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The history of Rock and Roll is filled with examples of bands whose dedication to their craft led to the radical restructuring of their collective lives. This ranges from the cozy decampment of The Band's output from the Big Pink, to the sinister totalitarianism of Captain Beefheart and Father Yod. For the Cincinnati quintet, the sound of their fourth, full-length album Sunbeam Dream is inextricably linked to the communal nature of the band's existence. In The Pines' central nervous system is located in The Lodge - an old Masonic temple repurposed as a multi-use space across the river from Cincinnati in Dayton, KY. The group occupy a corner of the basement in this sprawling labyrinth where they run and operate Foleytronics - a boutique vintage pro audio repair shop, and one of a handful of like-minded shops in the world that can operate on and repair vintage digital effects. A natural byproduct of this shop is their studio in bandmate Peter's basement, a room full of various vintage effects, tape machines and synthesizers, where they recorded and produced Sunbeam Dream in it's entirety. All of the recording equipment used on Sunbeam Dream was salvaged from certain doom, repaired and brought back into working order by the band themselves, who went into recording fully aware of (and excited to exploit) the limitations of these devices. Much like the concept of Oulipo in poetry and mathematics, creativity and problem-solving flow from a clear understanding and constant testing of their limits.The recording process allowed In the Pines to obsess over the minutiae for the first time - entire days spent on finding the correct acoustic guitar sound only to land on a piece of Scotch tape spread across the strings; hours that would be considered a luxury in other studios focused on trying out various cymbal combinations for a chorus or bridge. Just like they did with their rep
