Quotes by Steven Wilson - Page 2

I always wanted to create my own musical world. That takes time and must be earned, and it does mean sometimes confronting the expectations of the audience.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Audience
Confronting
Musical
My Own
Time Always World
Earned
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Ultimately, I'd like to create a body of work where every album has its own personality and a reason to exist within the catalog, not just 'more of the same.'
Steven Wilson / Musician
Album
Catalog
Exist
Ultimately
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Some musicians feel they have to provide what their audiences expect. They lose the distinction between an artist and an entertainer. I am not an entertainer.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Artist
Distinction
Audiences
Expect
Lose
Musicians
Provide
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We live in the physical world, the age of the Internet, and it's very easy to disappear from view and isolate ourselves from the rest of world and become invisible.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Disappear
Invisible
Isolate
Physical World
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Window
Front Door
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Owning vinyl is like having a beautiful painting hanging in your living room. It's something you can hold, pore over the lyrics, and immerse yourself in the art work.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Art
Work
Living Room
Painting
Vinyl
Yourself
Art Work Beautiful
Living
Art Work
Work Art Beautiful
Hold
Hanging
Having
Over
Immerse
Lyrics
Room
Owning
Something
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Artwork
Hard Work
Worth It
Work Hard Work Value
Work Value People
Credits
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Certainly for some time, people used to think of my solo career as somehow a side project to Porcupine Tree. No. If anything, the opposite would now have to be the case.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Solo
Tree
Opposite
Time People Anything
Side
Career
Case
Certainly
Project
Solo Career
Time People
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Is it sad that Storm Corrosion needs to be explained to people before they can accept it? I don't think it's sad; I think it's inevitable. I think it's just human nature.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Human Nature
Inevitable
Storm
Explained
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Description
Fans
Inevitable
Deal
Every Time
Existing
Time Fans New
Record
Job Description
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When I was growing up, I was always looking for the most willfully uncommercial music: Whether it was Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa or King Crimson, that's what attracted me.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Crimson
Frank
Growing Up
Zappa
Looking
Music King Me
Attracted
Captain
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The real artists are ultimately people who don't consider their audience and are almost incapable of considering their audience. They can do what they do and fire themselves up.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Fire
Incapable
Artists
Consider
Ultimately
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Composing
Financing
Younger
Commercials
Several
Copy Quote
I've seen a fair amount of concert DVDs - some of them are great, some of them are not. If there are problems with them, it's usually because of budget limitations and camerawork.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Budget
Concert
Fair Amount
Limitations
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When you're in a band, you're all in it together. You're always available. You're always available for the albums; you're always available for the tours. There's no question of that.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Albums
Available
Band
Tours
No Question
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Awkward
Adjust
Life Change Music
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I think that's part of the battle of defining yourself as an artist. You're constantly fighting the pressure from outside to be pigeonholed and deliver more of what people already liked.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Battle
Defining
Fighting
Pressure
Liked
Pigeonholed
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You cannot please everyone, and I think that what's important, ultimately, is to make sure you please yourself. If you start trying to please other people, you'll just go around in circles.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Circles
Please
Sure
Everyone
Around
Yourself Start People
Please Everyone
Start
Ultimately
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I've been making Bass Communion music longer than any kind of other music. I don't know if you picked up a copy of a vinyl release I put out a couple of years ago of something called Altamont.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Bass
Couple
Years
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I've put out records over the years, whether it's with Blackfield or No-Man or Bass Communion or Porcupine Tree, that are pop records, ambient records, metal records, singer-songwriter records.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Ambient
Communion
Tree
Metal
Singer Songwriter
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'Routine' was written on piano, and you can hear that. But then you listen to 'Happy Returns,' and you can tell it's definitely been written on guitar, with that singer-songwriter-y strumming quality.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Routine
Returns
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I myself lived in London for 20 years, and I never knew my next-door neighbors. I never knew what they did. I never knew their names. They didn't know what I did for a living, and they didn't know my name.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Neighbors
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We had an extreme reaction to Storm Corrosion. We were proud of it, but it divided the audience. The metal fans were divided. Some went with it. Some hated it, since it wasn't the progressive metal supergroup they were waiting for.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Divided
Storm
Extreme
Metal
Reaction
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People who like progressive music tend to sneer at the idea of a kind of punk aesthetic, and people who like alternative indie rock or punk rock tend to sneer at what they see as the pretentiousness and pomposity of progressive music.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Aesthetic
Progressive
Punk
Punk Rock
Sneer
Alternative
Music People See
Indie
Tend
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I never made a distinction, really, between music and sound. Let me explain what I mean by that. I grew up near to a train station, and the sound of the trains became a very important part of my world. It was a very musical sound to me.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Distinction
Musical
Music World Me
Explain
Important Part
Trains
Near
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I grew up with vinyl records and remember the pleasure and the kind of buzz that I got from buying a beautiful vinyl record with the sleeve and the lyrics - all that kind of tactile experience that you could get from an old vinyl record.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Buying
Buzz
Tactile
Vinyl
Sleeve
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The one thing I do believe is, if you make the songs about the human aspects of things, you've got a much better chance of having the music transcend the times. If you make them very political and very topical, it's going to date very quickly.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Aspects
Better Chance
Date
The One Thing
Topical
Transcend
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Important Things
Please
Reinvention
Myself Me Important
Myself Me Always
Foremost
Producer
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Ashamed
Dark
Massive
Pop Music
Reaching
Rock Music
Song
Stars
Subject Matter
Tears
Hit
Fears
Global
Rock
Shout
Subject
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One of the beauties about going solo was being able to start from scratch and say, 'What do I really want? What kind of band do I really want? What kind of live show do I really want to stage?' Without any of the baggage of being something with history.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Baggage
Solo
Beauties
Scratch
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When it comes to being in a band or going solo, one is collaborative, and one is not. But generally speaking, when going solo, I am the boss. People can contribute ideas, but I am the boss. When collaborating, you make compromises and look for a common ground.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Band
Boss
Collaborating
Common Ground
Solo
I Am Look People
Compromises
Contribute
Generally
Ground
Speaking
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I grew up at the very tail end of the vinyl era, and at the time, I remember, we couldn't wait for CD to come along because vinyl was so frustrating. You would buy the record, take it home, and it would have a scratch, and you would have to take it back again.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Frustrating
Time Home Remember
Cd
Scratch
Tail
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If you want to be an entertainer and just keep your audience happy, that's one thing. But to be an artist, I think, means ultimately primarily pleasing yourself, and in that respect, you constantly have this sense of confronting the expectations of your audience.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Artist
Audience
Confronting
Respect Yourself Your
Constantly
Pleasing
Primarily
Ultimately
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If you want to be an entertainer, then go be an entertainer and give people what they want. If you want to be an artist, then you have to be true to yourself, and you have to be prepared to confront expectations - and you have to be prepared to disappoint your fans, too.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Artist
Be Prepared
Disappoint
Fans
Prepared
Yourself Your People
Entertainer
True
Too
Confront
Give
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Every Bass Communion track is based on a single sound source. Increasingly I find that I'm really interested in taking a particular sound and it's almost like solving a problem. If I have a sound, the problem is how can I create a piece of music from this one sound source?
Steven Wilson / Musician
Pieces
Sound
Track
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Ultimately, I don't think you can be a character who's completely alien or divorced from your own personality. It's probably true of every writer - it's probably true of every filmmaker, every songwriter - that, ultimately, every character you create is a facet of yourself.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Divorced
Filmmaker
Alien
Facet
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When I was a very young kid, the first music that really turned me on was a new wave of British heavy metal - big, dumb rock music. There was a band called Diamond Head - they were basically the band that inspired Metallica. But I also liked bands like Saxon and Iron Maiden.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Band
British
Diamond
Dumb
Heavy
Heavy Metal
Inspired
Iron
Iron Maiden
Metallica
Rock Music
Wave
Music Me New
Basically
Liked
Maiden
Metal
Rock
Saxon
Turned
Young Kid
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I've played to audiences where people are sitting there with their arms crossed, just kind of watching. Although they might be having a great time, and they might be really enjoying the spectacle, if I'm not getting anything back, it does affect the way I perform and project.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Arms
Time Great People
Affect
Crossed
Enjoying
Great Time
Just Kind
Spectacle
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If I want to do an orchestral record, if I want to do an acoustic record, if I want to do a death-metal record, if I want to do a jazz record - I can move in whichever direction I want, and no one is going to get upset about that. Except maybe my manager and my record company.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Jazz
Upset
Acoustic
Direction
Except
Record
Jazz Record
Manager
Orchestral
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I think there is something about the Internet which gives people almost an opportunity to role play and to create a facade, an image. I see that as quite a dangerous development because I think what we call social networking, Twitter, Facebook, etc., is actually quite antisocial.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Antisocial
Etc
Facade
Networking
Opportunity Internet People
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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!
Steven Wilson / Musician
Aerosmith
Angry
Favourite
Five
Frustrated
Magazines
Musician
Always Me Will
Always Angry Me
Coldplay
List
Same Stuff
Whoever
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Appreciation
Acceptance
Engaging
Fans
Filters
One Thing
Comparing
Direction
Gradually
Increases
Initial
Polarized
Reaction
Terms
Tends
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Gardening can be a compelling cooperative activity. Your best harvest may be the pleasure you get from working with family and friends. There's never a shortage of things to do, no limit to the lessons that can be learned, especially for children, and there's always plenty of credit to go around, even for the mistakes.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Friendship
Children
Mistake
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I really love the combination of Israel and England. They are completely different. The British are very private and keep things to themselves, while Israelis aren't that way. In England, I couldn't make friends with people in the supermarket or people who work at my bank or post office, but in Israel I can, and I like that.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Combination
Post Office
Love Work People
Bank
Love Work Keep
Israelis
Post
Supermarket
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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.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Inspiring
Audience
Bowie
Careers
Difficulty
Frank
Zappa
Me People Trying
All People
Me People Young
David
Bush
Constantly
Deal
Neil
Neil Young
Recognized
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The nature of music fandom and music fans is that, very often, they fall in love with a band or a particular artist, and they really would like... I'm talking generally; that's not everyone. But a vast majority of the fan base would prefer the band to keep making the same record and the same style of music over and over again.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Music
Artist
Band
Fall
Majority
Music Fans
Particular
Talking
Love Nature Music
Again
Everyone
Prefer
Base
Same
Often
Vast
Fan Base
Generally
Over
Record
Vast Majority
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I grew up listening to bands like the Cure, Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance - these are the bands that I actually grew up with, and I always had these things in my taste, too. And I always loved industrial music as well: I listened to Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Cabaret Voltaire. And shoegaze bands like Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Dance
Valentine
Bloody
Cabaret
Division
Joy
Joy Division
Taste
Twins
Bands
Dead
Cure
Industrial
Listened
Copy Quote
Every time the mainstream media talk about progressive rock, they wheel out a clip of Rick Wakeman in a cape. For me, it's one of the most ambitious forms of music. The problem is that when it doesn't work, you end up with Emerson, Lake and Palmer doing symphonies with 60-piece orchestras and revolving pianos, which I think is ridiculous as well.
Steven Wilson / Musician
Clip
Mainstream
Mainstream Media
Media
Orchestra
Problem
Progressive
Revolving
Time Work Music
Forms
Cape
Emerson
Every Time
Work Time Music
Lake
Rock
Palmer
Pianos
Symphonies
Wheel
Copy Quote

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Steven Wilson Quotes - Page 2

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