By A. Lee Graham
Photos by Hajo Mueller

Steven Wilson remembers toying with recording equipment in his childhood bedroom.

Under the tutelage of his father, an electronic engineer, the future progressive rock pioneer learned the ins and outs of recording, multitracking and producing, lessons that would prove invaluable for a career that continues to produce some truly magnificent music.

From Porcupine Tree and Blackfield to No Man and Bass Communion, not to mention work with Opeth mainman Mikael Akerfeldt and Marillion, Wilson has made his mark while remixing classic albums for Yes, Jethro Tull and Tears for Fears, among others.

After walking away from Porcupine Tree, a move that frustrated fans while confirming an artist unwavering in his vision, Wilson launched a solo career that’s explored considerable musical terrain.

From alternative and progressive to jazz and electronic, Wilson’s sonic palette is adventurous and insatiable. That wanderlust culminates on Home Invasion: In Concert At the Royal Albert Hall.

Recorded on the third night of a three-night stint at the legendary London venue, the collection — available Nov. 2 in DVD+2CD, Blu-ray+2CD and digital formats — provides an overview of Wilson’s current world tour supporting To The Bone, his latest studio album.

With Bollywood dancers and extensive multimedia, it offers fans a truly immersive concert experience. Having already chatted with yours truly as the current tour dawned (see interview at http://classicrockrevisited.com/show_interview.php?id=1234 , Wilson found time to update fans on the new release and second leg of the U.S. tour.

Lee: Good morning, Steven.

Steven: Is this Lee? A. Lee Graham?

Lee: Indeed it is. First of all, congrats on playing three nights at Royal Albert Hall. That must have culminated a lifelong dream for you, right?

Steven: Yes, it’s pretty much the most famous venue in Europe, I’d say. There’s all this history attached to it. It was quite a thrill, for sure.

Lee: Growing up and experimenting with recording equipment and getting immersed in music, did you ever think that one day you’d play that venue, or did that even occur to you as an actual possibility?

Steven: When I was growing up, I wanted to be a rock star, like a lot of kids do. I wanted to conquer the world, I wanted to sell millions of records and play every venue in the world. Specifically, the Royal Albert Hall would have been somewhere I dreamed of, an iconic venue. It only recently became a place where rock bands play. It’s more known as a place where classical concerts take place. It’s amazing.

Lee: You’ve recorded several live video performances, either with Porcupine Tree or your solo band. I was wondering if recording this particular performance on one of the three nights entailed any special preparation above and beyond your usual concert recordings.

Steven: I think the question has more to do with the show itself because the show took a lot of preparation — six months of preparation. Videos had to be shot, animations had to be made, and extensive rehearsals had to occur.

There was even more repertoire not on the DVD. Sorting out the quadrophonic sound: all those things had to be in place by the time we arrived at the Hall, which was three or four months into the tour because in January, we wanted to add a little more value to the show.

For example, the Bollywood dancers in “Permanenting,” which is something we did especially for that show. So I think it was making sure everything we could possibly incorporate into the show was done on the night we knew we’d be filming with Ninet [Tayeb]. We had to make sure she was there, too.

I knew it was going down for posterity. There’s always a bit of extra pressure in a situation like that where cameras are running. One of the great things about being filmed on night three of a three-night run is we spent the previous night’s getting comfortable, getting to know the room, the dynamic balance between us and the audience. We were actually pretty relaxed by the time filming started on the third night.

Lee: There seemed to be a rapport among bandmates. Over the past couple years, you develop a camaraderie with Nick [Beggs, bass] and all the other members. I think it really comes across.

Steven: We have a lot of fun. One of the things when I started down the road of having a solo band is I wanted it to be fun because in the past, I’ve been in bands when it really wasn’t so much fun. I wanted every night to be fun and for us to be able to be very relaxed. I think that comes across in the relationship I have with the audience.

When you see me talking to the audience, you see I feel like I’m talking to a friend in a bar or something. It’s a very spectacular show, but it’s not a massive ego trip, do you know what I mean? That applies to the dynamic among the members of the band.

Lee: On the run I saw — we saw you in Phoenix and San Diego — you chose a band member to sort of poke fun at. It seemed to dispel the conception that you’re a really serious guy. You seemed looser on this tour. Is that accurate?

Steven: I’ve always been like that. This reputation I have as some very serious guy is very wrong, but I understand why I have it. I think I’ve become more comfortable with being the master of ceremonies and that comes through on the To The Bone tour.

I know this is a great show. When you walk on stage and know you have a great show, you’re not irrelevant; you’re part of that machine that makes a great show. That keeps me confident and gives me the ability to be relaxed. I know the show is amazing and once you know that, you can kind of relax. I’ve got a great band, great venue, and great visuals. It’s a great package.

Part of that confidence has made me a bit more relaxed on stage. Those guys make fun of me, too. It gives you an idea of how relaxed we feel on stage with the show we’re touring now.

Lee: When choosing material for the show, did you go for an expansive career overview or did you emphasize your most recent album?

Steven: It’s really easier than you think because, as you say, I have a broad catalog. Certain songs I’m much more proud of than others, so I gravitate toward those, and second, it’s not every song I think would suit the current band or the style of music or the approach I’m taking on the new record. The show was going to be centered around To The Bone. That formed the basis of the show. We play most songs on the Blu-ray and DVD, so almost every song on To The Bone is in the show.

One of the things is that I don’t have what you would call hits. I don’t have a “Purple Rain.” I don’t have a song someone comes along expecting to hear and if they don’t, they’ll go away disappointed. I’m happy about that because it’s liberating, not only musically, but thematically.

I pick songs I like and I think the band can do something with. It is a bit of a career overview, as you said. I even play some Blackfield songs [Wilson’s band with musician Aviv Geffen]. The things they all have in common is that they are all my songs, so it’s really just a question of choosing the ones I like the most.

Lee: It’s also important to choose songs that fit the setlist. I was disappointed that “The Raven That Refused to Sing” wasn’t in the set earlier this year, but then I thought it really wouldn’t have fit with the rest of that particular set.

Steven: The concert film was filmed before we got to the states. By the time we got to the states, we replaced that song with “Song of Unborn,” an equally epic song. There are times when you need to give a certain song a rest because you’ve played it so many times, it almost becomes, I wouldn’t say mechanical, but you aren’t necessarily giving it 100 percent every night. I’ve been playing “Raven” every single night since 2013. When performing that song, I want to be able to feel it. That’s important.

Lee: I also want to congratulate you for the double win at Prog magazine’s latest Progressive Music Awards (Album of the Year-UK/Band Artist of the Year). You seem to have grown into quite an elder stateman of prog at this point. I realize you’ve wrestled with the “p-word” over your career. At this point, do you consider yourself a progressive music artist?

Steven: Honestly, I have resisted, as you pointed out, any generic classification. It only takes a single listen to To The Bone to see that there are pop influences, electronic influences, singer-songwriter ballads, metal riffs, moments in jazz, ambient, all sorts of things. One of the issues I have with being classified with anything is I think great artists — and I aspire to be one, not necessarily that I am — create their own musical vocabulary. They transcend that idea of genre. People like Frank Zappa, Kate Bush, Prince.

These are artists that came from different backgrounds and ultimately transcend genre. David Bowie played everything: soul, glam, etc. I resist categorization because I want the freedom to confront any expectation of my audience. If they want a prog rock artist, I will disappoint them. On To The Bone, there’s an element of that, but previous efforts were what you might call typical prog, but some fans were disappointed (with To The Bone) because that’s what they wanted from me.

Even when I got an award last week, in the little speech I gave, I said if you say you play prog rock, you probaby don’t. But if you play your own music and create your own musical genre, you probably are, or something like that. If you just do your own thing, you possibly are. Does that make sense?

Lee: Absolutely. Doing Steven Wilson’s own thing seems to have worked out. Speaking of which, what can fans expect from your next album? I hear you’re considering a more electronic direction.

Steven: I haven’t touched the guitar very much yet. When I am making a new album, the first thing I do is go into what I rather pretentiously call my research and development stage. What I mean by that is I’m looking to make a record different from my other records, something different in my musical approach that will make it have a different or unique sound compared to the rest of my catalog. People might say, he’s gonna do a Radiohead album or something like that. It’s not as simple as that. There are going to be a lot more electronic elements, but it’s still going to be very much a rock album, hopefully one that’s distinctly different from anything else in my catalog. That’s all I can say right now.

Lee: When you return for the second leg in the U.S., will you change up the set from the first leg? What can stateside fans expect?

Steven: You have to bear in mind lots of shows I’m doing on this second leg are in cities I didn’t go to on the first leg. For example, we’re going to Texas and Florida, so actually those will be the first To The Bone shows there. A lot of people in those states have yet to see the show in the flesh, as it were. There’s not going to be a massive reinvention of the show.

When I come to cities, and there are few cities I haven’t been, we’ll look to change it up. Predominantly, this is still the To The Bone show. There’s an enormous amount of preparation and preproduction, so I’m not about to drop it.

Lee: I saw two shows on the first leg, and I actually live in Texas and some friends and I are hitting the road to catch all three of your Texas shows in December.

Steven: Wow. Amazing. We’ll definitely have to change it up a bit for you then, Lee.

Lee: (laughs) Just for me, of course. On a serious note, that about wraps it up, unless you wanted to tell your fans anything.

Steven: I look forward to seeing everyone and hope everyone will see the concert film because I think it’s a nice piece of work and I’m very proud of it.

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