As Porcupine Tree have entered a hiatus, Rock Overdose had the chance to talk with bassist Colin Edwin about the English prog rock band, as well as his latest project Burnt Belief. Enjoy the interview below.
Rockoverdose.gr: Hello Colin and welcome to Greece's Rockoverdose. How are you?
Colin: It's all good with me thanks....
Rockoverdose.gr: Let me start with your new live album “Octane Twisted” and how this idea came in your mind?
Colin: It's been a while since Porcupine Tree have done anything, and I think there was a demand for some kind of document from The Incident Tour, to date our biggest, longest and most successful world tour, not to mention the most ambitious, with the full 50 plus minute performance of The Incident song cycle. I really don't imagine we'd perform "The Incident" in its entirety again, so this is a great opportunity for people who missed the tour to hear a good live version, and for those that were there to hear an official live release.
Rockoverdose.gr: “Octane Twisted” can be purchased online for everyone that is interested. Why did you decide to sell it through internet?
Colin: There was no decision about only selling the album though the internet, "Octane Twisted" should be available in most retail outlets as well, as K-Scope, the label, distribute worldwide.
Rest assured however that if people choose to buy it from the bands own webstore, at (www.burningshed.com) then they are helping to support the band directly.
Rockoverdose.gr: Porcupine Tree is a band that never disappoints their fans. Is there any information about a possible new album?
Colin: There are no plans in place at this moment, so there's nothing I can tell you about a new album.
Rockoverdose.gr: You are from those bands that your music can be easily listened by many people with different music influences. How did you make it happen and what’s your inspiration?
Colin: Personally, I have always been bad at second guessing what people might like, in fact I am normally wrong about this, so it's very gratifying that Porcupine Tree's audience is from across the board. However, I always thought the band had a much bigger appeal than the smaller amount of people we were able to reach in the early days, we 've been able to grow steadily and organically with a lot of word of mouth and without hype and the fuss of mass media marketing, perhaps people respond to that, although it has been a very slow process.
There are a lot of different elements in the music, with the mix and different ideas that everyone in the band brings to the table, so I suppose that is reflected in the diversity of the audience.
Rockoverdose.gr: Let me ask you also about your album, “Burnt Belief”. When and how did you start thinking about making a project like that.
Colin: I went to the USA and worked with Jon Durant on his previous album "Dance of the Shadow Planets" in 2011. We both really enjoyed working together and found each other very musically compatible. Jon suggested in a vague way earlier this year that we should work together again, so we started on "Burnt Belief" in the Spring of this year.
However this time round it's much more of an equal partnership, rather than me being simply a bass player, so I have co-composed and co-produced "Burnt Belief" with Jon, as well as contributing electronics and programming.
For me, it's a logical development, playing Jon's music felt like a natural environment for me, so I had hoped we would work together again, and creating "Burnt Belief" together has proved to be both enjoyable and inspiring.
Rockoverdose.gr: I think we talk about a progressive post rock project and correct me if I am wrong.
Colin: I prefer to leave categorizations to journalists, otherwise it seems like you are thinking about the ingredients instead of enjoying the meal!
However, your description is, I guess, pretty accurate. There's also ambient, ethnic and improvised elements, the music is quite textural and layered but I hope it's also accessible and absorbing for the listener.
Rockoverdose.gr: Tell us some things about Burnt Belief.
Colin: The inspiration for the title comes from a really fascinating book I read last year called "When Prophecy Fails" which is a real-life study of a UFO cult in 1950's America. It was very thought provoking to me, the people observed in the book had what most of us would think of as ridiculous beliefs, but the majority of them continued to believe even when it all went wrong for them.
This type of thing has always fascinated me, we all remember the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the late 80's and early 90's, yet when visiting Moscow in 2008 with Porcupine Tree, I watched a small procession of old people marching with their red flags towards Lenin's tomb in Red Square, to the complete indifference of onlookers. I wondered how they saw themselves, as fanatics perhaps?, true believers, or keepers of some ideology that would one day be recognized as a great thing and rise again?
There are plenty of other examples, Christian fundamentalists who still believe in the Rapture, which was supposed to happen in 2011 but didn't, all those fanatical suicide bombers who believe they'll be rewarded in the next life as martyrs....the list goes on.
I guess we are all deluded to some extent, but how does each of us identify it in ourselves?
Jon and I have often discussed the lack of critical thinking going on in what we see round us, and the madness of what we can all accept as reality. So, whilst the album is instrumental and has no explicit lyrical message, there are threads running through our thinking that come out in the atmosphere of the music for sure.
We 've also chosen to release the album on December 21st this year, a completely inconvenient time to do so, but it coincides with the Mayan prophecy about the end of the world, the most current ridiculous belief going round right now.
Rockoverdose.gr: What about live shows? Is there any information for the Greek fans?
Colin: We are hoping to do some live performances of Burnt Belief, it's being discussed right now, and I hope we can make it viable.
Rockoverdose.gr: What do we have to expect from Porcupine Tree and Burnt belief in the future?
Colin: Whilst there are no firm plans for Porcupine Tree at the moment, I have no doubt that when the time comes it will be something special.
Burnt Belief is something that Jon Durant and I will definitely develop much further, hopefully as a live thing as well.
Rockoverdose.gr: What’s your opinion about Greece and Greek people?
Colin: I was born in Melbourne, Australia, which has the largest population of Greek people outside Greece itself, so I perhaps absorbed elements of Greek culture from a very early age. In truth, I would love to spend some more time in Greece, my visits have always been too short, and have always left me wanting more.
I also have some fantastic memories of the early Porcupine Tree shows in Greece; the amazing enthusiasm and warmth of the audiences, and the hospitality I've enjoyed. Our last visit in 2010 was really stunning, with a great atmosphere at both the shows we played in Athens and Thessalonika. I really hope the country can overcome its current problems and I hope it won't be too long before I get back there.
Rockoverdose.gr: If you could change one thing in the world what would it be?
Colin: The removal of canned laughter from comedy shows, it drives me mad.
Rockoverdose.gr: Thank you very much. I wish you all the best for your music activities and take care.
Colin: A pleasure!
For Rockoverdose.gr: Vivi Jd
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