Here Comes The Flood: Steven Wilson: the Innerviews interview

photo: Hajo Mueller

Innerviews has an in-depth interview with Steven Wilson. About going more pop on his new album To The Bone:

There were two fundamental things. The first is the need for me to do something new. The least appealing thing to me is the idea of repeating myself. That’s a different stance to take than most artists who tend to make something that works for their audience. They tend to want to repeat the formula and give the fans what they want. It has always been my contention that the really great artists like Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, and Kate Bush confronted audience expectations. They all had a need to evolve, change and keep things interesting for themselves. There was never a possibility that I would continue simply making more of the same music.

The second reason, which is more practical, is that I was listening to a lot of those kinds of records as I remixed them. I was working on Tears For Fears’ back catalog. When you’re completely immersed in someone else’s music for days or weeks on end, deconstructing and reconstructing it, you’re inevitably going to find that it rubs off on you. I really did fall in love with that era of music again with great records released by Talk Talk, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. In particular, Kate Bush has been a strong influence throughout my career. Artists like David Bowie and Prince passing away also affected me. I revisited their extraordinary back catalogs. They were never interested in repeating themselves or catering to their audiences, either.