My favourite Blackfield song is Cloudy Now. I understand this was an older song from Aviv which you reworked for Blackfield. Are the lyrics a literal translation?

STEVEN: That's one of Aviv's songs, and with Aviv coming from Israel... There's two things about Aviv, first he comes from Israel which is a country of lots of problems, as you are probably aware, political problems particularly, and problems with peace. The state of life in Israel is not as easy as it is for a lot of us. And the other thing is that he came from a very traumatic family, childhood, you know his parents and all that stuff. So that song is very much about him and his childhood and his upbringing and his country and as you know it kind of climaxes with a kind of primal scream "we are a fucked up generation". And I particularly wanted us to redo that song because the song is 15 years old and originally in Hebrew and I wanted to redo it in English, because I think it is something which people all over can relate to. We ARE a fucked up generation. You know, we are the first generation that has more time to wait, to stand, and more money and more leisure time than any other previous generation, and yet what do we do with it? We go to McDonald's, we watch MTV, we spend time downloading cell-phone ringtones, we spend time pissing about on the Internet. We have all this time and all this money and we don't really make use of it and I'm really worried about the younger generation, the younger generation that is brought up in this world. They're so kind of shallow in their appreciation in life and the deeper things in life and Hollywood is so dominant and American culture is so dominant and American junkfood is so prevalent. You know, we are really fucked up, and that song was so universal, it deserved to be taken out of Hebrew and out of Israel and given to the world. I think that song also paved the way for Fear [of a Blank Planet]... really as the idea really interested me.

Rumour has it that you hate interviews, but we have been talking for so long now already that I can only say that it is a rumour indeed ...

STEVEN: Who said that??? That is absolutely NOT true, I love interviews, I could talk with you for hours. I am especially interested in the history of music and I really enjoy analysing music and discuss music with lots of people; any kind of music.

Even prog? In the past you have become quite furious when people called your music progressive rock

STEVEN: [raises voice slightly] well, NOT furious, but... what I have been is... I... [calms down] yeah, ok, I mostly refuse if I'm being lumped in with so-called "neo"prog. I don't like to be lumped in with those kind of bands. Fortunately it doesn't happen anymore, but it used to happen a few years ago. But now for me progressive is... I can certainly see how people can arrive at that conclusion. But I've tried to - particularly when I've been interviewed I've tried to get the journalists away from progressive rock because for me Porcupine Tree is bigger than that, you know.

I think the ultimate goal of any band should be to create their own sound. You almost create your own genre. So the thing that really makes me angry is when we're described as 'the new Pink Floyd' or something like that. For me that is so insulting because it insinuates that you are living in the shadow of some other band. I particularly never wanted to be the new anybody, I just wanted to be the old Porcupine Tree, or the new Porcupine Tree. And so that kind of pisses me off. It is a very unfortunate side of journalism, a lazy side of journalism that somehow reduced every band as a list of other bands. Like a cross between da-da-da, you know?

Well, we are supposed to do that because we have to refer to other bands to describe the sound.

STEVEN: I know, yes and I know in a sense that it is difficult for you guys too. How do you describe music? I write reviews too occasionally [for the Mexican edition of Rolling Stone -ed.] and I know how difficult it can be. It's like architecture, you can't really write about that either. It's actually ridiculous in the first place to be writing about music and to describe music that ultimately should be indescribable. And I think real music is indescribable. You cannot describe the experience. So in that sense I kind of shied away from being stuck in a genre, or being described as progressive rock. It's kinda lazy. Obviously the band is so much more than that. The band can span everything from death metal licks to ambient to pop melodies to progressive rock.

But actually that is progressive rock what you are now describing; incorporating those different styles into one blend...

STEVEN: You're right, but to most people progressive rock means the blueprint that was created 30 years ago and has not moved on. And no, you're right, genuine progressive rock, and I think there are some great progressive bands out, like The Mars Volta, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Tool, Sigur Rףs, Radiohead - that's genuine progressive rock. But to most people progressive rock is still a style of music that was made 30 years ago. And that's the problem, and most people have a kind of immediate image of what progressive rock means and it's not always the right one unfortunately.

RICHARD: Steven has indeed tried to disassociate himself from progressive music. We all feel that what we are doing is not retrospective. We do look forward and we do try to find new ways of making music. We use modern technology. We look forward and we try to be a bit experimental. On the other hand the background does come from a classic prog-seventies-kinda idea, which then was new and cutting edge.