(((O))) : Bruce Soord

Following the release of The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord‘s latest solo album, Luminescence, we asked Matt Stevens from The Fierce & The Dead had a chat with him about the record and his process.

Matt: Hi Bruce, really enjoyed the new album, it’s like a modern version of Brighter Layter by Nick Drake, especially with those strings.

Bruce: Someone else mentioned Nick Drake as well, yeah. I don’t mind the comparison, it’s great.

Matt: Why did you call it Luminescence?

Bruce: It’s one of those things, isn’t it? Coming up from a name for an album is always a tricky thing. I just thought it perfectly suits the the mood of the record because there’s a lot of lyrics about light and things like that, because obviously it’s quite a melancholic record, but it’s still supposed to be positive.

Matt: The acoustic guitar sounds amazing, what did you use?

Bruce: I’ve been trying to get a good acoustic guitar sound for so long and then I was lucky enough to get a Taylor and all of a sudden I got the sound I wanted.

Matt: Do you start writing with an acoustic guitar for these songs?

Bruce: With this one I kind of had a guitar just lying around the house, when you’re in songwriting mode.A lot of it was done in an open tuning, so I’d just be there picking away and then all of a sudden it would just hit me and it would just come. So yeah I think that’s probably why there’s that consistency, because every song was written like that with the guitar.

Matt: It sounds like the strings are really integral to the songs, who’s the arranger?

Bruce: Andrew Skeet, he’s the keyboard player from the Divine Comedy. He was recommended to us when The Pineapple Thief wanted to do some strings for All The Wars in 2012, so that’s when we met Andrew. When I heard what he did the first thing I said that with the things you’re coming up with I shouldn’t just be giving you an arrangement credit, you should be getting songwriting credits. He was coming up with all these melodies and he laughed and said that’s really kind of you, no one’s ever said that to me before, unfortunately that’s not how it works. I’d finished the record and there was no strings on it and I always burn a CD to put on in the the car. so my family can hear it and one of boys said what it needs is some strings and I said but it’s finished. Then I thought actually, no he’s right the string, so the strings just came in and it was perfect.

Matt: What would you say were the main influences on the album?

Bruce: I always just wanted to do that acoustic singer songwriter album and keep it really separate from The Pineapple Thief. Something where I could just pick up he guitar and play it solo. Some of the more electronic songs would be a bit tricky. With some songs I was doing it with a looper pedal in mind, because you were the one that gave me my crash course in loop pedals, so originally I was thinking, oh I could just do this on my own with a looper pedal. So I deliberately did these parts that would loop and I’d add to it, so that was that was quite an influence on the songwriting. But I think there was an album called Sea Change by Beck which I heard, one of those records that just blows you away and you just think how the hell is this done. And so that I guess has always been bubbling away inside my brain because that’s really delicate.

Matt: That is a great record.

Bruce: When I’m writing for The Pineapple Thief you’re always thinking I’ve got to write a banger, you know it’s going to rock whereas with this I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about I’ve got to write something where you just want to put it on late at night and just lose yourself. It’s a completely different sort of perspective on songwriting.

Matt: What were the main lyrical themes?

Bruce: I think it was just the passing of time, my kids are growing up, it’s that kind of thing, so you’re very much more conscious about life. You know every time you wake up and look at the sky I’m thinking I’ve probably been on this planet longer than I’ve got left and that feeling of mortality. Lyrically I wanted to make sure it was positive, even though you’re looking at that time passing and thinking about having as few regrets as possible.

Matt: What’s your favourite song on the album?

Bruce: It keeps changing. The one that I really love playing the most I think is ‘Stranded Here’, it’s so simple, thankfully, I just just really love singing it.

Matt: How are you going to approach the live shows?

Bruce: I’m going to start with me solo with some Pineapple Thief tracks because I did a lot during the pandemic. I’ve got my electric guitar and the looper and so there’ll be about half an hour of that just having a bit of fun with the old Pineapple Thief songs. Then we’re gonna have the trio which is me, John my bass player, because I’ve known John since I was 18, we started a band when we were kids. It’s going to be really nice him being on stage and it’s proper old school touring, we’re self-driving in a splitter van and it’s 5000 miles totally. It’s just going to be two boys having a road trip more than anything. We’ve got a drummer called Tash Buxton-Lewis. So it’s a trio, quite a stripped back live band. I’m looking at all the leads and cables and guitars I’m trying to figure out how the hell we’re going to interpret it.

Matt: What would you say was the main difference between a Pineapple Thief and a Bruce Soord record?

Bruce: It was a much more solitary existence. With The Pineapple Thief if I’ve got an idea I’ll send it to everyone and especially my keyboard player Steve and I say what do you think of this idea because you need proper mates, you don’t want people kissing your arse and saying it’s great. Whereas with this record it was very solitary and I would spend days on ideas and then realise that it was going nowhere. So mentally it could be quite exhausting, but at the same time it’s also quite nice to have that complete and utter control. It is a very different different kind of journey.

Matt: You must be very pleased with the reception?

Bruce: I’m really pleased. You know what it’s like when you put a record out, you kind of run for cover and you are just wondering what people are gonna think of it and yeah it’s really nice to see.

Matt: It has a very consistent atmosphere, but it is still very engaging. Hard to do that.

Bruce: I hope people can hear that even though it does sound like it’s really stripped back, a lot of hours went in to making it. In the early days of my songwriting I would just throw everything in and there would be layers and layers, whereas now I realise that it’s about attention to detail.

Matt: I always feel there is a real ’90s rock thing, a bit of Pumpkins in there with your stuff, as well as being completely your own. And that is really hard, to have your own sound.

Bruce: I appreciate that. Yeah that’s hard isn’t it, you know, that’s what you’re trying to do.

Matt: Congratulations Bruce, all the best dude.