Porcupine Tree Biography

Porcupine Tree was born in 1987 as a psychedelic, experimental, and progressive music outlet for the home studio explorations of Steven Wilson. In fact, Wilson had already been making music for several years, as a musically precocious teenager who taught himself to play guitar and keyboards, and whose early tape releases with bands such as Altamont and Karma had already become known in the London musical underground (these tapes, which included early versions of later PT tracks like "Nine Cats," "Small Fish," and "This Long Silence," would eventually become highly-valued collectables, a circumstance Wilson describes as "a bit like a painter having his nursery school blots exhibited".

In 1987, Wilson started two projects that would take him into the professional music world. The first was the art-rock trio NO-MAN (www.no-man.co.uk), formed with singer Tim Bowness and violinist Ben Coleman (NO-MAN still exists today with a string of albums to their name). But the second began life almost as a joke between two friends: Steven and his friend Malcolm Stocks developed an almost entirely fictional history of a legendary seventies group, complete with non-existent band members and an absurd discography - this was The Porcupine Tree. To back up the story, Steven recorded several hours worth of music supposedly by this imaginary band. This was all done as pure self-indulgence, but by early 1989, Steven rated some of the music highly enough to compile a cassette, entitled "Tarquin´s Seaweed Farm," and sent out copies to people that he felt might be interested. One of them went to the underground UK magazine Freakbeat, run by Richard Allen and Ivor Trueman. Unknown to Steven at the time, they were in the process of setting up their own record company. Despite the fact that they gave the tape a rather lukewarm review in the magazine, they invited Porcupine Tree to contribute a track to their first release, a compilation album of the best underground psychedelic groups.

This was ultimately to take another 18 months or so to come to fruition, and in the meantime Steven began to distribute Porcupine Tree´s music in the form of "Tarquin´s Seaweed Farm" and it´s follow up, "The Nostalgia Factory," both complete with booklets containing the imaginary history and other misleading information. These tapes built up an underground interest in the name which was added to by the eventual release of the newly named Delerium record label´s first compilation album, "A Psychedelic Psauna," which featured the Porcupine Tree track "Linton Samuel Dawson." Delerium also reissued the first two Porcupine Tree tapes. Shortly afterwards, Steven was invited by the new label to be one of the first artists to sign to the Delerium label. The original invitation was to reissue both the tapes as double albums, but Steven decided instead to compile the best material onto one double album which became "On the Sunday of Life...", the third release on the new label (most of the remainder of the music from the original eventually emerged on another limited edition album entitled "Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape"). "On the Sunday of Life..." was issued in early 1992 in a small run of 1000 copies in a deluxe gatefold sleeve. Such was the interest from the press and public that this small run sold out almost immediately and was repressed along with a CD version. Among other tracks the album contained a future Porcupine Tree classic and frequent concert encore in "Radioactive Toy." By 2000, "On the Sunday of Life..." had racked up sales of over 20,000 copies.

While this was happening, Steven´s other group NO-MAN had signed a record deal with One Little Indian (home of Bjork among others) and were beginning to release records to an ecstatic press response. NO-MAN allowed Steven to become a full-time professional musician, and enabled him to dedicate even more time to his "side project." The first Porcupine Tree album had been a self-indulgent and in some ways nostalgic look back at Steven´s favourite music from the 60´s and 70´s, but he felt that in order to take the project forward it was important to develop the sound into new and more contemporary areas. The first fruits of these new sessions was a 30 minute single that fused the ambient trance of acts like The Orb and Future Sound of London, with liquid rock guitar soloing, strung together with a narrative taken from sixties LSD propaganda LPs. It was a major underground hit, reaching the UK independent Top 20 and a perfect representation of how the dissolution of boundaries between genres characterised the best music of the nineties.

In fact "Voyage 34" was a track recorded for another prospective Porcupine Tree double album "Up the Downstair." However, when the album eventually emerged in mid-1993 the decision not to include the single had slimmed down the album to a single record. "Up the Downstair" was greeted with rapture, Melody Maker describing it as "a psychedelic masterpiece.... one of the albums of the year." The album continued the fusion of dance and rock and also featured guest appearances from two future full-time Porcupine Tree members, Richard Barbieri (ex-80¹s art roclk band Japan) and Colin Edwin.

In November 1993, "Voyage 34" was reissued alongside an additional 12 inch remix by Astralasia. With non-existent radio play it still managed to enter the NME indie chart for six weeks and became an underground chill-out classic.

The profile of Porcupine Tree had now grown to the extent that the question of live performances could no longer be ignored. Thus, in December 1993, Porcupine Tree became a live unit featuring Steven, Colin Edwin (bass), Chris Maitland (drums), and Richard Barbieri (keyboards). All three new members of the group had worked with Steven on various projects over the preceding years and all were excellent musicians sympathetic to the sound and direction of Porcupine Tree. The new line up had an immediate chemistry as illustrated by the "Spiral Circus" album (issued on vinyl in 1996) which contained recordings from their first ever 3 performances, including a BBC Radio One session for Mark Radcliffe, an early champion of the group.

New music was already underway. The next album would not emerge until early 1995, but was preceded by the classic single "Stars Die / Moonloop," the last 2 tracks to be recorded during the album sessions and the first to feature the new band. The subsequent album, "The Sky Moves Sideways," was as expansive soundscape of melody and ambient rock experimentation, but would prove to be a transitional work with half recorded before the formation of the band and half recorded after. Most of the album was taken up with the 35 minute title track, which at one point Steven intended to be long enough to occupy the whole album (an alternate version of the track, containing some of the excised music, was included on the 2004 remastered version of the album). It also entered the NME, Melody Maker, and Music Week charts. Together with the "Moonloop" EP, this album became the first Porcupine Tree music to be issued in America in the autumn of 1995, and attracted favourable press on both sides of the Atlantic. The band supported the album with numerous gigs throughout the year at major venues in the UK, The Netherlands, Italy, and Greece.

Partly unsatisfied with the half band/half solo nature of "The Sky Moves Sideways," Porcupine Tree promptly got down to the task of recording the first proper band record and worked sporadically over the next year on developing a tighter and more ambitious rock sound.

May 1996 saw the release of the first fruits of these sessions, the single "Waiting," which entered all UK indie charts and the UK National chart attracting airplay all over Europe. It was followed by "Signify," the first album to fully reflect the powerful live sound of the band, blending together numerous rock and avant-garde styles, while absorbing many diverse influences but relying on none. A large amount of major European media interest accompanied the album´s release, as Porcupine Tree has now become a highly respected force in the musical underground. "Signify" is regarded by the band (and many fans) as one of their finest works. The band went on to complete a highly successful European tour.

Porcupine Tree continued to increase in popularity abroad during 1997 and in March played to an audience of over 5,000 in Rome over three nights - all of which were recorded for the 1997 live album "Coma Divine.² This album was released as a goodbye to Delerium Records, which felt it could no longer offer the kind of resources the band needed in order to continue to build its profile worldwide. In late 1997, the band´s first three albums were remastered and reissued. "Signify" also saw a release in the US on Miles Copeland´s ARK 21 label.

Steven, Richard, Colin, and Chris spent all of 1998 recording their fifth studio album, a release that reflected the band´s move towards a more song orientated sound. At the time of recording, the band had no record deal, but later that year they signed to the Snapper/K-Scope label and in March of 1999, the album "Stupid Dream" was issued, supported by a lengthy tour of the UK, Italy, Greece, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Poland, and the USA. The three singles taken from the album - "Piano Lessons," "Stranger By the Minute," and "Pure Narcotic" - all achieved mainstream exposure in the US and in Europe and appeared well placed in the UK independent charts and on radio station playlists. Although initially the album was such a departure that some older fans were unsure, it brought the band many new fans and went on to become the band´s best selling and most acclaimed release to date.

The time spent looking for a record deal had not been wasted and only a few months after the release of "Stupid Dream," the band were ready to begin work on a follow up, recorded during the transition into the new millennium and completed in February 2000. With string arrangements provided by Dave Gregory of XTC, "Lightbulb Sun" built on the mix of songwriting, soundscaping, and rock dynamics of "Stupid Dream," but developed it into something altogether more intense and organic, a band confidently in control of their sound. The album was released in May, 2000, preceded by the single "Four Chords That Made a Million." A sold out show at the Scala in London began a short run of UK shows, to be followed later in the year by European festival dates and a major tour supporting Dream Theater.

The band continued to tour through the end of 2000 and the start of 2001, including their first major tour of Germany. A special double CD edition of the Lightbulb Sun album was issued in Israel and Germany, and in May, "Recordings," a limited edition collection of EP tracks and out-takes from the previous two albums, was released as the band´s final release under their Snapper/KScope contract. In June 2001 the band played a short US tour, culminating in a sold out show at the Bottom Line in New York City. Shortly afterwards Porcupine Tree announced that they had signed a new international record deal with Lava/Atlantic Records.

In February 2002 Porcupine Tree´s first ever line-up change occurred when drummer Chris Maitland departed after eight years with the band. The band welcomed extraordinary drummer and long term acquaintance Gavin Harrison to the line-up.

In March, as a major retrospective box set of the band´s early work, "Stars Die - the Delerium Years 1991-97" was released, the band commenced recording their first major label album, drawing from a pool of 30 new songs written by Steven in the previous two years. Sessions took place in New York and London, with veteran engineer Paul Northfield (Rush, Ozzy Osbourne, Hole) and string arranger Dave Gregory also playing major roles in the making of the record. Mixing of the new album was completed in LA in May with Tim Palmer.

The eagerly awaited new album, "In Absentia," was released by Lava Records in September 2002 (European release Jan 2003). It was the band´s most accomplished and complete work to date, featuring a much heavier sound on some tracks, but also some of the band´s most beautiful and fragile works. The album received great praise worldwide and went on to become the band´s best selling album shifting over 100,000 copies in it´s first year of release, and charting in several European countries. The band also released a 5.1 surround sound version of the album, mixed by legendary Grammy award winning producer Elliot Scheiner, which went on to win the award for best 5.1 mix at the 2004 Surround Sound Music awards in LA. To promote the album the band undertook four tours of Europe and North America, including one with acclaimed Swedish metal band Opeth. On tour the new line up of the band was further augmented by additional touring vocalist/guitarist John Wesley.

During these tours the visual element of the band´s performance was taken to new heights with the involvement of filmmaker and photographer Lasse Hoile, who created a dark and surreal visual counterpoint to the PT´s music. The long promotional campaign for In Absentia ended on November 30th as the band played a homecoming show to a sold out London Astoria.

During 2003, Porcupine Tree also set up their own label and on-line store. The first release on the Transmission label was a studio session recorded for XM Radio, Washington, followed in 2004 by a recording from Polish radio in 2001. The band plan to use the label to issue a series of well recorded and packaged live and exclusive studio recordings.

2003 also saw the start of a lengthy reissue / remaster campaign, with many of the early albums expanded to double CDs. These reissues included a rerecorded / remixed version of the "Up the Downstair" album, and the reissue of "Stupid Dream" and "Lightbulb Sun" on Lava/Atlantic.

In early 2004 the band embarked on the recording sessions for an ambitious new Porcupine Tree album, "Deadwing", their second for Lava/Atlantic. The album takes it´s inspiration from a film script (and hopefully later a film) written by Steven with his filmmaker friend Mike Bennion. With the album sessions completed in November 2004, and the band´s total worldwide sales now approaching half a million units, demand for new music from the band was at an all time high, and increasing media coverage, word of mouth and fan-power continued to create interest in Porcupine Tree on a massive scale throughout the world.

"Deadwing" is scheduled for release in Europe and the US during the spring of 2005 as both a stereo and 5.1 surround sound album, preceded by the release of 2 singles, "Shallow" in the US, and "Lazarus" in Europe. The tour to promote the album commences in the UK at the end of March, and will continue throughout the year.

There is a special microsite decicated to the new album here (www.deadwing.com).