I’ve been so impatient waiting for PINE to finally release their debut self-titled album. I almost had to buy myself a fainting couch so I could lay on it dramatically and sulk in the meantime. But it’s HERE, released yesterday via No Sleep Records. And I already knew it was going to be good, so the bar was pretty high, but fuck my bar honestly. This album went so far past anything I could have hoped it could be.
As soon as I heard “Sunder” for the first time, I knew I was unprepared for what was to come. I don’t even know where to start?? The whole album is so beautiful and atmospheric and cohesive, you reach the end of it and can’t imagine 41 minutes could have possibly passed. You fall right in and come up for air at the end, wildly disoriented.
I feel like my memory has been wiped. I couldn’t even tell you who I previously thought was going to be my album of the year because PINE just shot so far past them. I highly suggest checking out their web store for vinyl pressings (and actual cool shirts, good job gang) and coming out to one of their release shows.
If I had to pick favourites at this point, I think this is my top three:
(subject to change on literally every play-through of the album)
- Lusk
- Swollen
- Sunder
I chatted with Dar about the long journey towards putting this album out and what they’ve learned along the way. You can read our interview below!
Congrats on the new album! How has the response been so far?
Thank you!! The response has been great! So much more than we expected and I think we’re all on cloud 9 right now.
This album has been a long time in the making. Were all of the songs created a while back now, or were some written more recently?
Some we’ve been working on for a long while, “Lusk” for instance we’ve been playing on tour for two years now. Some were written with our prior drummer Joey Demers, then we wrote 5 of them about 2 months before we went in to record them with our friend Alex Brownlee who played drums on the record. All of them have changed significantly from where they started though.
What was the process like recording this full-length album compared to past EPs and singles?
I think we knew what we wanted this time around and we put out foot down when we needed to. I think every recording process is a journey and this time we came out much stronger than in the past.
Do you have a personal fave song off the record, or one that has more sentimental value to you?
My personal favourite is “Sunder”, I just love performing it live and it hits so hard. In terms of something more sentimental I would suggest “In Your Eyes” as it’s about family and being raised.
If you had to drop one piece of advice for other Ontario bands getting started, what’s the one thing you’d tell them?
Who the fuck cares what other people think? Fuck the gatekeepers, make sure you are creating what YOU want to create. Otherwise what’s all the suffering for? Do you. I can’t express how much time was wasted trying to meet the expectations of others and not being true to myself.
What’s next for PINE? What are some things you want to do now that the album’s finally out?
Well maybe we can find some people as passionate as we are about this project and we can move forward in the right direction. We definitely want to do some tours: Europe would be cool! And definitely more US/CAN. I suppose we should also start writing more songs to add to our collection. We just want to create and be happy doing it. 😊
