News : Steven Wilson says his Guns N’ Roses spatial audio remixes have been shelved: “The band didn’t like what I was doing”

Steven Wilson has said that his Guns N’ Roses spatial audio remixes have been shelved by the band.

The Porcupine Tree frontman began remixing classic albums back in 2009 and has since created spatial audio reinterpretations of records by Tears For Fears, ABC, Chic, Ultravox, Suede, The Who, and Van Morrison.

Spatial audio is an immersive audio technology that creates a 3D sound experience which feels like sounds are coming from different directions and distances, as opposed to just the left and right.

In a new interview, however, he’s revealed that the work he did on the Guns N’ Roses albums ‘Use Your Illusion I’ and ‘Use Your Illusion II’ wasn’t popular with the band, and was shelved despite being a full remix of nearly 40 songs, including outtakes and B-sides.

“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.”

Earlier this year, Wilson spoke to NME about his spatial audio mixes, theorising on where the technology could go next to make music even more immersive.

“Atmos sound has nothing below you, and you could have speakers underneath. But the big innovation won’t necessarily be in expanding spatial,” he explained. “I think it’s how to bring it into a live context. Right now, it’s tricky, as you need a week to acoustically calibrate and tune it, and that’s not practical when you play a new city every night. But it’s interesting to see more venues having spatial audio already installed, like The Sphere in Las Vegas.”

“If more venues do that, it gives artists chance to tour a more immersive show. I hope that will be a big progress over the next few years.”

In other news, earlier this year, Wilson released his eighth studio album ‘The Overview’, which is comprised of two, 20-minute long tracks. The release coincided with Playboi Carti‘s fourth LP ‘Music‘, which took the Number One spot in the album charts, blocking what could have been the first Number One of Wilson’s career.

He later spoke about the chart battle and said that he’s “yet to meet anyone who’s even heard of” the rapper.