of established that we are still around. If the mood takes us, we're still interested in making records and doing shows and I'm pretty sure we'll do something again at some point.”
AI is viewed as a huge existential threat for music creators in terms of copyright infringement. What are your feelings on that technology?
“It's clearly not going away, and so to me it's a question of how does someone like me integrate that into my creative process? I did a Christmas single last year where I collaborated with an AI version of myself on the lyrics and that was really interesting. I can't say that what it came up with was amazing, but it was okay. In the same way that reaching for a Roget’s Thesaurus when you can’t think of another way to say something, it might become an interesting tool in that sense. But the idea that entire pieces of music will be generated by AI is horrific to me.
“We're already living in a world where the music industry is drowning in a proliferation of content, 99% of which is incredibly generic and interchangeable. And I think AI's only going to feed more into that. I think one of the reasons the [Overview] album has been so well received is because it sounds a million miles away from anything that AI could come up with.”
PHOTO: Kevin Westenberg
