Prog rock is seemingly one of the few rock music subgenres that listeners clearly have a love/hate relationship with. Case in point, bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis were able to sell out stadiums, while an entire other genre was largely formed out of an intense dislike for prog’s extended song lengths and oft-overindulgence: punk rock.
During an interview with Innerviews, Steve Wilson discussed the genre, and how it not only pertains to his music, but also, incorporates quite a few varied artists over the past few decades.
“What is progressive rock?” Wilson questioned (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “To me, the only thing all of it really has in common… And I’m talking about the whole spectrum of progressive rock: from Pink Floyd to Frank Zappa, to Rush, to Mogwai, to Radiohead. The only thing it has in common, really, is it’s a will to move away from the standard pop form.”
“It’s a kind of this idea that you can take the listener on a journey and you can surprise them, and very often that involves doing something over a longer period of time. Not always, but a lot of bands obviously veered towards 10-, 15-, 20-minute-long pieces. And that is obviously what this record [‘The Overview’] is. And that, I think, is one of the hallmarks, if not the preeminent hallmark, of what I think of as progressive rock.”
Wilson, who has been fortunate to remix many classic recordings over the years for many of prog’s top names, also discussed how his latest solo effort, “The Overview,” has some decidedly progressive moments and touches upon other styles.
“But beyond that, as you kind of hinted at, all of my usual things are going on here. It’s a piece of electronic music on the record. There’s a piece of pure ambient music that finishes the record. There are metal riffs, there are moments of with strong pop sensibilities. There are moments of jazz. But I think the overall structure and the overall sense of journey is probably something people would associate with the tradition of progressive rock.”
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