Storm Corrosion (New Mikael Akerfeldt/Steven Wilson project)

[ReaperKK]

I agree with what he says, but there's only so many times I can read/hear it.

I disagree with what he says but pretty much this.

[Jirpo]

I agree with his thoughts on downloading and buying CD's/vinyls, but I disagree with his thoughts on Ipods, I would rather listen to music out and about on an ipod than not at all.

[Zantera]

I don't know if his grudge against iPods and Mp3-players are so much against the fact that you have music available wherever you go, I thought it was more the "playlist-mentality", that people listen to one song, then skip to another song from another album.

[ReaperKK]

But what's wrong with that? If people choose to enjoy music that way then more power to them. I listen to my music the way I choose to.

[Gorille85]

It's just opinions in the end.

[Kotowboy]

What a moany old git.

I bet he thought CDs were the death of music too.

[Gorille85]

What a moany old git.

I bet he thought CDs were the death of music too.

That's not what he's saying at all about streaming etc. but hey, whatever!

[antigoon]

I seriously like Steven Wilson less and less with every interview I read with him.

[Nick]

I'll admit I skimmed that interview, but from the parts I saw it seemed to just reinforce what he had previously said. I honestly don't believe we as a culture value music the same way we did 25 years ago and he senses that. Back in the days of vinyl people would obsess over music, picking it apart, analyzing the artwork and really pay attention to the music and care about how well it was presented. And for better or worse today a lot of that is gone. There are still people who care just as much, but today music is background noise, a quick download and listen and onto the next thing.

[reneranucci]

I think he's not only trying to give his opinion, but sounds like he thinks everybody should share it. He's always looked a little bit arrogant to me. Streaming music and mp3 players have done a lot to make people enjoy music even more, now you can hear to more music in more places. He seems to think that any past time was better than the present. People just appreciate music on different levels and ways now, but he interprets that as people not valuing music as they should, which isn't true. Even without iPods, some music had just fun value, some people didn't take the efforts of the artists seriously, and some people took the artists very seriously. The same happens now.

It doesn't bother me that he's an atheist, but he sounds very condescending and is off-base when he thinks that religion started as a reaction to the fear of dying.

[Nick]

As someone who has studied religion and its historic relation to death, and who works with the subject every day I do believe death is a primary, if not the primary driving force behind religion.

[ZBomber]

I seriously like Steven Wilson less and less with every interview I read with him.

Why?

[bout to crash]

 

[theseoafs]

Actually, I think you'd be hard pressed to argue that religion is fundamentally about anything but the fear of dying, besides perhaps a fear of the unknown (to the extent that these two things are different).

[pogoowner]

I think Steven Wilson's views on the matter are completely valid. Obviously there are positives to the ways people listen to music these days (accessibility, convenience, etc.), but he IS right that something can be lost along the way. Ideally, I think a balance could be struck between the two.

[ZBomber]

I think Steven Wilson's views on the matter are completely valid. Obviously there are positives to the ways people listen to music these days (accessibility, convenience, etc.), but he IS right that something can be lost along the way. Ideally, I think a balance could be struck between the two.

This. He's just passionate. I think it can sound a bit pretentious at times, but in all honesty this is obviously something he feels strongly about and is essentially his whole life/career. He is just trying to get his point of view out there, because it is a pretty under-represented one. Personally, I agree with a lot of his criticisms of modern music technology, and while he has acknowledged their benefits numerous times, it is something he feels detracts a lot of the creativity and work he puts into making the complete work. The reason he sounds like a "broken record" is because... well... people keep bringing the shit up in interviews.  He's not telling people how to listen to music, he is just saying how he thinks HIS music (as well as other musicians that share common thoughts with him) should be experienced. In the end, it is up to the listener.

The only part of that article that kind of rubbed me the wrong way was the religion section, even though I pretty much agree with him. At the end of the day, none of us really know any truth behind religion, and I don't see why people have to act like they know the exacts of things like that... let people believe what they want to. In his defense though, he was asked the question, he didn't really bring it up himself.

[Zantera]

Another thing that I find interesting, is that Steven Wilson often gets questions about the modern "way" of listening to music, and he simply answers the questions. I also love it that he has been pushing his opinion as much as he can, because it has certainly affected me and changed my outlook on the matter. I already collected CD's when I started listening to Porcupine Tree, but Steven Wilson has really gotten me interested in more limited/rare stuff, I even ordered the limited edition of Grace For Drowning, something I wouldn't have done a few years ago with my look on things then. But it's just such a beautiful piece of art, and it was totally worth the ~50£ that it cost me.

[bout to crash]

I think Steven Wilson's views on the matter are completely valid. Obviously there are positives to the ways people listen to music these days (accessibility, convenience, etc.), but he IS right that something can be lost along the way. Ideally, I think a balance could be struck between the two.

This. He's just passionate. I think it can sound a bit pretentious at times, but in all honesty this is obviously something he feels strongly about and is essentially his whole life/career. He is just trying to get his point of view out there, because it is a pretty under-represented one. Personally, I agree with a lot of his criticisms of modern music technology, and while he has acknowledged their benefits numerous times, it is something he feels detracts a lot of the creativity and work he puts into making the complete work. The reason he sounds like a "broken record" is because... well... people keep bringing the shit up in interviews.  He's not telling people how to listen to music, he is just saying how he thinks HIS music (as well as other musicians that share common thoughts with him) should be experienced. In the end, it is up to the listener.

The only part of that article that kind of rubbed me the wrong way was the religion section, even though I pretty much agree with him. At the end of the day, none of us really know any truth behind religion, and I don't see why people have to act like they know the exacts of things like that... let people believe what they want to. In his defense though, he was asked the question, he didn't really bring it up himself.

All of this. It's not like he just randomly went on some angry tangent about religion.

[antigoon]

Eh, there's always just been something that rubs me the wrong way about how he presents his views.

[reneranucci]

I went through the interview again and I really like his stance on creativity and artistic freedom. He gives a lot of importance to being true to himself, and to try to explore new things in his music, without caring too much about what people think him and Mikael should be doing. Making and album like Storm Corrosion shows his courage and independence. I respect him a lot for that, and that actually makes me enjoy his music more. I've never been a SW fan with I really like his last solo effort and I've started to like his work with PT more and more. 

[crawl_away]

I seriously like Steven Wilson less and less with every interview I read with him.

.

[antigoon]

It started when he decided to start shooting up iPods

[Dark Castle]

It started when he decided to start shooting up iPods

verbally or with psychic bullets?  I'd love to see a video of him destroying an ipod, 

[The Letter M]

It started when he decided to start shooting up iPods

verbally or with psychic bullets?  I'd love to see a video of him destroying an ipod, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgentes_(album)#iPod_destruction

-Marc.

[Dark Castle]

It started when he decided to start shooting up iPods

verbally or with psychic bullets?  I'd love to see a video of him destroying an ipod, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgentes_(album)#iPod_destruction

-Marc.

I guess if he wants to hate Ipods that's his choice, but here's my little personal spin on it.  I listen to music before I go to bed every night, and as much as I'd like to listen to whole albums, I don't really want to be up til sunrise, so I just pick a few songs from different bands to listen to, if that reduces my experience of the music then I haven't noticed because I still love the songs and will listen to the albums in full during the day usually.

[TL]

He seems to go a bit far with the whole ant-MP3/iPod thing.

I love putting a CD on and listening to a whole album as a collective work, but I also listen to far more music thanks to digital formats, both on my computer and my Zune, and it's a very positive thing.
Not to mention, you can still listen to albums full through in MP3 format.

[antigoon]

But only unsophisticated plebians listen to mp3s.

[theseoafs]

It started when he decided to start shooting up iPods

verbally or with psychic bullets?  I'd love to see a video of him destroying an ipod, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgentes_(album)#iPod_destruction

-Marc.

I guess if he wants to hate Ipods that's his choice, but here's my little personal spin on it.  I listen to music before I go to bed every night, and as much as I'd like to listen to whole albums, I don't really want to be up til sunrise, so I just pick a few songs from different bands to listen to, if that reduces my experience of the music then I haven't noticed because I still love the songs and will listen to the albums in full during the day usually.

The point isn't that Wilson only wants people listening to albums in full; plenty of people do that with iPods. What Wilson is really upset about is the audio compression that comes with MP3's coupled with what he believes to be the worse experience that comes from not holding a disc in your hand.

Do I agree? Not at all. I love physical copies of music too, but I'm young and poor and can't pay 15-20 bucks for something that costs 10 on iTunes, and I'm young enough that I don't have any good-ole-days of music to think back to.

[Dark Castle]

ahhh, I see.  Well I guess I agree with him in that I like cds and records more, but mp3 files work out fantastically for me and I love my ipod.

[antigoon]

Now that I come to think of it, Xbox is a god to me, so that's probably why we don't see eye to eye on many things.

[ACID_FOX]

Now that I come to think of it, Xbox is a god to me, so that's probably why we don't see eye to eye on many things.

 

[orcus116]

Eh, there's always just been something that rubs me the wrong way about how he presents his views.

Probably because he only presents it from the side of how he absorbs music. I'll listen to full albums but individual songs/blocks of songs do much more for me than entire albums a lot of the time. I could care less what's the "real" way of listening to an album since I don't have time to sit there, listen and flip through the album art for hours on end.

[ZBomber]

Eh, there's always just been something that rubs me the wrong way about how he presents his views.

Probably because he only presents it from the side of how he absorbs music. I'll listen to full albums but individual songs/blocks of songs do much more for me than entire albums a lot of the time. I could care less what's the "real" way of listening to an album since I don't have time to sit there, listen and flip through the album art for hours on end.

Well, if he is trying to convince people to embrace the whole "album experience" again, why would he talk about the advantages of ipods/spotify/etc? And he HAS said before they have their uses, but he doesn't feel it should replace albums entirely, and I agree with that.

[Nick]

Eh, there's always just been something that rubs me the wrong way about how he presents his views.

Probably because he only presents it from the side of how he absorbs music. I'll listen to full albums but individual songs/blocks of songs do much more for me than entire albums a lot of the time. I could care less what's the "real" way of listening to an album since I don't have time to sit there, listen and flip through the album art for hours on end.

Well, if he is trying to convince people to embrace the whole "album experience" again, why would he talk about the advantages of ipods/spotify/etc? And he HAS said before they have their uses, but he doesn't feel it should replace albums entirely, and I agree with that.

Exactly, everything has its uses, and moderation is good for almost anything, but in many cases the napster/ipod/technological revolution in music has all but obliterated the way Steven and his generation experienced music. I use my phone as an MP3 player, and I appreciate what I'm able to do with modern technology, but most are consumed by it and don't take music any further then what is cheap (or free) and convenient.

[contest_sanity]

But only unsophisticated plebians listen to mp3s.

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