After playing the biggest gig of their career, most bands would carry the momentum forward and set their sights on challenges new. Porcupine Tree, however, are not like most bands. After headlining at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2010, their leader Steven Wilson, guitarist and vocalist, decided it was time for the group to take a break.
12 years on, with Wilson having built a successful solo career that has commercially outperformed the progressive rock band that first got him noticed, he has reunited Porcupine Tree as a trio, with drummer Gavin Harrison and keyboard player Richard Barbieri. Their new album, playfully titled Closure/Continuation, revisits some of the avant-garde brilliance that built them a cult following, while also treading new atmospheric ground.
Wilson is now widely regarded as the most prominent and prolific figure in modern progressive music. And yet, for all the complexity and odd-time riffs in Porcupine Tree's music, he has a simple approach to guitar. "I don't have the technique," he admits. "But then again, I don't really want to play fast anyway."
Let's start with why Porcupine Tree split up in 2010...
I felt like we'd achieved everything we could achieve within the confines of this musical vocabulary and style we had spent years creating and developing. We got to [2009 album] The Incident and I think for the first time it felt like we were no longer progressing or taking that sound forward. It was that dreaded expression: 'more of the same'. For me, that was a massive red flag. So we went off in our own ways.
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