Prog Rock titan, Steven Wilson says he writes melancholy music because people find sad music uplifting, underlining the shared human experience

He has had an incredible three decades crafting one of the world’s favourite progressive rock songs, but UK musician Steven Wilson says his autobiography would be pretty boring. Talking over the phone from Atlanta he says, “People have asked me about doing an autobiography, but I don’t think my life is that interesting. My autobiography would be ‘Loves music, loves art, works hard, writes music, tours the world, makes records’.”

At the time, Wilson was completing his North America tour, accompanied by fellow prog artists such as Bruce Soord (The Pineapple Thief) and John Wesley (a touring artist with Wilson’s band, progressive rock veterans Porcupine Tree) – a first on the tour to have support artists. Wilson says, “I think if it had been earlier during the album cycle, I wouldn’t have done this. But right now, at the end, I’m a little more relaxed about the format of the show.”

Wilson is coming to India after the shows in North America, the last set of gigs promoting his latest album Hand. Cannot. Erase. He performs at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender festival in Pune on December 3, before performing at the Indiranagar Club on December 4

In a chat with Metroplus, Wilson talks about why he writes melancholy music, his set in Bengaluru and more. Excerpts:

You’ve got John Wesley on this run of North America shows – do you guys ever talk about Porcupine Tree?

We go a long way back. I’ve known him for a while, I’ve worked on his solo records, he helped out recording guitars for my first solo record as well. He also played with me on my first solo tour of the US. He kind of came in at the last minute and played guitar on my first solo tour in America, back in 2011.

You’ve said before if Porcupine Tree comes back, it’ll be your side project. Do you all stay in touch?

I’m only in touch with the other members in terms of the business side. There are still royalties coming in, but there’s no interest from my side. I’d rather move forwards, not backwards, quite honestly.

Is this upcoming trip to India a little more relaxed since it’s the last set of shows for the year?

Yeah, I think so, I think there’ll be a feeling of elation and sadness as well, because we know we’re not going to play some shows for a while. This is the last time we’ll be playing some of this music.

The week after I get back, I start recording the new solo record. It is kind of the end of an era for me and the band. It is a good thing, because it has been such a successful album cycle and a lot of amazing experiences along the way. In a way, it is nice to finish on such a high and in a place like India.

Both Hand. Cannot. Erase. and The Raven That Refused To Sing were certified Gold in Europe. There was, however, some initial discontent by drummer Marco Minnemann and guitarist Guthrie Govan about not being notified or given gold discs that were given out to the band?

I didn’t know about that. I haven’t spoken to Marco in over a year now. The gold discs were awarded by the record company to the artists. I mean I don’t award the gold discs. They gave them to other members of the band, I don’t know which but it’s first I’ve heard of any issues, to be honest.

For me, the gold disc is nice, but it is not that important to me (laughs). The most important thing is the work and the idea that it is reaching people is nice. Certainly this album seems to have reached more people than any of my previous records. It is great to be sitting here, 20 years into my career and saying, I’ve just had my most successful record.

What leads you to write predominantly melancholy music?

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been interested in the poetry of melancholy, if you like. If you look around the world today, particularly, 2016, it is not hard to find a lot of things that are sad and not good. I think my way of dealing with those things is to write about them and give them to the audience.

That sounds like a really mean thing to do -- offload your negative energy on to people, but it doesn’t work like that. The way it works is that when people hear sad music, I think they find it uplifting. It makes everyone understand that we are together, we have this shared human experience. We understand what it feels like to have loss, regret, nostalgia, anger at the world, we know what it’s like to go through a breakup. All of those things, I think, are universal.

In a lot of interviews you’ve spoken about the disconnect human lives have because of technology. Have you watched the show Black Mirror?

I am a fan of (creator) Charlie Brooker. It is an interesting show. I think there are a lot more people who feel we have arrived in the dystopian world that for many years, science fiction writers were writing about.

What is interesting about Charlie Brooker and the way he approaches Black Mirror is that he understands that. We are living in dystopia, in a world that is dominated by technology and disconnect, alienation, loneliness and dysfunction. The events in America prove that we live in a world more surreal, bizarre and dystopian than one any science fiction writer could have dreamt up. Black Mirror I feel connects to what I’ve been doing with my music.