Page 60 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

not. I understand why kids are more drawn to
that. I got in a lot of trouble online because I was
very rude about Greta Van Fleet, but I stand by
everything I said. What are kids gonna listen to?
[Rapper] Tyler, The Creator doing this radical
urban music that speaks to them about modern
life, or this embarrassing sort of Take That-meets-
Led Zeppelin parody?

You’ve also released the first new No-Man album
in more than a decade, billed as ‘progressive
melancholy disco’. Being a fan of the likes of Donna
Summer and Daft Punk, you must enjoy a boogie
yourself from time to time?
I love it. I’ve always loved electronic music.

You’re at a wedding, everyone’s had a few. What
gets you throwing shapes?
Well [slightly dodging the question] I did the playlist
for when we had the wedding here – loads of
ABBA, loads of Prince. When I was a teenager,
Prince was the guy I had posters of on my wall.
That joyous approach to dance music, electronic
music, music that has a groove to it… that element
has pretty much always been there.

What’s your personal ‘cheese’ threshold in terms
of music?
I could quite happily pontificate about the genius
of The Rubettes – they were the real arse-end of
early-70s glam-pop – but some of the songs are
amazing. Long before it was fashionable to do
Steven Wilson on so, I was telling people ABBA were genius. I love
stage in Tel Aviv, incredibly over-sentimental music: Sinatra, The
February 2019. Carpenters are one of my favourites, and Prefab
Sprout, some of those lyrics are really syrupy but
do that people really liked was just talk to the album-orientated rock music. And were it not I love it. But no, I don’t have a cheese threshold
audience – talk bollocks, talk like me. You realise for people like yourself and Classic Rock and Prog – and I’m suspicious of anyone who says that
that the cult of personality is a big part of what magazine still providing a conduit to the people they do.
makes pop and rock music tick. who love that kind of music, it gets tougher every
time. When you have massive organisations like You’ve just announced a series of arena shows for
Why did it take you so long to figure that out? Spotify actively ignoring rock music – as they 2020. It’s a long way from Porcupine Tree’s debut
I think it’s because the first bands that really excited admit they do – it is a problem. Tarquin’s Seaweed Farm.
me were bands where the opposite was true, like Indeed. But it’s taken thirty years to get there, and
Pink Floyd, where it was almost about subsuming Plenty of people still pigeonhole you as the boy you know there are some bands that make that
the personalities into this conceptual, intellectual wonder of 21st-century prog, but your own tastes jump in three years. I haven’t got a chip on my
cool. I still love that, but as I’ve grown older I’ve are much more diverse. shoulder – well, maybe a little – but I’m massively
moved slightly away from that frame of mind. I think that when you’re talking about a particular happy to have finally got there.

What have you struggled with the most A couple of years ago you said you’d
in your first decade as a solo guy? sacrificed having a family for music.
As a solo artist I pay for everything, and “I love incredibly over-sentimental Now you have a wife and two stepkids,
sometimes the vision I have just isn’t music. Sinatra, The Carpenters, it seems there’s a balance in your life.
viable financially. I employ world-class Of course. But I still think it’s partly
musicians, a world-class crew, I have Prefab Sprout... some of those lyrics true that I wouldn’t have achieved
a lot of visual aspects, multiple screens, what I have now if I had had a family
quadraphonic sound… The phrase, are really syrupy but I love it.” all these years. I mean, for To The
I think, is ‘punching above your weight’. Bone I disappeared on tour for fifteen
Even on the last tour, I was playing quite big venues magazine like Prog or Classic Rock, your months. I’m not going to do that again. This is part
in some cities, but then I was doing a tiny club in demographic is… [thinks] I’m generalising here, of the reason why the arena shows are happening,
a place called Pensacola in Florida to about two but a lot of them, I suspect, have a set of parameters because I want to do fewer shows, bigger scale. Yes,
hundred people and still presenting this ridiculous within which the music they like sits. But there’s it does change the way I think about my career,
show. But it was that mentality that says: “Well if a larger world out there that now listens to music but I’m fifty-two, so I don’t necessarily think in
those two hundred people come to the show and in a less engaged way, but they don’t have those the same way I did when I was thirty. When I was
are blown away, they’ll tell their friends.” kinds of parameters. And in some respects it is an thirty, everything was focused on the music. And it
exciting time. Part of the problem with growing still is to an extent, but not to the exclusion of all
Is there anything that you regret? up in the shadow of classic rock and The Beatles else any more.
If I have a regret, it’s not something within my is that you’re very much aware of the rules. And
power to change, which is that the industry has what’s really exciting about urban music – which is The Future Bites arena tour takes place in
moved away from the thing that I do – conceptual, very dominant in the mainstream – is that they’re September 2020. GETTY

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