Anderson doesn’t own CD player, a turntable or a 5.1 surround system.
When asked how he feels about Steven Wilson’s 5.1 surround mixes of Jethro Tull's classic albums, Anderson dropped an interesting tidbit: his main form of music consumption is digital audio files with headphones on.
“The ones that Steven has done, I have heard because I’ve been to his studio to hear the 5.1 surround mixes, but because of the pandemic and COVID I didn’t go to visit," he says. "Jakko Jakszyk did the 5.1 surround of
The Zealot Gene, and although I’ve received my copies of it, I have no means to play it. I don’t have a CD player because they no longer put CD players in Apple computers, and I don’t have a record player, and I don’t have a 5.1 surround system. So I’m afraid for me it’s just a mystery. But I trust that Jakko did a good job. If he didn’t, someone will probably tell me and follow by telling him, but I don’t know. I don’t do 5.1 surround. It’s just too many speakers. If I spent maybe a quarter of a million dollars on a control room with great speakers and great state-of-the-art systems, then it would be a joy to listen to, and other people’s music, too, I suppose. But I have better things to do with my money than build an elaborate control room system, especially when it’s employing technology that will be outmoded within two or three years. Right now, you’d have to go further than that and put in Dolby Atmos with 11 or 12 channels; it’s just become mind-bogglingly complicated. I’m not a big music listener anyway, so when would I ever go and listen to anything? That’s just not going to happen. If I listen to music, on the rare occasions I do, I’m listening to digital audio files with headphones on.”
Steven Wilson's recently completed remixes for The Broadsword and the Beast will be released as part of the “most elaborate box set ever.”
“Steven Wilson finished all the audio on
The Broadsword and the Beast some many months ago," Anderson reveals. "All the album artwork and the booklets and the extras, a vast amount of material, both audio and in terms of information and text materials, are done — it’s the most elaborate box set ever by a long way. It’s to be released in July of 2022 and that for now is the project I suppose that’s the focus of attention at Warner Music.
Tim Chacksfield is the main man behind these catalog rereleases. I guess we’ll be talking in the months to come. What should we do next? Whether or not Steven Wilson wants to do any more, I don’t know. He’s really a fan of the Jethro Tull of the ’70s because he was a young guy then. Before he became a musician, I think his era of Jethro Tull music, being a fan, that’s really encapsulated within the 1970s. So he was stretching it a bit to do
Broadsword and the Beast, and I’m not sure that he’ll want to do any more beyond there, but we’ll see. He’ll certainly be welcome if he decides he wants to.”
https://www.goldminemag.com/intervi...gs-we-learned-from-our-ian-anderson-interview