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Interview: Pond
- Olive McCagh
- Jun 12
- 7 min read
Interviewed by Olive McCagh
Beloved psychedelic-rock group Pond is returning this month with their eleventh record, 'Terrestrials'. The world of Pond is vast and expansive; they continue to look outward on the album, diving into themes of identity and human interaction with the world. As a supergroup, the music and performance comes natural: Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, Joe Ryan, Jamie Terry, and James Ireland work alongside each other, leaving fingerprints of their own projects whilst building something completely new with one another. Lead singer and founding member Nick Allbrook caught up with us to chat all about the upcoming album, tour activities and the beauty of physical performance.
Your latest single ‘Through the Heather’, I read, was born on the road during your European tour last year with James’s experimenting on Ableton. Is tour typically the backdrop to new material for you guys?
No, not really. I mean, in a way, it backdrops everything to a degree.
But yeah, a couple of the formative ideas for the album were hooked up there or just spurred out. Like this chord progression Joe kept on playing in sound checks, that he made Gum always do goth singing impressions over it, gave us pretty much the idea for goth at the pub, which is a typically stupid guiding principle for Pond.
You guys are obviously on the road a lot, experimenting with Ableton sounds like a really fun and productive way to pass the time. How else do you keep yourselves entertained on the road? Has it triggered any fun new hobbies or interests?
I mean, I run, I like running. When we're arriving in a new town or city or even just the middle of fucking nowhere in between towns, I get a little buzz looking at like Google Maps and just being like, ‘Where am I going to go?’ I love it. I'm an absolute nuffy for it.
I think a lot of the time that's the grind, the annoying part of tour is just being bored and, you know, how many fucking vintage stores can you go to? When you don't want anything. It's tough, that's why running has been such an amazing thing for me, because before it was like, well, you don't want to get pissed because there's a show later. So you go indulge in consumerism, materialism and that you can only do for so long.
There's only so much suitcase room and appetite for buying shit. And then once you run out of those, it's like... telly.
So, yeah, I think like, yeah, finding those, finding those almost bottomless interests is pretty, pretty handy.
That's good. Running seems like a very good and healthy choice. I don't know if a lot of touring bands can say the same thing, that they run every stop. So that's something to feel good about.
Yeah, there are a couple.
I know my jog dogs out there, on the road. I've come across a couple. Some people we like, “If you know, you know,” and some other bands look at me like I'm an alien. I remember the guys from Fat White Family, they were coming out of the hotel while I was running back, and I was like, “Hey, how's it going?”
And they just gave me the most disbelieving, like disgusted look. Like, what are you doing?
You're making them feel bad for themselves because they're not the ones on the run.
Well, they repaid the favour immediately.
I'm really curious for you, Nick, do you prefer messing around and building songs in the studio or do you like performing in that live setting more? What do you feel you get more out of?
I couldn't say one more than the other.
But they have really different satisfactions. There's something so magical and inexplicable about creating something, and you can't even explain it, can you? But when you realise that you've done something that is good enough that you want to read it or say it or listen to it or show people again and again. That I’ve just made something that expresses something that I was trying to get out, it's the best feeling in the world.
It feels so good. And when you're proud of it, you're like, fuck yeah, I've done it. That's so satisfying.
But it's also hard because it's a lot more fraught with potholes; you're staring face-to-face with the possibility of failure. Something that is the biggest part of my identity and a lot of people in my position's identity, if you can't do it, you feel like an absolute failure, and that's just how it always is. You're always going to try to create something. You're always going to do something shit until you don't. And all those times it's just really demoralising.
But I find performing it's a lot more stable. It has a similar kind of satisfaction to running in that you can put in the time and you'll get it back. If you practise and keep your shit together, you'll do a good show, and you'll be satisfied, and even if you don't get a huge reaction, you've done everything you can and put in a lot of energy, and it feels wonderful.
The physical action. Physical activities are so much more predictable and safer for me. But maybe they don't have the same sparkle of joy as the intellectual, creative stuff.
I can imagine once you get those songs, it must feel incredible, especially once you get a whole collection and albums work. It must be an amazing feat to look back on and then celebrate with those physical performances.
That's right, actually. I'm sure everyone's creative, and everyone would know the feeling of something rattling around in your brain. And if you manage to get it out, it's so magical being like, “that was it” or “it's not”, I love it.
That feeling of having something realised that was just a thought, with such a big group of people and such amazing musicians, to then bounce forth and grow that even further. I imagine it would feel like magic in the studio.
I'm very lucky, but it's funny. The magical joy, euphoric part, when you look at the whole context of like the album, it's so small, it's so fleeting. Then so much of it is chiselling away at the rock.
This is your 11th record that's about to come out. I'd love to know how your relationships with past albums change post-release. If it's different this many years in advance, or if it changes when you've moved on to new projects?
Oh man. Yeah, so much. It'll probably keep changing. Sometimes I look back on shit we've put out, or I've put out, and it's just cringe.
I can't imagine that.
Sometimes I look back at something again that I was really iffy about. I'm like, actually, that's got a lot of heart, a lot of charm. It's honest.
It's pretty cool, actually. It changes.
Sometimes I just can't believe what I did, I felt was a good idea at the time. It's like, ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ And sometimes I look back, and I can't believe I ever had the capacity to write something that good. Like ‘What? I can't do that.’
It's both polarities and everywhere in between.
I was wondering for you, are there nerves there anymore after all these years? Does releasing or touring feel completely natural?
Pretty natural. I don't know why, maybe there's an element of being a bit more self-assured that what you've made is good and the best you could do.
No, there's a bit…I think sometimes I'll listen to a part of a lyric, a tiny bit of the album. And I'm like, ‘I hope no one thinks that shit.’
Doing shows, especially with Pond or maybe only with Pond actually, is pretty comfy. I really trust the others. They're so good. We'll be sweet. When I do solo shows, I'm shit scared, you know?
What about excitement? Is that something you still get with each release?
I mean, yeah. Maybe not excitement. I'm not sure. It's more of a warm glow.
I’m like, ‘I like this. I'm glad people will hear it. People will appreciate it.’
But I think excitement and nervousness are very close relatives. And maybe can't exist without the other.
I want to hear about your new album; do you ever feel this pressure to create big differences between records?
That's an interesting one. I think I do actually - pressure or desire - one of those.
It might be an internal pressure. I don't want to rehash. I have no leisure in the prospect of it. I think a lot of our shit comes out sounding like it comes from the same seed anyway, but it's just the process of trying to do something new, it’s invigorating.
It gives you a purpose, a reason to do it in the first place. Cause I reckon if we were just like, ‘Let's do another Pond album’. I don't think we would. That sounds fucking dead boring.
But then we say ‘next one's going to be full high tempo pub-rock, real short, succinct. We can do a full regional pub tour. We can do a tour of Australia and just fucking plaster people to the back wall. We could do it without effects.'
You know, we were like, ‘Yeah, that sounds fun as hell. Let's do that.’
So, it kind of gives a reason for it.
That's with every album I can think of. I remember with Stung, we kept on being like ‘Rocks back, rocks back.’ We're going to do heaps of lapping on this one, heaps of mandolins and loops and shit. We'll make a massive double album, just like Tusk or Sign “O” The Times. We've always wanted to fuck the succinctness. So, there's always some kind of purpose.
Pond are performing at Against The Grain Festival on June 20th.
