Steven Wilson says he wasn’t planning to tour in support of latest solo album Requiem For A Village, but he’s thinking about it. Although given how busy he is, it’s difficult to see how he could find the time.
He recently confirmed that a new Storm Corrosion album was underway, once again in collaboration with Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt, and he’s also been developing a No-Man release with Tim Bowness.
But he’s told Under The Radar that those records could be ready to launch in 2027, and may even be joined by a new Porcupine Tree release.
“No-Man, I’ve got like an album on the go. Storm Corrosion have got an album on the go, and kind of PT as well,” Wilson says. “We’re kind of getting together every year and writing two or three new songs for PT.
“I’m not sure which one will be next. Possibly the Storm Corrosion one is the one closest to being finished. So yeah, next year could be interesting. Maybe all three will come out next year. I don’t know, – I don’t think so. I think maybe a couple next year; maybe the PT one will be the year after.”
He might be busy, but he’s enjoying it more than ever: “One of the things I love about my career now, having established the solo strand of my career, is being able to go back to all these collaborative situations and enjoy them for what they are,” he says. “Enjoy working with these amazing musicians and allow myself to be part of a collaborative situation again.
“Particularly, I think, with PT – No-Man and Storm Corrosion were always a collaborative thing, but PT was always a little bit dominated by me. One of the beautiful things about it, when it came back, was it became a full-on collaboration from the writing, the production and the performance side. And I think that can happen because my solo career is well established now.”
Wilson confirms he’s also considering a Requiem stage show. “I wasn’t planning to tour it, but everyone is asking me now,” he says. So, I’m beginning to think how the village could work live. Maybe there’s a way to make it work live. I don’t know if I’d tour in the sense of doing what I did with The Overview, where I went all over the world. But I might try to create some kind of live presentation of it.
“Possibly a residency that moves to four or five different locations over a period of time – but somewhere where I can create more of an environment, more of a context to create the village in a live setting.” He adds: “Not ruling it out, but don’t have any concrete plans at the moment.”
Meanwhile, if Wilson does find some downtime, you probably won’t see him at another artist’s concert. “It’s a bit of a busman’s holiday for me to go to a show,” he explains. “I don’t really enjoy going to shows as a rule – I just don’t enjoy the ritual of it. I look around me and I always feel like the killjoy, you know.
“It would take quite a lot to get me to see a live show now,. If Prince was still around, if Bowie was, I might make an exception, but even then I think I’d be going out of nostalgic reasons.”
Requiem For A Village is on sale now.