Interview: Richard Barbieri

While perhaps better known for his work as a member of 80’s art pop group Japan and as a member of Steven Wilson’s progressive rock outfit Porcupine Tree, Richard Barbieri has contributed to the 1992 No-Man tour and the group’s first and second albums.

How did you first come across No-Man?

We (Jansen Barbieri Karn) were invited to a showcase performance by No Man at a West End club in London. I guess it was to attract press and general interest. Enjoyed the set and it was a fresh sound. Very of it’s time with cool beats but with a more original approach using violin, guitar and good use of sampled instrumentation. We liked it. Tim threw his mic to the floor and walked off during the last number which I imagine was for “artistic effect” After that it was very 50 /50 as to whether we wanted to involved, but we met them again at the studio and Tim’s enthusiasm won us over.

How would you describe Tim’s evolution as a songwriter and Steven’s evolution as a musician?

I think Tim has evolved by making good musical decisions over the years. By that I mean as producer he has chosen a set of diverse artists to work with and experimented with different styles and musical flavours. He’s very strong lyrically I feel. The context in which Tim’s voice and lyrics feature has been the key I think. As to Tim’s own vocal style, it hasn’t changed from day one. I can tell without fail at what point he is going to sing and the phrasing he is going to use.

Steven was overseeing pretty much all the music right from the beginning. He is an unstoppable creative force and can craft songs and arrangements in real time it seems. Working with Steven was strange at first because of the speed at which things move along. I had always been very methodical in my process, discarding many ideas in search of the perfect sound / overdub. So these rollercoaster recording sessions were daunting but I went with it. We had a good connection musically that continues to this day.

Any memorable nights from the No-Man/JBK tour?

The brief No-Man tour was a bit grim but fun as well. That’s basically what touring normally is anyway. Good conversations and jokes. My memory is bad as most people will know by now. I’m sure Steve Jansen will recall a few things.

How did “Heaven Taste” and “Sweetheart Raw” come about?

Errm, they asked us to play on those tracks?
(Steven was kind enough to elaborate on the origin of Heaven Taste in his interview)

Were there any tracks that JBK worked on with No-Man that didn’t make the album?

I can’t recall.

You’re credited with samples on Wild Opera. What songs do you appear on?

I’ve no idea. Presumably they used my performances from another session and placed them within another context on the album?
(Tim was kind enough to elaborate that Taste My Dream is the track in question)

Last year marked the 25th Anniversary of the Bowness/Barbieri album. Looking back are you happy with how well it has stood up over the years? What was the impetus to make an album with Tim in the first place?

Like Steven, Tim was more or less responsible for re igniting my love of music and enthusiasm for the album making process. I was pretty jaded at that point and generally cynical but their positive energy eventually rubbed off on me. Tim and I were both in South London at the time and would meet up a lot and have interesting conversations.

I did listen to some of those tracks recently and I really like what we did. But the technology at the time seemed to restrict a lot of the work I was doing. I had come from a studio environment where engineers were on hand to do all the technical work. That left the artist free to be creative and try multi layering ideas. In the 90’s working on budget restricted projects, a lot of artists invested in home recording technology, which was in my case was 16 track reel to reel Analogue and then ADAT machines. This required me to be engineer and technician as well as “recording artist”. I was still learning about recording, mixing, processing and making all the gear “talk” to each other – so had to compartmentalize my process. So, while I think the material sounds very good, it could’ve been so much better under different circumstances.

And a few others – How has your relationship (both professional and personal) with Steve Jansen evolved from over the years?

On a personal level, it’s been as good as it ever was. On a professional level – we haven’t made an album in 20 years! We have tentatively started throwing some ideas back and forth recently with a view to a new work. No idea how long that process will be, but it will evolve naturally. Or not.

Interest in Japan (and to a lesser extent the various solo releases) seems to have had a resurgence in the last few years, particularly among people my age. Are you surprised that this has happened?

Probably the increased presence of social media in everyone’s lives has influenced that. Much of the music I’ve been involved in has also proved to have longevity in terms of quality, interest and sales. So with every year comes a new anniversary re issue and renewed interest in the catalogue. This spills over into my solo works and each new release sells better and has a higher profile.

What prompted you to revisit “Buying New Soul” for the Variants series? Both the Porcupine Tree track and your solo version are favorites of mine.

It’s also one of my favorite PT tracks. The original writing session for this took place in the studio with full band and I initiated that particular jam with an ascending / descending sequence of notes that I had stored in my Midi Data filer. I started overlaying more keyboard lines and chords over that part and we used that as the intro to the song and also used my chords for the verses.

I decided to use that intro part to incorporate into a new piece of music for one of my “Variants” EPs.

Will the version of “Idiot Prayer” originally prepared for the Variants series ever get released?

I might release that on Bandcamp, with Steven and Colin’s permission.

How did the decision to expand Porcupine Tree to Bandcamp come about?

My idea. Since the presence of PT music on Spotify is something I’ve always voted and argued against, I thought why not make available some of PT’s rare or live music on a platform that actually would make us some money. So I put that to the band and they agreed to give this a try and it’s been worthwhile of course.

Music to me has a monetary value and there should be no shame in wanting to be paid for your work and talent. It means more to me if 10 people bought a cd as opposed to 1000 people giving it a listen for free.

Any new archival material in the works for Bandcamp?

There are some possibilities for Bandcamp going forward. I like the fact that I can apportion some works to labels with conventional promotion and some more obscurer pieces to Bandcamp where you can focus on your hardcore supporters who are interested in the more eclectic material.

And finally, do you think Mick would be happy with the renewed interest in his work and JBK as a whole?

Mick would be happy to know that his work still means so much to people.

Richard’s new album, Under a Spell, is available to purchase via KScope.