photo: Martin Bostock
Anil Prasad interviewed keyboardist Richard Barbieri for his Innerviews website about Japan, Porcupine Tree, his solo career and his latest album Hauntings:
I’m always searching for that little spark that lights the flame and leads the way. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been a lot more introspective and thinking about things. Also, this has to do with my age and the kind of career I’ve had. I look back a lot and try to make sense of things, and I do tend to internalize.
I realized I was quite obsessed with this nostalgic feeling I had for things, and not just for things that happened, but for things that didn’t happen. They would get into my dreams as recurring events, places, and characters. It got me thinking about reality and how much of it is real.
Also, in 20 years, if we’re all going to put on headsets and live our lives in a different, virtual world, is that also a kind of reality? So, the idea of a nostalgic look at things interested me and formed a little bit of the concept for the album.
There are certain tracks that are very much sound design-based and are representations of sound worlds of where I go in these dreams. They’re about things I relate to very strongly, even if I’m not aware that I actually ever experienced them. They also involve real memories and even a warped look into the future.
Hauntings will be released on April 10th via KScope (vinyl, CD, digital). It is available for pre-order here.
