On September 29, 2023, Porcupine Tree frontman and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson released his new solo album ‘The Harmony Codex.’ Wilson’s eighth solo album follows 2021’s ‘The Future Bites.’ Recently, he talked about his new album with Greg Prato and called it ‘a piece of cinema for the ears.’ He said:
“It’s possibly the most cinematic/diverse record I’ve ever made in the sense that it’s got everything from 10-minute-long prog-jazz things to ambient music to acoustic ballads to proto-industrial music. It’s all in there, but it’s a real journey. I even describe it as a piece of cinema for the ears.”
Reflecting on the songwriting process for the album, Wilson also added:
“This album is possibly the most diverse album I’ve ever done. And one of the reasons for that is that a lot of the songs come from slightly different starting points. Some came from messing about with analog synthesizers, some came from sitting down with an acoustic guitar in my lap in the age-old tradition, some came from messing around with beats, some came from lyrical fragments and ideas.”
Steven Wilson On The Impact Of Social Media On Music
In the other part of the interview, Steven Wilson explored the conflict of modern life in the digital age. He highlighted the positive and negative aspects of social media, emphasizing how platforms like YouTube and streaming services have changed the way we listen to music. He also criticized the tendency of listeners in today’s age to create personalized playlists by selecting individual tracks according to their own preferences, rather than adopting the artist’s intended order.
Yet towards the end of the same interview, Steven Wilson praised the advances in technology, particularly in music production and emphasized the wonders of working in the computer recording era. He said that he was amazed by the unprecedented possibilities offered by modern technology in the manipulation and processing of sounds.
Wilson Believes Music Is No Longer As Culturally Influential As It Used To Be
This is not the first time Steven Wilson has criticized the way music is viewed today. Last year, in an interview with Rob Moore on Youtube, He talked about the current state of the music world and how it is no longer able to make cultural impacts on society as it used to. He made the following statements:
“Music, in that sense, has become more about what’s familiar, not what might have been unfamiliar when the Beatles released Strawberry Fields, or when Bowie came out with Ziggy or when Prince came out with Sign O’ the Times. And that obviously makes me a bit sad because I grew up believing in the power of music to be able to do that – to change the way people thought about the world.”
When it came to the last major cultural impact of music, he pointed to Nirvana. He said:
“I started in the professional music industry in 1992, 30 years ago when it was still possible. And Nirvana no question were changing everything. They were changing the way people thought about rock music, they were changing the way people thought about how they dressed. Movies were being made about the grunge aesthetic”
You can watch the whole interview down below.
