SPOTLIGHT An Interview with Bruce Soord (of The Pineapple Thief)

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Loved every minute of it! Bruce really has all the technical knowledge at his fingertips and you could see he's become quite a fan of the format. I definitely need to seek out more of his remixes for other artists (Gong, Tesseract, Katatonia, etc) - so far, all I've got are the two Pineapple Thief Blu-Rays and the Riverside DVD-A.

I really liked that the issue of budget was brought up - I think it's something a lot of reviewers don't consider when criticizing a surround disc for having lossy audio streams or having crude authoring. It's amazing that a relatively small label like KScope puts out so much surround content while the majors usually can't be bothered (unless it's legacy material locked in a mega box). I also loved his acknowledgement that "you can't please everyone" with a surround music mix.

If you do get a chance to speak with him again, one question I would ask is are there any plans to go back and remix the older Pineapple Thief albums to 5.1?
 
Yes very enjoyable listen to this interview. Well done Mike and thank you to Bruce for doing this.
The last live concert that I went to Dec.13,2019 was seeing Pineapple Thief and they put on a fantastic show and that's where I snagged the deluxe edition 2nd solo album(All This Will Be Yours) which is a wonderful surround with 2 different mix's of the album.
Mike you didn't ask it but from Bruce explaining it must have been a budget thing that the surround for 2nd solo was only available on deluxe edition only which is to bad as it might have stopped some from buying due to price and that's a shame as it should not be missed by people, great release.
 
Yes very enjoyable listen to this interview. Well done Mike and thank you to Bruce for doing this.
The last live concert that I went to Dec.13,2019 was seeing Pineapple Thief and they put on a fantastic show and that's where I snagged the deluxe edition 2nd solo album(All This Will Be Yours) which is a wonderful surround with 2 different mix's of the album.
Mike you didn't ask it but from Bruce explaining it must have been a budget thing that the surround for 2nd solo was only available on deluxe edition only which is to bad as it might have stopped some from buying due to price and that's a shame as it should not be missed by people, great release.
I was hoping to drop the subtle hint that the lossless FLACs could be released at some point. Maybe when the sets sell out?
 
Thanks for the interview, Mike, it's excellent. I ask the lovely guys of D/A Method about Bruce's planned remix of The Desert Road and unfortunately they said it has been shelved by now due to some difficulties to sync up their agenda with Bruce's. Really a pity, I hope they can complete the remix some time in the future.
 
That was an hour well spent! I found his comments about releasing blu-rays interesting and why there's so much expense involved. It's hard to believe there are that many titles out there in this format when the cost is so much more. Great interview. If ever there was a chance to get Steven Wilson on QQ, now might be the time.
 
I knew nothing about Bruce Soord until I started to see him mention on QQ I did purchase where we stood I thought it was fine. I actually had no opinion of him. Two things happen that change I just recently heard All this will be yours and it blew me away and the second was the amazing podcast Mike did with Bruce. To me those two things are inseparable and made me appreciate what a tremendous artist he is after watching the video I purchased Dissolution on bluray. I will go back and give Where we stood another listen and I am sure it will be a different experience.

I would like to add a closing thought, from the time I have found surround sound music and this wonderful community we tended to look back I looked back to what was next. Yes, ELP, pink floyd, king Crimson etc waiting for the next release of music we treasured in Quad or stereo to come out in surround. Heck I even found out who Steven Wilson was. I'm very happy to hear music I love in a different way. I think just about everything I ever wanted I have in surround and it brings me immerse joy. I am sure there is more to come out but I started to look forward to some new talent that is taking music not sure new or different direction and as a community we should try and support their effort to continue to bring us music we love. For me Bruce does that so does Steven Wilson I truly hope there is many more .
Thank you to giving me a place to belong between here and Life in Surround you are surrounded by like minded individuals
 
Songwriting, Recording, Producing, Surround Mixing
Current releases, upcoming releases, the future of music and surround

Thanks to @Elad for setting this up!
And to @JonUrban for establishing this forum, where I discovered Bruce's music.
:QQlove



Excelente, Miguel! Folksy, Newsy, Breezy and Oh, yeah ... you asked all the right questions. What a wonderful man Bruce is. And hopefully the doors will open for many more interviews like this.

And come to think of it, that YOU released Disturbing The Universe as a BD~A was pretty amazing, too, Mikey!
 
This format of having in depth discussions, with the likes of Bruce, is totally the way to go Mike.
Like fellow QQ 's have stated, I too was completely enthralled with this fantastic insight into Bruce's world of surround music, and watched it all the way through!!
I liked the way his ears pricked up at the end, with the possibilities of Atmos!!
You are certainly honing your interview techniques to such an extent, that the interviewer is completely at ease with the discussion and is willing to open up and give invaluable insights into their world of music.
What also struck a chord was the musicians awareness of having their singing isolated with the possibility of it being ripped, who would have thought that!!
How are you able to set these interviews up Mike?
Is it just by initial, friendly contacts, of can we do this please?
MORE OF THE SAME, TA
:QQlove
 
Finally have the time to listen to the whole interview and I'm just 15 minutes in now....great stuff Mike, well done and thanks very much for getting it all together and out there....and of course thanks to Bruce too for taking the time to chat.
 
Finished it off after dinner. That was so enjoyable to listen to. We need more Bruce Soords! Likeable guy, and the quality of his work is top tier - love to see him get some really high profile work in 5.1 to get better known. I don't generally like to pick faves as I appreciate the effort any 5.1 mixer makes....but I think Bruce has a better feel for stuff over someone like Jakko. No disrespect to Jakko's mixes but Bruce just seems to have the better ear and approach, to my taste anyway.

New Pineapple Thief later this year...oh yeah...bring it on!
 
Finished it off after dinner. That was so enjoyable to listen to. We need more Bruce Soords! Likeable guy, and the quality of his work is top tier - love to see him get some really high profile work in 5.1 to get better known. I don't generally like to pick faves as I appreciate the effort any 5.1 mixer makes....but I think Bruce has a better feel for stuff over someone like Jakko. No disrespect to Jakko's mixes but Bruce just seems to have the better ear and approach, to my taste anyway.

New Pineapple Thief later this year...oh yeah...bring it on!
We do need more Bruce Soords. There are at least a handful of individuals pumping out quite a bit of good surround content. Michael Dutton? Steven Wilson?
Even some QQers like @OdysseyMusik and @popshop .
I plan to do a video on the current most prolific sources of good surround soon.
 
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