Radio Metal : How did the tour with Anathema go ?

Colin Edwin : It was really good. It was the second part of the “Fear of a blank planet tour”. We did two legs, America and Europe and then the same again. It was really good. They’re great guys to have around. They’re a lot of fun.

It looks like you’ve built a friendship with this band. You went on tour with them, Steven produced Anathema’s new album, so could a musical collaboration be possible ?

I don’t know. Maybe. Who knows ? We’ve actually toured with them before in the past as well, in 2005. But yes, we never know. Who knows ?

What do you expect of your performance here, at the Hellfest, in front of a more “metal” or “extreme” audience ?

It might be surprising, but I like to think that “metal people” are quite open-minded and they make metal not as narrow as some other people think, so I’m pretty confident that it will go quite well. We played Download Festival last year, and one of the things about Download is that there’s a heavy crowd there as well. And it went well. It’s very good for us and we got a lot of new people who came to the band because of that, so it’s good.

Are you going to adapt your set accordingly with more aggressive songs ?

Yes, we’ll probably do some of the more “heartbeat” heaviest stuff. The thing about festivals is that you’re a kind of a “against the elements” as well so you don’t really want to do anything to be subtle. It’ll probably be a more “heartbeat” set, yeah.

Let’s talk now about “Fear of a blank planet”. How is it to work with Robert Fripp and Alex Lifeson ?

The thing with technology in these days is that the collaboration is kind of minimal. You can send music to people, they can do their thing, and they can send it back to you. They have a lot more freedom, because you ujust give them something to do and they do it. You’re not there saying “won’t you try this or won’t you try that” and they don’t necessarily make suggestions about what you’re doing. I think the result is very good. We knew Robert Fripp, we went on tour with him before, so there’s a bit of a connection between us. Alex Lifeson, we met him a couple of times. He came to one of the gigs we did in Canada. He’s a very nice guy and was obviously interested in playing on the record so why not ?

Was it like a dream come true ?

A dream come true ? Hum, it’s great when somebody of that status is interested in what you’re doing. It’s good for your ego (laughs). There’s two sides to the “guest thing” : sometimes it’s good to be the four of us, when you’re interacting together and sometimes it’s good to have an injection of somebody completely different.

Was it a way for you to go back to your progressive rock roots ?

No, I don’t think so. It’s like a validation in a way because these guys are interested in what we’re doing.

Since “Lightbulb Sun”, there’s a pronounced “metal side” in Porcupine Tree. In “Fear of a blank planet”, you said that Messhuggah was one of you influences. Will you continue to be inspired by the more extreme side of metal in the future ?

We don’t really know what’s going to come out until we do it. I think that the four of us are very opened to hearing different things. One thing that we share between ourselves is an interest in what’s going on musically with other bands. We’re very interested into the more extreme side of things because it’s not what you hear often. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. It might be nice to do something completely acoustic to go completely against all expectations.

What kind of “extreme metal” do you listen to ?

I’m a big fan of “Fantomas”, even if it’s not really “extreme metal”. I like what’s really surprising.

Every Porcupine Tree member has a side-project. Do you think it makes the band stronger ?

Yes, I think so. The thing about having spent such a long time together on tour can actually make you run out of things. The crew, the band, it’s very much like a “in closed environment” you know, so for me, personally, it’s very nice to do something completely different. And when we come back together again, it’s great, because we have the time to do our own thing. It makes us stronger.

Is it something you would recommend to other bands ?

Bands are made of personalities and it might not suit everybody to do that. Some bands rehearse every day, get together every day during years and years and that’s a big part of what they do. We value the time away from the band as much as the things we do when we get together.

Steven Wilson refused for a long time to describe his music as “progressive metal”, because at the time, progressive rock was limited to technical music. Porcupine Tree’s strength lies in the atmosphere and the complexity of its structures. Do you consider yourselves as good musicians in the technical sense of the word ?

I really don’t think about that, to be honest. You can have a band of very good musicians that doesn’t sound well.

Could you give an example ? (laughs)

I don’t want to get into that and I know what you’re thinking (Laughs) You know, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole but for me, one of the attractions of playing is when you’re doing a live concert, you’re creating an atmosphere and it’s something unique. That’s more important for me than standing there with my bass and thinking how fast I can move my fingers. The thing is that the word “progressive” has been a sort of a dirty word for a long time but it doesn’t seem to be anymore.