Prog Features

Committed to a unique musical approach they’d developed over a decade, they feared they’d spend their careers trapped in the underground. And they expected a backlash when they asked for fan support – but they needn’t have worried

From post-punk icon and award-winning female solo artist to becoming regarded as just the prog mastermind’s wife, her rebellious creative energy is fired by Roxy Music, Devo, The Tubes and all things off the wall

Members of the band who influenced Steven WIlson, Radiohead, Opeth, Andy Partridge and more explain what they did and why it mattered

2017’s The Desaturating Seven was Les Claypool’s bid to explore the darkness of a 1970s children’s story, harnessing the influences of King Crimson, Tool and Sean Lennon

The dark prog-pop band’s second album Stygian Wavs is confirmation they’re a band in their own right, even if they quickly abandoned attempts to work together in the same room

The lead track from 1990’s Empire explores an unusual subject – but its singer argues it proved to be the right song at the right moment

Keyboardist on Kate Bush’s baking, Frank Zappa’s humour, Patrick Moraz’s romance, Eva Cassidy’s mystery – and buying his own band’s album from Amazon

50 years after the release of Soon Over Babaluma, the founding keyboardist reflects on what he calls “the last of our best albums”

The cream of the Canadian trio Rush's later years

2017 solo album saw him determined to look forward as he said escaping Pink Floyd was like “driving away from a dodgy wedding with cans dragging behind the car, rattling all the time”

Even though a lost account password threatened production, 2023 concept album The Future Never Waits is a death-to-life analysis of why humans keep corrupting everything

The 1991 album remains a controversial work for many – but for most of the musicians from both sides of the Yes divide, the road trip was its saving grace

It’s always been about music for the veteran guitarist, although distractions have included catching fire at the band’s first gig, realising he should be much richer than he actually was, and an alternative career he came close to pursuing

Released soon after Folklore, their 10th album merged mythology, astrology and astronomy to deliver Englishness to the world

Inspired by a bear, a moose and a wolf, new album Birna is extending the band’s “beautiful broken family” as they tell modern tales through ancient instruments

Jonas Renske didn’t stop writing when the dark Swedish troupe went on hiatus – which made it all the shorter

Now touring with King Crimson offshoot Beat, the Bowie, Shatner and Hancock collaborator has long been confident that the future is secure on the road – which pleases him because he loves it

When The Damned guitarist Captain Sensible tried to share his passion for early prog band Egg on a radio show, it didn’t go well. But he still loves their work

Latest Jethro Tull album Curious Ruminant has Ian Anderson reflecting on his hammy stage performances of the past, working with William Shatner and Mikael Åkerfeldt, and how the band could have a back-to-basics future