Bruce Soord’s fourth solo album Ghosts In The Park finds The Pineapple Thief bandleader in a sombre mood, reflecting on losing both his parents. The record explores themes of grief, memory and the places that shape us.
Soord wrote the music in hotel rooms over a two-year period on the road. The transient nature of touring life, he suggests, became inseparable from the emotional tone of the songs themselves.
“There’s always this idea that when you go on tour you can use all the downtime,” he says. “When you have days off and end up in nondescript hotel rooms, in an alien place, you’d think that would inspire a lot of creativity.
Quite often that isn’t the case. You try and it doesn’t work. I’ve tried it before – but this time, for some reason, I got myself into the mindset where, every day off we had, I forced myself to play the guitar, and write a song or at least start a piece.”
The important thing for Soord was freeing himself from any expectations about what he produced in those moments. “Often at home, you start something and think, ‘This isn’t good enough,’ and you stop. This time I didn’t stop.” That shift in mindset proved crucial in allowing ideas to develop more naturally without self-censorship.
The process was aided by trips to the local shops for some beer. Back in his room, Soord took a swig every time he laid down a take with his portable recording studio, “until by the end of the night, I couldn’t really remember what was going on!
“I’d wake up, have no memory of it, then play it back – and funnily enough it just seemed to really work. That’s how it transpired. Most of it was written on the road in Europe, with some of the music coming to life in Chile.”
Soord will take Ghosts In The Park out live in May and June, performing as a duo with Pineapple Thief bassist Jon Sykes, armed with looper pedals. “I write songs which have repeating motifs and layers that build; it really works well with a looper pedal,” says Soord.
“I’ve played with Jon since I was 18 years old, so there’s a chemistry that we have onstage. I’m just looking forward to the idea of getting in a van or on a plane with my old mate and doing some old-school intimate shows.”
Ghosts In The Park is on sale now via Kscope. Soord and Sykes’ are currently touring a double-header show with Tim Bowness.