Quotes from Steven Wilson

I like artists that tend to be more interested in reinventing themselves, in experimenting.

I grew up listening to a lot of very smart pop records by artists like Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Peter Gabriel, Prince, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, The The.

There was a time when pop music and rock music were really reaching for the stars and were not ashamed to be experimental. You think of a song like 'Shout' by Tears for Fears. That's a massive global No. 1 hit, and yet the subject matter is very dark.

I left school, and I went to work in a computer company. I was in my late teens.

My fifth record is, in many ways, inspired by the hugely ambitious progressive pop records that I loved in my youth.

I loved disco music, and I still count Donna Summer as one of my favorites of all time.

My favourite chord? Bb6th with added 9th.

When I was younger, I worked for several years composing music for commercials, but I was very happy to give that up. I didn't really like it, it was a way of financing my bands.

My first love is making records, and whatever's necessary in order for me to achieve that, I'll learn how to do it.

I get really frustrated - actually, it almost makes me angry - when I see, sometimes, magazines will publish a musician's playlist. They'll go and they'll ask, I don't know, somebody from Aerosmith or whoever, Coldplay, to list their five favourite albums. And it's always the same stuff!

One thing I have found over years is that if you change direction, the initial reaction tends to be very polarized, but as the music gradually filters through and fans start engaging with it on its own terms rather than comparing it to what went before, the appreciation and acceptance of it increases.

Pink Floyd, the most successful progressive rock band of all time, have stood the test of time because the emphasis was always on melody and atmosphere.

If you live in the city, you only have to look out your window to see enough that would make you feel that you don't want to step outside your front door ever again.

I never claimed to be a generic artist, period. I never wanted to be a generic artist.

You've got a lot pulling at your time already - which may be the best reason to start cultivating your green thumb.

I am a great believer that you should record more than you need and then use the absolute best.

I feel I'm living in parentheses

It's something I've recognized in the careers of those people who have been inspiring to me over the years - Neil Young, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, and Prince. These are all people who constantly redefined themselves, and had to deal with the difficulty of trying to take their audience with them when they did that.

Every time I make a new record, some of my existing fans are going to like it, and some are not. It's inevitable, and it's part of the deal. It's part of the job description.

We are living in dystopia, in a world that is dominated by technology and disconnect, alienation, loneliness, and dysfunction.

What I do is I basically make records to please myself first and foremost, and so one of the most important things for me as a musician and a writer and a producer is to feel like there's always a sense of evolution and reinvention with each record.

Human beings find change very difficult. They find change is something that can be quite an awkward thing to adjust to. It applies to music. It applies to life. It applies to everything.

I think having artwork, lyrics, credits and such like are things that people really value. It's hard work to come up with something like that, but I think it's worth it.

I think there's something very peculiar about living in the city and not part of the major metropolis; that actually makes it remarkably easy to disappear.