My son interviewed Steven Wilson too, just before his 2013 Australian tour of The Raven That Refused To Sing.
AFAIK, the tremolo (picking) terminology comes from the classical world. It’s a simple way to get sustained notes with varying dynamics on plucked strings.
Here’s a detailed explanation about tremolo picking in the classical mandolin world:
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totally makes sense. I’ll buy it. but these days, the metal thing is the most common usage. Just google it and here’s what you get:
I doubt that most common within YouTube search results implies ´most common these days’. Especially not for a technique this widespread on plucked instruments. But YMMV.
really? ok.
Listen to Arab Oud music etc., lots of tremelo.
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Yes! My favorite tradition for that!!
Execution is different with the fingers instead of a plectrum, but I also loooove the way flamenco guitarists use tremolo:
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Yeah, I immediately thought of Arab music when I watched that video.
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BTW, another Steven WIlson remix about to be released in October (including 5.1 surround): Tears For Fears “The Seeds Of Love”
Points to whoever can make some “hipster progressive north american black metal” in VCV Rack 
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perhaps mechanical advantage is needed,.
I think I know someone…
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old people might be reminded of the “gizmotron”?
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i remember reading an article about it back in the 90s. And seeing a photo of Peter Cook (the satirst) holding one. It seems like kind of a poor idea though.
Yeah, e bow was a lot more popular. I have one of those.
All my childhood, I dreamed of just being able to play the guitar, and now I dream of playing like these guys. Then I wanted my parents to give me a guitar, and now I can buy anything for myself. I often buy new guitars and various accessories for them. My last discovery was the ironageaccessories.com website. There you can buy quality products for your guitar and read interesting articles about music and this instrument. Most of all, I like their picks in different styles; it seems to me that this is a cool idea that will reflect your personality through your instrument. These guys have a very cool service, so you can safely turn to them for help.
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In the OP, the first and third examples involve multiple strings, so I’d call it “strumming really fast”.
One of my favourite examples of it:
Ah, you beat me to it.
Notice also that he plays a left-handed guitar but strings it right-handed. And no whammy bar. For that reason I disqualify his music genre as “Surf Guitar”. “Instro Guitar” is more like it. Nothing wrong with that.
Some on-and-off alternate picking (starting around 29 seconds in):
Surprise, surprise - Contrary to the impression the name and album art gives, Daikaiju is from Huntsville Alabama.
Dick Dale learned from his Greek uncle, who played (a bouzouki?) with a quill!
I dunno about that, that’s him on this song “KING OF THE SURF GUITAR”, his picture on the sleeve too
