Steven Wilson promises another barefoot tour — oh, and a new album, too

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Steven Wilson has announced the highly anticipated follow up to his 2013 triumph The Raven That Refused to Sing [And Other Stories], to go with a series of European and UK dates.

Expect plenty of new songs from Hand. Cannot. Erase., due in February 2015 on Kscope, and also for Wilson to sing — as per usual — without any shoes on. It’s a practice Wilson says he’s favored as long as he can remember.

“I’ve always been like that, so it does begin at childhood,” Wilson tells us, in an exclusive Something Else! Sitdown. “I’ve basically always run around in bare feet, ever since I was a little kid. I’ve never been comfortable wearing shoes. I’m not wearing shoes now! [Laughs.] I find that, at every available opportunity, I would rather be bare foot. I guess that’s something that’s always been with me, ever since childhood. I don’t know why.”

Information on preordering Hand. Cannot. Erase. will be forthcoming. Wilson’s announced concert dates begin in March 2015 in the UK. The good news is, unlike in his earliest performances, Steven Wilson won’t have to worry about any foot-damaging debris.

“Not so much these days,” he tells us. “My stage crew, very considerately, cleans the stage. But in the old days, when I was playing small clubs with Porcupine Tree, I would come off some of the filthiest, most unhygienic stages in the world. I would have nails, bits of glass — once, I had a syringe — stuck in my foot. I had to go have an injection. Those days, thankfully, are gone now. But I have paid the price, in a way, from wanting to feel my most comfortable on stage.”

Nick DeRiso