Dissolution - The Pineapple Thief

Dissolution - The Pineapple Thief 

by Pete Clemons

‘Writing is in full swing for the new The Pineapple Thief record here at Soord Studios. Today I’m using this lovely (and pretty rare!) baritone Telecaster. And no I didn’t buy it. Thank you Godsticks for letting me steal it.’

‘I'm back from my 6 months of self-imposed exile while writing and recording the new The Pineapple Thief album. It's been an absolute mammoth undertaking for all of us and I for one can't wait for you all to hear it. In the meantime, I've just a few teeny tiny tweaks to make before handing over the concoction to Steve (Kitch) for mastering.’

These were just some of the messages that were appearing on social media, earlier this year, from the writing and recording process for what became The Pineapple Thief’s latest album ‘Dissolution’.

When he began to surface I took the opportunity of asking Bruce how recording was going and if there had been any major changes in approach from the last album. He replied: ‘no nothing different to ‘Your Wilderness’. Although this time we were sharing ideas and developing songs. So Gavin would try things on drums, then I would take what he did and try things in my studio. And we'd all keep sharing ideas and chatting online as the album progressed. It got quite intense at times, but in a good way!’

‘The band recorded Dissolution across the UK, sharing ideas via instant messaging’ was another message I picked up on via the web site belonging to The Pineapple Thief’s record label ‘K.Scope’.

And here is where the irony begins as guitarist and primary songwriter, Bruce Soord, freely admits. The album was created with modern technology and the heavy use of social media yet the overriding theme of ‘Dissolution’ stands as a warning as to how we use it.

On early listens ‘Dissolution’, I think, comes across as not as ‘edgy’ an album than more recent releases by The Pineapple Thief have been. However after multiple plays of it you discover that the beauty and the edginess is in its detail. ‘Dissolution’ is very subtle and far more dynamic than anything I have heard from The Pineapple Thief before. The music may not be as incisive but the messages contained within it are, for me, incredibly powerful and thought provoking. Gavin Harrison is very evident on the record. He is credited as having contributed on almost every song. One of the rare times when, I think I am correct in saying, where Bruce Soord has not been referenced as the sole writer.

The Pineapple Thief’s music is a journey of evolution as they continue to explore new territory. And they have certainly traveled some distance from their early records. As mentioned, the subject matter this time around is the internet, social media and our use of it. I have shamelessly cut and pasted the following paragraph from an interview Bruce Soord gave recently. It gives great insight as to what motivated him to write the album and where the ideas came from……….

Thematically, Pineapple Thief albums have been quite similar in that I’m always writing about the human psyche in the context of this society that I’ve grown up in, and in the changing society that I’m growing up in. And it’s really, really changed so much over the last five years, maybe even the last two years, the sort of technological revolution that we’ve lived through. And I think that when history looks back on this time and reassesses what we were doing, what we’re doing right and what we were doing wrong, I think that they will admit that a lot has gone wrong. It’s a bit like an addiction, you know, it’s a bit like a drug, like alcohol, or heroin or cocaine. Nobody really knows when it’s a problem because it’s so new. And it’s only now that big tech companies are talking about addiction, smartphone addictions and the mental health problems that children are growing up with. I mean, it certainly affected my mental health…I’m not saying that I’ve gone crazy or anything, but being connected to so many people, to so many things, to having access to so much information, so many opinions is just unnatural and exhausting. And as a musician, it goes one step further, because you are connected to all of your listeners. You get an insight into what they think about you, and some of these things are just horrible as well. Some of the lyrics on the record, the very first track, ‘Not Naming any Names’ is specifically about those people, the people that just want to weaponise social media and these connections and cause people harm. So as a musician growing up in these times, you’ve got to have a thick skin and if people want to do what we do and get your music out there, you’ve got to be prepared to take it. To understand that it’s a battleground out there in many ways. But yes, that’s what it is, that’s the theme that connects the entire record.

The band has just returned home after a successful tour of Europe. A few UK dates are to follow along with a return to Europe in 2019. I have also read America as being a possible destination. It has taken 20 years to get to this point, and, right now, and in among them all a little man is standing so very very tall.