User:Zunaira Muzaffar

Steven Wilson and his art of storytelling by his Music

“Routine,” is one thing that can keep you moving even during the hardest times of your life even if it is so hurtful and hard to do so. Steven John Wilson’s song “Routine” has depicted this small theory in the most emotional and heartfelt way possible. Steven Wilson is one of the most successful British singers you can find. At the age of eight he got inspired by the Christmas gifts his parents exchanged and discovered his interest in music. He ended up to be not only a musician but singer, song writer and a record producer. As a founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and a songwriter his first band is Porcupine tree. He has been a member to several other bands as well. His most inspiring works are the ones he did as a solo artist. This can also be noticed as he has been nominated for Grammy’s Award for six times and out if these six three times he was nominated as a solo artist. He is a self-taught producer, composer, audio engineer, guitarist, keyboard player and can play other instruments as needed. This shows the diversity in his abilities as he has accomplished multiple genres in his field of work.

The most inspiring work he has done is the art of storytelling through his songs such as “Routine,” “The Raven that refused to sing,” “Hand. Cannot. Erase.” and several others. Especially The Raven has taken his art of story telling to a totally new level as every song is connected to a short story written by Hajo Muller. Wilson has declared that “Hand. Cannot. Erase.” is inspired by a true story of Joyce Carol Vincent who had cut the ties with everyone she knew before her death and her body was found in her apartment in London after two years of her death. Steven Wilson has used media elements and videography for his storytelling to illustrate protuberant concerns in today’s society, such as the relation of social media and isolation, as well as loss. Wilson’s collaboration with the videographer Jess Cope for his song “Routine” has shown an incredible work of combining the story world and human experience in the form of music and performance. “Routine” is the story of an isolated, left alone mother who has lost all of her family in a school shoot and now having to live alone she tries to cope up with her life by keeping her routine of everyday. “In interviews, Wilson describes his aim to communicate his album narratives through multi-dimensional modes of artistic expression, including texts, music, and images, as well as a variety of media, including CDs, DVDs, music videos, internet blogs, and elaborate special edition books featuring artwork and other material artifacts” (Burns 95). So far, he is very much successful in achieving his aim and making the best use of his gifted abilities.

Sources:

Burns, Lori, and Laura McLaren. "Interpreting the Materials of a Transmedia Story World: Word-music-image in Steven Wilson’s Hand. Cannot.

Erase. (2015)." The Bloomsbury handbook of music production (2020): 392-404.

Burns, Lori. "Steven Wilson’s “The Raven That Refused to Sing”." The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis: Expanding Approaches

(2018): 95.

Blakeley, Ryan. Genre and Influence: Tracing the Lineage of Timbre and Form in Steven Wilson's Progressive Rock. Diss. Université

d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa, 2017.