Steven Wilson Vs. Roine Stolt

darkshade wrote: I don't know if Dave Mustaine sings as much as he snarls.

Edited by CCVP - August 02 2012 at 23:40

why not QVACK?

It's funny that Steven Wilson is remixing the ELP catalogue, a band that reinforce every prejudice people have about progressive rock: old-fashioned, pompous,pretentious. Is Elp was not a band that was going to the past with his take on old classic songs? He would say that he has nothing wrong to say about the best 70's band, but only for those who are influenced by them. Is ELP better than Mussorgsky? Isn't that redundant and pointless?

I find it rather sad that  Steven Wilson would name and shame bands like that in an interview, its one thing to voice an opinion on a genre/sub genre its another thing to label a band the DEATH of Progressive music. I'm a huge fan of Steven Wilson, I've met the man and found him very courteous and generous with his time, so these comments surprise me. I've read he doesn't like the Prog tag, thats fine, I get where he's coming from, bands should be progressive and their is some truth in the fact TFK and Transatlantic are more Proggy than Progressive, they do wallow to some extent in the music of the 70's, but I like their take on it, so I can only think something has been lost in translation so to speak within the interview or at least I hope thats the case. I find it hard to believe that Steven Wilson who has been working with nearly all the big names in Prog would so categorically distance himself from the likes of TFK etc...I find it all very contradictory, I met him only 3 weeks ago in London, he was in the bar at Celebr8 Prog Festival, watching band like IQ, Pallas and The Tangent, doesn't strike me as a guy who hates the music...

I think it's funny to know what SW think about bands that got the 70's feeling when the man himself released Grace for Drowning, an album that feels like a King Crimson album. SW may be an amazing producer and a good composer but I think that he is very pretentious and over-the-top guy

I think you hit the nail on the head John. Prog fans are more than anything, people who reside outside of the popular music spheres, and even if most of us whine about not having anybody to share our musical tastes with, at least in real life, - I think we revel in the mystical and selfserving underdog status that naturally comes with the territory. Then we get to know the prog circles better and better, and suddenly this underdog thing barks again and we start digging even deeper for something obscure and unknown. Why? It's simply cool to listen to music nobody else does. Well that is part of the equation I think. The underdog attitude still pushes us forward to find new under the radar music, and when you finally get there, bands like PT and DT suddenly feel enormous - especially due to the constant free advertising they get from people who just happened to stumble over one of their albums and then got to know the word prog. We are constantly reminded of these big bands, and even if they are far from being the huge billionaire acts some of us see them as, they still stand for something that is corporate and big business like. So it becomes 'cool' to hate on these bands - even if they still carry the torch of our much beloved music and continue to draw people in to progressive waters, where they probably at some point will get to know about all those other bands that deserve much more recognition, because they are more underground...? Bollocks!
Oh and this is coming from a guy who revels in the obscure and out there...

Maybe I expressed myself clumsily, but I don't necessarily think people listen to music because of its underdog status, - like I said it was only part of the equation, but I do think they form opinions about music due to it. Most of the times, the big bands feel the result of this.

Guldbamsen wrote: Maybe I expressed myself clumsily, but I don't necessarily think people listen to music because of its underdog status, - like I said it was only part of the equation, but I do think they form opinions about music due to it. Most of the times, the big bands feel the result of this.

Well, there's also the fact that because they are more well known they are more likely to come across large numbers of people that wont like them, which is not going to be such a problem for Cheer-Accident and others.

mister nobody wrote: God, Roine could use some English courses.

If Steven Wilson were a music critic, I would agree with him to a certain extent (and it is quite common to see music critics become "agressive" about old-fashioned bands).
In his case, he is being a bit of a douchebag, as his work is far from being completey "useful" for the future of progressive music. He has made so many poppish songs that could have been written ten to twenty years before, that we cannot have this attitude towards TA, TFK or Neal Morse.
I personnly can't listen to Transatlantic or Morse anymore, they bore the hell out of me, and listen to PT much more often. But that's my taste!

These guys are not the death of progressive rock, they are a branch that did not evolve so much in sound and creativity compared to the seventies (IMO, and left apart the tech advances that lead to have a "cleaner" sound), but what's wrong with that?? It's just a pause in time, and noone can say that being completely new is a must-rule. I personnally like that in a band (surprise, new elements, new sounds, etc...), but I can bvery well understand why (very intellegent and cultured) people listen to TFK, Neal Morse or Transatlantic!

Music doesn't always have to be about who's the next icon of the genre. I think that I tend to look for originality mainly beacuse I am a musician (which I think is at the same time a curse and a blessing for music-listenning, other topic...)

So please come down from your cardboard pedestal M. Wilson and just keep making your music as you like to. Let others enjoy what they like.