Steven Wilson Vs. Roine Stolt

I agree with some of what Wilson says, but he is foolish, and I expect somewhat egotistical to express his views in the way he did.

The Flower Kings and Transatlantic are clearly not the 'future' of prog. Was it ever their intention to be? I'm sure seasoned musicians like them, know the business well enough to know, that they are not about to start selling albums by the lorry load, in this day and age. They do what they do and they do it well. I don't listen to them. They do very little for me, but that's hardly the point. To be frank I've heard all I want to hear of Porcupine Tree, for now, too. Boring music. The Incident was wholly unremarkable.

Would be nice with a link to the interview.

Mirror Image wrote: Now, those that read this, what do you think about it? Who's right? Who's wrong?

The benefits of having been on here so long....

I remember when this interview was actually done, it made quite the stire here at the time as well (I expect that thread is long gone by now though). One thing people seem to have forgotten is that until around the time of Fear of a Blank Planet, Wilson hated the term Progressive Rock and being associated with it, it was only in the latter part of the 2000's when the term became much more widely applied to a wide variaty of bands that he came to accept being labeled as such. This interview reflects that.

Personally I find the majority of music from both Wilson and Stolt to be extremely boring, so I can consider myself neutral in this. I agree with some of Wilsons point, if only in part, but he still comes across as being an arrogant little so and so. Mind you, at first Stolt only just stops short of calling Wilson a sheep so as bad as each other I think.

I found Steven Wilson's last album (the solo one) to be quite boring, and while I have always had a special place in my heart for Porcupine Tree, I like Wilson less after reading this - that was quite pompous and pretentious, especially considering how grey, lifeless and washed out his solo album and Storm Corrosion were, and even more so when compared to the bright and colorful album that is the Flower Kings' latest album.  Steven Wilson is a (animal whose other name is a synonym of donkey).  In my personal opinion.

This will end in another pointless and lengthy discussion of what is and what isn't progressive.

I don't think it is relevant what SW has to say about progressive music (actually I am not sure he is using progressive rock term), as long as he declare that only bands like his or the others he mentioned (Mars Volta, Radiohead and Tool) are moving in the "right" direction. What direction is right in "progressive music"? The one that brings more audience and get radio airplay by incorporating elements of more commercial genres? Probably SW forgot about his “The Sky Moves Sideways Phase One” as being “old fashioned, pretentious, completely pointless and redundant” or maybe he is ashamed now by his source of inspiration. For me that track is one of the best PT songs although I enjoy others from later albums where he steered away from that style.

Unfortunately, the ability to record a 70 min album that CD era is offering brought a lot of over pretentious, pompous and ultimately too long albums, which both FK and Transatlantic failed to avoid - and in this regard SW is right. But if I had to choose between a “modern” sound album of progressive music which try to please the sheep and an old fashioned progressive rock influenced one, I would go with the second one. A matter of tastes.

No I was talking about Steven Wilson. I like you Austin.

If you have the time and energy to want to rant about bands you don't care for, you must be craving attention, or have no life.

The problem is, Porcupine Tree is (was) no more progressive than The Flower Kings were (are), so all of SWilson's comments are null and void,