Steven Wilson has explained why he decided to only remix Black Sabbath‘s ‘Volume 4’, and not the rest of the band’s catalogue.
The Porcupine Tree frontman began remixing classic albums back in 2009 and has since reinterpretations of records by the likes of Tears For Fears, ABC, Chic, Ultravox, Suede, The Who, and Van Morrison.
One of his remix projects includes Black Sabbath’s classic album from 1972, ‘Volume 4’, which is the only work from the heavy rock band he has reworked. He spoke about why during a new interview with Noise11.
“The tapes were lost,” Wilson admitted in the interview. “So, that’s a classic example. And this has happened a few times over the years with me. The will to do it was there. The record company wanted to do it, the manager wanted to do it, I wanted to do it, and then they couldn’t find the tapes.”
“What they did find was some outtake reels of the band running through different takes of the songs. So, we did what we could, which is basically I mixed these outtakes, which I think are fascinating if you’re a fan of that record, to go back and hear the band running through many different takes of ‘Supernaut’ or ‘Wheels of Confusion’. There’s some great, great stuff there.”
He then explained some more of the background information about the status of master multi-track tapes of Sabbath’s other albums. He said: “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to mix the actual album, because the multi-track tapes have, as with the whole Sabbath catalog, they’ve pretty much disappeared, sadly.”
Watch the full interview below.
In other Black Sabbath-related news, the BBC pulled the Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home documentary from the broadcaster’s schedule just hours before it was due to air.
The one-off documentary was set to air on August 18 on iPlayer at 9pm, but was rescheduled without explanation, per The Mirror, who noted it had vanished from TV listings and had been replaced by an episode of Fake or Fortune.
A spokesperson for the BBC did not clarify the reason it had been pulled, but told the publication that the “film has moved in the schedules” and new premiere details will be shared “in due course”.
In other Steven Wilson-related news, the guitarist said that his Guns N’ Roses spatial audio remixes have been shelved by the band.
“Well, the challenges were the band didn’t like what I was doing,” Wilson said on the most recent episode of the Scars And Guitars podcast. “That came through the record company, and I did it all, and then the band basically vetoed it all. So the only thing that ever came out was my remix of ‘November Rain’, with a real orchestra added.”
He continued to say: “And that was a shame, ’cause that’s a lot of music on those records — I think I worked on about 40 songs, including outtakes, B-sides, and God knows what else. And then the band basically turned around and decided they didn’t like it.
“They didn’t like [Dolby] Atmos, they didn’t like the idea of their music being in spatial audio. So that project is kind of just sitting on my hard drive, unreleased and unheard. It’s such a shame. Amazing, amazing records. Amazing records. But yes, a shame in a way that it got sort of bogged down in band politics and God knows what else.”