Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame recently spoke with Greg Prato at Songfacts. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

Songfacts: What are the differences between your latest releases, Hand. Cannot. Erase. and 4 ½?

Steven: "One of them is a grand conceptual album, and the other one is just a bunch of pop songs. Hand. Cannot. Erase. was a big project that involved basically a story. It has a musical narrative, it has a lyrical narrative, and it has a very strong theme that runs through it. Whereas the 4 ½ album is what they called an 'interim release' - the title implies that it is neither my fourth album or a fifth album. It's kind of in between the two. 

It's some songs that really didn't belong to any of my more grand conceptual pieces. And in a way, that's its own challenge, because I still like albums to feel like they have a flow and they have a satisfying arc to them. So I did work very hard still on sequencing that record, but the bottom line is that record doesn't have a thematic strand that runs through it. Whereas Hand. Cannot. Erase. definitely does have a very strong thematic structure."

Songfacts: Which album from your entire career are you most proud of from a songwriting perspective?

Steven: "Well, most artists if you ask them that are always going to tell you their last one. I guess I'm no exception. In a way, it makes sense to say the most recent one, because the album you've just made usually reflects the person you are at that point in your life. And that is of course true of Hand. Cannot. Erase. But even beyond that, I think it did represent for me a new level of not just songwriting, but also arrangement, about creating the music and the lyrics around this story of this concept, which span off into many different areas, too." 

"There was a book version of the album, there was an online blog, there were all these different elements that kind of dovetailed into the songwriting, and for me, it's very hard to think of the things separately. For me, artwork, music, lyrics, songwriting, production, the website, the live presentation - all of these things come from the same initial germ of an idea, which can be the song or the theme."

"So I'm very proud of this record. I'm proud of all my solo records, because in a way I think they're all distinctly different. And I also have an aversion to repeating myself, so I like the fact that each album was a kind of reinvention and approaching things from a different perspective."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

January 22nd saw the release of a new Steven Wilson album, 4 ½, so titled because it forms an interim release between Steven's recently released fourth album Hand. Cannot. Erase. and the next studio album.

4 ½ comprises six tracks with a total running time of 37 minutes. Four of the songs originated during the sessions for Hand. Cannot. Erase., and one from the recording sessions for the previous album The Raven that Refused To Sing. The final track is a version of “Don't Hate Me”, a song originally recorded by Porcupine Tree in 1998, and is based on a live recording made on the recent tour of Europe with additional recording later done in the studio. The vocals on this new version are sung as a duet between Steven and Ninet Tayeb.

Also appearing on the album are members of Steven's band over the last few years; Adam Holzman, Nick Beggs, Guthrie Govan, Dave Kilminster, Craig Blundell, Marco Minnemann, Chad Wackerman, and Theo Travis.

4 ½ was released by Kscope on CD, 180 gram vinyl, and blu-ray, with all formats housed in a beautiful die-cut sleeve photographed by Lasse Hoile and designed by Carl Glover. The blu-ray (audio only) edition includes high res stereo, a 5.1 mix of the album, and a bonus 5.1 mix of the new version of Lazarus (recently included on the Transience vinyl compilation). The vinyl edition includes a download code for the album in a choice of FLAC or mp3. Pre-order here. The album is also be available digitally from iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and Apple Music.

4 ½ tracklisting:

“My Book Of Regrets”
“Year Of The Plague”
“Happiness 3”
“Sunday Rain Sets In”
“Vermillioncore”
“Don’t Hate Me”

After the success of Steven Wilson’s Hand. Cannot. Erase. tour of North America earlier this year, he has announced that he will be returning for more live shows in March 2016.

Dates:

March
1 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
2 - Montreal, QC - St-Denis Theatre
3 - Albany, NY - The Egg
4 - Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre
5 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
7 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre
8 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theatre

More details here.