Discussing his latest album “To the Bone,” Steven Wilson said the mainstream media has been a “barrier” for him to reach the larger audiences, telling Q104.3 (as transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar.com):
“The reality is that anybody that makes arts – whether it’s music or movies or books or painters or whatever they do – they really believe what they do is something special, and then it’s very natural to want to share that with as many people as possible.
“Now, if you have an obstacle in the way – which we call the mainstream media… Mainstream media has been very resistant to me. And I understand why. I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. Okay, a little bit maybe.
“Basically, mainstream media have been this barrier between me reaching the larger audience. Now, I don’t think what I do is particularly difficult. Okay, it’s not mainstream pop, but there’s enough melodies, there’s enough that’s very accessible about the music and I believe there is a potentially very large audience out there [for it].
“So there is this frustration when you’re unable to reach the potential of those. The best way I can describe it is – I think that everyone that likes music already has decided they’ve had the opportunity to decide whether they like Radiohead or whether they don’t like Radiohead. Because everyone’s had the opportunity to hear Radiohead. So they’ve decided, ‘Yes, I love Radiohead,’ ‘I don’t like Radiohead.’
“I would say 90% of the potential audience for rock music still don’t know who I am. So they haven’t had their opportunity to decide whether they like my music or not. If they don’t like it, that’s fine. But I just want them to have the opportunity to hear the music to decide whether they like it or not. That is a frustration and I think that’s a frustration that anybody that makes music or any art would feel.”
You can watch the interview below.
