{"id":327,"date":"2010-09-09T12:18:57","date_gmt":"2010-09-09T17:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=327"},"modified":"2010-09-09T12:18:57","modified_gmt":"2010-09-09T17:18:57","slug":"interview-the-pineapple-thiefs-bruce-soord-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2010\/09\/09\/interview-the-pineapple-thiefs-bruce-soord-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: The Pineapple Thief\u2019s Bruce Soord (part one)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Progressive rock band The Pineapple Thief recently released their latest album, <\/em>Someone Here is Missing. In my wide-ranging conversation with TPT leader and songwriter Bruce Soord, we discussed the concept of album-based music, the new record\u2019s distinctive artwork, and the inescapable comparisons between The Pineapple Thief and a couple of other well-known bands.\u00a0 Here\u2019s part one of our conversation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bill Kopp:<\/strong> The Pineapple Thief seems to fit in well with the growing consensus among some artists and fans that the album is an art form, or at the very least a viable medium, that should be preserved. In the face of download culture, you put together albums that are, if not thematically or conceptually linked, then sonically linked. When you’re writing music, do you think in grand terms of crafting an album? Or do you just write songs that reflect you current concerns and then pick and choose the ones that seem to hang together?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bruce Soord:<\/strong> Good question. Ever since I got into music, it was always album-based. I was never thinking, \u201cLet\u2019s listen to this snippet here, that one there.\u201d Apart from when the mates made me mixtapes, maybe. So when I\u2019m writing, I definitely think about the album. And I\u2019ve always got a definite idea in my mind what the order\u2019s going to be. I generally try to picture myself at the end when I\u2019m listening through to the album. You can\u2019t just have twelve tracks that are all sonically similar, even if they\u2019re all shit-hot songs. So I\u2019m always thinking, \u201cTo make the album work, it\u2019s got to go in this direction.\u201d And sonically it\u2019s got to have this feel, and you\u2019ve got to move away from that and go into this direction. So I\u2019m always thinking of the album as a whole. I\u2019m from a generation that was really before the i-generation, as it were.
\n
\nBill Kopp: <\/strong>Both 3000 Days<\/em> and Someone Here is Missing<\/em> are released in these extra-nice “super jewel boxes.” Is that a standard K-scope thing or is it something you lobbied for?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bruce Soord:<\/strong> The best thing that ever happened to me, and to The Pineapple Thief \u2013 was when we signed up to K-scope. Before that, we were on a tiny label called Cyclops. Now, at the time, that was brilliant, and I thanked my lucky stars that we could have albums pressed and distributed. But the guy that ran it had no money. So we just had the basic jewel case with a six-page wafer-thin booklet. And I had to come up with all the artwork and deliver the entire packet.<\/p>\n

But with K-scope, I think what they\u2019re doing is trying to fight against the sort of disposable \u201clet\u2019s download an MP3 and maybe pay for it\u201d [mentality]. I want something I can hold in my hand. I want to have an album. I remember growing up with vinyl, and with gatefold sleeves and massive booklets to flip through while you\u2019d sit down and listen to the album all the way through. And that\u2019s how K-scope shifts their units: they make it something that you want to hold.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp:<\/strong> There was a time \u2013 certainly during the seventies — when you bought something, you got something. In those days, in the USA, we only paid four or five dollars for an LP. But they were often in a gatefold sleeve, and there were pictures, and you could actually read the type. It was a total experience. And that\u2019s been lost. So to me it\u2019s encouraging that there are artists trying to hold onto that. And not coincidentally, they\u2019re the ones who often take the most thoughtful approach to the music as well.<\/font><\/p>\n

Bruce Soord:<\/strong> I hope so. What I\u2019ve noticed is that you may be viewed as a great success if you\u2019re top of the download charts with one of your singles, but ultimately it\u2019s a really fickle audience. The ones who buy the albums and stay with you \u2013 like our fan base, which is quite small — they hang around. They come to the gigs, they buy the t-shirts and the albums. And I think it\u2019s because they appreciate that the albums are more substantial.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp:<\/strong> It\u2019s the difference between LPs and 45s for people, really. If you bought a 45, you didn\u2019t necessarily care anything about the band; you just liked the hook in one song, so you bought it. And there was generally a throwaway on the b-side. So for you, do you look back upon a certain past era of rock music as a sort of Golden Age?<\/font>
\n
\nBruce Soord:<\/strong> When me and my mates were growing up back at school, it was in the New Romantic era and into sort of the grunge era. So we \u201crewound\u201d and went back to listening to music from the 70s. Pink Floyd<\/strong>, Led Zeppelin<\/strong>, all that stuff. And all the amazing artwork and packaging came with it. That was always the golden age; I would have loved to have grown up and been able to go to gigs in those days.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>The minute I saw the album artwork, I said out loud: Storm Thorgeson<\/strong>. There’s something ineffable about his work that just establishes it as his. Not quite like Roger Dean<\/strong>, because with him you think of Yes<\/strong>. With Storm, it’s more about a certain feel. His work brings on what I might call a “welcome unease.” I think in some ways, it might serve as a sort of coded shorthand to potential fans: “Look everybody, Storm did this cover.\u201d That tells you this is worth hearing if you like, well, anything else he’s been involved with. Do you think prog fans \u2013 or rock fans in general — think that way? <\/font><\/p>\n

Bruce Soord:<\/strong> I think so; I certainly do. I remember my memories of flicking through secondhand record shops. If you came across a cover that was really, really carefully constructed \u2013 like all of Storm\u2019s, and all of the Hipgnosis <\/strong>work \u2013 you\u2019d think, \u201cWell, if they\u2019ve gone to all that effort, then surely there\u2019s thought behind the music as well. Even if I don\u2019t like it, give it a bash. I\u2019ll buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the other thing about Storm, he generally works on projects only if he likes the music. Because he has to be inspired by what he hears before he comes up with the ideas. If you look at the work of Hipgnosis, the albums they\u2019ve worked on, there\u2019s definitely a theme. And it was definitely a good move for us. I\u2019m really glad to have had Storm work on the album art.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>So how did you end up working with him?<\/font><\/p>\n

Bruce Soord:<\/strong> Through Scott, K-scope\u2019s main design guy. Storm was doing an exhibition of his work at a London gallery. And Scott went down and had a cat with him, asking \u201cDo you ever work with smaller acts?\u201d Because he was pretty much only working on Muse<\/strong>, Biffy Clyro<\/strong> and Pink Floyd stuff. Do you know Biffy Clyro out in the States? They\u2019re a big rock band here.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>No. <\/font><\/p>\n

Bruce Soord:<\/strong> That\u2019s so funny\u2026they\u2019re huge here. They\u2019re just turning into a stadium act. They\u2019re pop-rock, a little bit of Rush<\/strong> influence\u2026good band. But anyway, they\u2019re a major signing to Warner Brothers, and that\u2019s the project that Storm had been working on. Check out their covers, and you\u2019ll recognize Storm\u2019s work straightaway.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>And I might dig the music, as we\u2019ve said\u2026<\/font><\/p>\n

Bruce Soord: <\/strong>Right. Anyway, so Storm said to Scott, \u201cYes, if I like the music.\u201d So that was it. They sent him the early demos, and Storm had me on a train up to his studio before I knew it. That was the beginning: I had a real good sense about the album if Storm was up for working on it.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>So he was hooked by the demos, not early or rough mixes?<\/font><\/p>\n

Bruce Soord: <\/strong>Yeah. The way that I record, I do most of the playing on the demos, so you can get a sense of how the song\u2019s going to sound quite early on [in the process]. The way it works, [the other musicians] play really loud, and then brainstorm all their ideas, their sketches.<\/p>\n

Bill Kopp: <\/strong>When you\u2019re putting an album together \u2013 and you spoke about this just a second ago \u2013 are the demos fully developed?<\/font><\/p>\n

Bruce Soord: <\/strong>I tend to put everything together. So when the band hears it, as far as the song goes, it\u2019s a finished product. The only difference is that they might say, \u201cI don\u2019t like this bit; let\u2019s change it.\u201d I\u2019m not entirely a dictator when it comes to the band. But that\u2019s the way I\u2019ve always worked.<\/p>\n

But the band\u2019s perfectly happy with this approach. They put their own stuff on it. John, the bass player, puts on his bass playing\u2026and we get what we get at the end.<\/p>\n

To be continued\u2026<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Progressive rock band The Pineapple Thief recently released their latest album, Someone Here is Missing. In my wide-ranging conversation with TPT leader and songwriter Bruce Soord, we discussed the concept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","cat-41-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}