COME TOGETHER
A quarter-of-a-century ago Bruce Soord founded The Pineapple Thief as a creative outlet for himself. Originally intended as a solo project, it soon grew beyond his expectations and the quartet’s latest album, It Leads To This, finds them switching things up even further. Prog catches up with Soord, drummer Gavin Harrison and bassist Jon Sykes to discuss their current release and find out why its creation turned out to be such a cathartic experience.
Words: Rich Wilson
The Pineapple Thief: no genital cuffs were involved in making their new album…
Images: Tina Korhonen
There’s
a slight air of world weariness about The Pineapple Thief. The band have been in Gavin Harrison’s studio, rehearsing for their upcoming tour to support their new album, It Leads To This, and there’s the sense that it’s been an elongated, potentially mildly frustrating day of missed cues and occasional bum notes.
“Gavin doesn’t sugar-coat anything,” reveals frontman Bruce Soord, referencing the band’s drummer with a knowing smile. “So we’re in the studio now, we play a song, record it and gather around the speakers and listen back to it. The first time you play it through, it’s quite brutal. We have this dynamic in the band where we have an ordered section and a chaos section, but I’m not going to tell you where the chaos section is. It’s an interesting dynamic and there’s a lot of patience with one certain member of the band. It’s quite a nice environment because nobody cares if someone says, ‘Don’t do it like that’, ‘I don’t like that sound’ or ‘Actually play it right next time.’ It’s all fine, although that last one generally only comes my way.”
Such comments could be indicative of a band embroiled in disheartening studio friction, but the lack of animosity between the musicians is palpable. It’s merely the kind of jovial, lampooning mentality that relieves stressful situations in any collection of close bandmates. There’s also a transparent desire to ensure that their live presentation is as consummate as their evocative recordings. Indeed, it’s startling to consider that this year is The Pineapple Thief’s 25th anniversary, even if there have been drastic changes that have transformed the band over that time.