As Steven Wilson looks out over the floor of the Middle East Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts from the stage, he can’t help feeling a little depressed. Thirty pairs of eyes stare back at him. This the sum total of people who’ve turned up to see him and his band Porcupine Tree play this hip East Coast club… It’s Monday, July 22, 2002, and this is supposed to be a tipping point for Porcupine Tree. Over the last decade, these British oddballs have existed on the fringes, becoming a rallying point for anyone with an interest in shape-shifting, vaguely psychedelic sounds without ever quite extending beyond cultdom.
But recently, things have changed. In a fairly astonishing turn of events, Porcupine Tree have been signed by Lava Records, a subsidiary of music industry powerhouse Atlantic. They have suddenly found themselves on the same label as rap-metal superstar Kid Rock and platinum-dusted MORgrungers Matchbox Twenty.
“It opened up a whole new audience for them, and it helped open up a whole new audience for progressive rock. You suddenly heard a lot of bands who sounded like them.”
Mikael Akerfeldt