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If you don’t know much about The Pinetree Line yet, it isn’t because you shouldn’t. The Calgary band hasn’t been playing shows; they’ve been in the studio for eight months on and off recording the carefully-crafted album that will be released this month. I spoke to frontman Paul Taylor to find out what’s on the horizon for The Pinetree Line.
BeatRoute: Who are your influences?
Paul Taylor: When I first wanted to start this band, I originally wanted to do kind of like a Neil Young or The Band kind of sound. So probably the two biggest influences for me (and I write most of the songs), are The Band and Bruce Springsteen. Old Bruce Springsteen. And I’m a big fan of Wilco and bands like that, so those are the sort of influences I go for.
BR: How did the band come together, and what do your musical backgrounds look like?
PT: I had been in and out of bands with Lindsay Dagenais for 10 years probably since we’d been in high school. One band we were in was called 3rd Stone. Jordan was in The Corta Vita. They were a crazy, crazy metal band. We’d always known Jason Van de Water from other bands he’d been in. He was in New Killer Friday for awhile. Jason joined the band as a keyboard player but he’s also a sound engineer. So that’s how we were able to have the luxury of spending eight months on our album, because he knew what he was doing and he recorded it in his studio, Tiny King. He was in the midst of building his own studio. He’s awesome, he’s really good at what he does.
BR: I really like the song "Hearts Like Trees." What inspired it?
PT: A couple of people quite close to me over the past few years both had heart attacks. One of them actually had an angiogram which is where they go into your leg, blow up a balloon in your heart and they show what all of your veins and stuff are doing. And we walked in and they give you a DVD of it. A heart when they pump the ink through it actually looks like a tree sort of blowing in the wind. So that’s where that came from. Both heart attacks were pretty serious. So that’s one song I always think about when I hear of that kind of thing.
BR: Are you already setting your sights on a second record?
PT: We’re definitely writing for the next album. I’d like to try to put out an album about a year from now, we’re already songwriting. We’ve actually got half to three quarters of the next album written. We’ll hopefully be working on those and recording those.
- Beat Route Magazine
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The Pinetree Line
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Being in a band is all about highs and lows. The Pinetree Line is no different. If you've ever been in a band, or tried anything creative, you know what we mean. There's highs: like having an pretty much packed club of people buying up your CD on the night it's released, and lows: like finding out most, but not all, of your CDs were bought by your family and friends. Highs: finding out a local CD store is "all out of your CD," and lows: they were in the back of the store, ensuring a shelf stayed evenly balanced. An equally important, albeit, far less lucrative use.
Look, we're kind of embarassed by self-aggrandizing language about what we are or are not about, sound like, do etc. We're a four-piece band from Calgary, Alberta, Canada who have melodic songs and intelligent lyrics, professionally recorded and performed live by musicians who care about their craft. We got together about three years ago and have since played well-received shows, put out a full-length album and had said album purchased by some people we didn't even know. That's always a major high.
So...that question..."what do you sound like? We've heard comparisons to Blue Rodeo, The Band, Bruce Springsteen and, most frequently, Wilco. At least those are the ones we liked.
We're solely focused on writing, recording and performing songs that we like listening too and ignoring the ridiculous posturing that often comes with being in a band.
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