The Pineapple
Thief
Born
in Germany before moving to England, founder Bruce Soord
began musical life with long time musical partner Neil Randall
as part of Vulgar Unicorn. This collaboration produced 3
studio albums before Bruce embarked on The Pineapple Thief (TPT)
as an outlet for his own deeply personal kind of music back in
1999.
The Pineapple Thief’s debut album 'Abducting the
Unicorn’ released on Cyclops records [UK’s premier Prog
Rock Independent Label] in 2000 created enough interest to
convince Bruce that perhaps TPT was here to stay. They quickly
established a fanatical fan base.
Bolstered by critical plaudits and support from fans, he
returned to the Dining Room studios to work on the second and to
many, break through TPT album, '137'.
Whilst working on ‘137’, some major labels started
to take interest. The result was merely a delay in the release
of the follow up album, coming, as it did, over two years after
the debut. ‘137’ was a learning curve for Bruce, the
period when he mastered the art of song writing and studio
production. He claims to owe a lot of his inspiration in those
early years to producer/writer Steve Coe (most famous for
penning, ‘Ever so lonely’ for his band Monsoon in the early 80s)
and his partner Sheila Chandra. Steve and Sheila regularly used
Bruce’s studio and Steve was the only person for whom he did
work:
“I
now realise he was my mentor. He was interested in my music
and his comments and suggestions influenced me more than anyone
else.”
It was probably the third album, 'Variations on a Dream'
released in the spring of 2003, that gave TPT the boost they
needed. The album reached out to yet more people and the fan
base was spreading all over Europe and the States. At this
point, TPT had become the top sellers on their label, Cyclops.
After this release, Bruce realised it was time to take his music
to the fans. He
got together a group consisting of his close musical friends -
former university band mate Jon Sykes on bass, who he had
played with in a raw three piece
rock band called Terminal Headspin, Wayne Higgins on
guitars, Matt O'Leary on keyboards and Keith Harrison
on drums.
It was also in 2003 that a bonus CD was born – “8 Days”.
Malcolm Parker of Cyclops records had offered Bruce a limited
run bonus CD on which he wanted him to put ‘live or unreleased’
music. Instead, Bruce decided on setting himself the challenge
of writing, performing, recording and mixing 8 songs/tracks over
8 days.
A
single track was started and completed each day with two tracks
finished on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Each track
captured his mood and ambient sounds from each specific day.
Now Bruce felt ready to take his music out on the road.
TPT played their first gig at the
Whitchurch Music Festival in August 2003 and have not looked
back since. They have played other gigs in places as wide apart
as Rotherham and St Palaise sur Mer in France.
In 2004, a limited edition album entitled ‘12 stories
down’ had been quickly produced and just as quickly sold
out. This album came with the bonus '8 Days Later'
CD and features 5 songs not available elsewhere. In the
meantime, the fan base was still growing and they were impatient
for their next fix.
In
March 2005, TPT were invited to play at the Marillion
convention in Minehead. Bruce found playing in front of over
2500 Marillion fans to be a surreal experience;
“it was our biggest crowd at 2,000 odd, but as soon as I saw the
front row of TPT t-shirts singing along I felt completely at
home. The Marillion fans were great (even though we didn't
connect with all of them) and Marillion themselves made us feel
really welcome back stage.”
This surreal experience at Minehead was to net the band even
more followers and with the fan base growing ever stronger the
release of the latest TPT album ‘10 stories down’ or
10SD (June 2005) could not have come soon enough.
14 months in the making and the first recording with a full
band, some would say 10SD is The Pineapple Thief’s
best work to date. A completely re-mixed version of 12SD
with many parts added or changed, most would agree that it is
sonically superior to its predecessor.
In July 2005, the band officially launched 10 stories down,
playing to a select gathering of fans and friends in Yeovil –
Bruce’s hometown. Now seasoned live performers and good
friends, the on stage chemistry between band members really
shows;
“Now we've been playing together for over 2 years, the live show
has become really natural for us - we've nothing to prove to
anyone anymore. If we get more fans from these gigs, then
great, if not, that's life. The main thing is we're making and
playing music we love, which is a great place to be.”
Listening to ‘10 Stories Down’, it is clear that
Bruce’s songs / music can be dark and melancholy – it is also
beautiful and touching. He admits,
“it just so happens that I am usually only
inspired by the darker shades of life.”
His music is written from the heart and is always deeply
personal.
The Pineapple Thief have huge commercial potential and the music
reaches out to progressive as well as ‘ordinary’ music lovers.
Bruce acknowledges that he loves traditional instrumentation
such as analogue synthesis, mellotrons, orchestral arrangements
and pianos, but he also manages to embrace the best that modern
music has to offer, propelling TPT firmly into the 21st
Century.
At the end of the day Bruce feels;
“When people tell me how moved they are by the music and
words, that’s the real prize for me.”
Currently Bruce is busy in his new studio, working on a side
project before embarking on the next Pineapple Thief studio
album.
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DISCOGRAPHY : :
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Ten Stories Down
2005
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Variations on a Dream
2003
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137
2002
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Abducting the Unicorn
2002
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Pineapple Thief official website -
http://www.pineapplethief.com/
