Wilson was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. He attended Breckenbeds Junior High School in Low Fell, then Heathfield Senior High School. In the late 1980s he studied music at A-level at Newcastle College, where he conducted a variety of ensembles including a 96-piece orchestra and choir for a concert version of West Side Story. He wrote and directed his own pantomime during this period and he also conducted for many local amateur dramatic societies. Later he studied composition and conducting at the Royal College of Music, and during this time won the Tagore Gold Medal for outstanding academic excellence.