Nil Recurring
Porcupine Tree’s biographer takes a step back in time to chart the British band’s musical journey from Steven Wilson’s psychedelic bedroom tapes to the progressive Words: Rich Wilson Images: Claudine on In Absentia via pop rock and krautrock.
Words: Rich Wilson
Bright young things: Porcupine Tree.
Images: Claudine Schafer
There were those who failed to comprehend Porcupine Tree’s musical transformation, from the elegantly crafted pop rock of 2000’s Lightbulb Sun into a fiery, fearsome progressive metal act in the space of two years. Consequently, those detractors dismissed In Absentia as a cynical shift of musical genre to hop onto the then-burgeoning prog metal scene, led by the likes of Dream Theater and Opeth. Of course, such blinkered, keyboard punditry failed to appreciate the one aspect of Porcupine Tree that was at the core of their existence - their deliberate desire to avoid repetition, predictability and having their creativity curtailed by the confines of a debilitating genre box. It’s an attitude that has continued to infuse Steven Wilson’s solo works, and one that appears likely to continue.
For Porcupine Tree, it all began in Wilson’s bedroom in Hemel Hempstead where he recorded two psychedelic-influenced cassettes, which would eventually be released as On The Sunday Of Life…. Following the release of the trancey Up The Downstair in 1993, Wilson soon began to realise that there was a live market for his music. With Richard Barbieri, Colin Edwin and Chris Maitland recruited, Porcupine Tree made their live debut on December 4, 1993 at the Nag’s Head in High Wycombe.
“The first time I heard the music, I thought, ‘What the fuck is this?’” admitted Chris Maitland when referencing Wilson’s early material. “I thought some of it was pretty awful, but then you can apply yourself and begin to love it by being part of it. So suddenly you’re like, ‘Bloody hell, I really like that actually. I thought it was shit when I first heard it, but actually that’s really nice’. You begin to love it through your involvement rather than anything else.”