“I told him, ‘If the guitar’s out of tune, you can’t tune it”: Steven Wilson’s bid to avoid “vanilla prog”

Steven Wilson says he set rules for his band while making *Requiem For A Village* to keep its sound unusual and avoid what he calls “vanilla prog”. He wanted to embrace dissonance, imperfections and unexpected sounds, while building a distinctive musical vocabulary rather than following familiar 1970s progressive rock conventions.

Wilson told his guitarist Randy to play his guitar as it was, even if it had drifted out of tune. He also used instruments he does not know how to play, including violin, drums and oboe, seeking ideas through his limitations. The album is his ninth solo release and features XTC’s Andy Partridge and actor David Tennant; Wilson has discussed the possibility of a sequel exploring its village concept.