Special Edition Steven Wilson Album Raises £10,000 For Music Venue Trust

Have you got 10 large sitting around to spend on records? Of course not. But if you did, would you spend it on one single album? One single album that you hadn’t even heard? Someone has – or rather, had – and spent their wedge on an ultra-limited, 1-of-1 Ultra Deluxe Music Product On Obsolete Media Edition of the forthcoming new Steven Wilson album, The Future Bites, featuring the record, loads of goodies like his GRAMMY nomination certificate, and two new songs.

“This approach is more analogous with the world of art, where only one person can own the actual painting with the artist’s brush strokes on it. Many of the contents are things that in reality are impossible for me to put a price on,” Steven explains. “With regard to the two exclusive audio items included, it’s entirely up to the purchaser as to whether they decide to share, or keep them to themselves. Do they want to exhibit ‘the painting’, or put it on ‘display’ for everyone else?”

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But the man is a good lad, and every penny raised from this wheeze is going straight to the Music Venue Trust, to continue to help venues pay the bills when there’s no money coming in.

“The first Porcupine Tree show was in a small club called The Nag’s Head in High Wycombe, in fact for the first 10 years the band gigged solely in that subterranean world of clubs and pub venues,” he says. “As someone who has never really been a part of the mainstream I can safely say I wouldn’t even be here without these venues and the people who run them. Live music is an inspiration and magical thing for so many people, so it’s essential we work now to save these places for future generations of both artists and fans.”

If you stayed in bed too long this morning and missed out on this ridiculous bargain, don’t worry – Steven has, as a Black Friday treat, also released the first song from the album, Personal Shopper, complete with consumerism-dystopia-tastic video by director Lucrecia Taormina.

“Personal Shopper sits somewhere between being a love-letter to shopping – an activity I love – and the uneasy feelings I have about the more insidious side of modern consumerism,” he explains. “Lucretia’s blackly comic video captures that dilemma perfectly."

“The track is a social criticism of consumerism and how we fill our lives with unnecessary goods to feel important, special or loved,” adds Lucrecia. “But the truth is, the feeling of unhappiness won't go away with the next pair of sick trainers. Those feelings will only go away when we look within, and if we don't... well, then we're going to end up with a lot of stuff around us, but still pretty empty. Luckily the track being 6 minutes gave me the opportunity to develop an interesting narrative. I wanted to create a fictional world in which people buy goods and the transaction would not only be money but also a part of their body, alluding to the concept of the more you look for answers outside, the more you disappear on the inside.”

A more affordable version of The Future Bites is released on January 12 via Caroline.

To be a good person and help support venues, visit Music Venue Trust.

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