Embracing The Erratic

Pretty much since their inception back in 2008, Perth outfit Pond were viewed as a side-project; the propulsive, relatively psychedelic offshoot of their world-taming older brother Tame Impala. Even though Pond's members play in many other bands on the fertile WA scene, the Tame Impala connection was overwhelming – Tame's touring line-up included enigmatic Pond frontman Nick Allbrook on bass and Pond guitarist/keys maestro Jay Watson on drums, while Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker even returned the favour, drumming on and producing Pond's 2012 breakthrough Beards, Wives, Denim.

But this simplistic comparison was never fair on Pond, a band who from the outset were far too interesting to live in another's shadow. Their arresting live show and increasingly strong recorded output gradually endeared them to audiences the world over, and while the burgeoning global success of Tame Impala was a boon for Pond's profile they certainly weren't beholden to them – an assertion readily evinced by Allbrook's recent decision to quit his bass role with Tame (even if the plum position was quickly snapped up by Pond drummer Cam Avery).

So while the two bands share members and a certain cavalier approach to their trade, they are defiantly distinct entities, confirmed once more by Pond's fifth long-player, Hobo Rocket. The album is brilliantly manic, throwing every conceivable idea into the mix and emerging with an intoxicating amalgam of sensory-smashing sounds, dense with feedback wails abounding. As with most of Pond's music to date it's fun and free-spirited – seemingly bound by no aesthetic or intellectual constraints – and definitely cut from its own cloth.

“I am happy actually – I'm still happy, and I can still listen to it which is pretty crazy,” Allbrook reveals of his band's new effort. “Usually we finish a record and I never want to hear it again, but this one I've enjoyed every time I've listened to it since.

“I think we had some idea of exploring the more aggressive psychedelic intensity – strobe lights, metal, tinfoil, black and white kind of neon pixel explosion type thing. I don't know – we had an aesthetic and general idea of where we wanted to go, or at least I did and I'm pretty sure the other guys did, too. There's a whole lot [of things which conspired for the album's sound] – various things cross into that, and they were inspirations and images and videos. I think of Butthole Surfers and Comets On Fire  – that aggressively intense, bad trip kinda thing.”

From the outside it seems like Pond defiantly make music for themselves and if anybody else likes it then that's a bonus (“I'd say that's extremely accurate,” Allbrook laughs), and while Hobo Rocket is miles removed from Beards, Wives, Denim that wasn't necessarily their intention, just the result of their three-way creative bent; Allbrook, Watson and guitarist Joseph Ryan concoct most of the music together in a typically random manner.

“There's a lot of back and forth actually, it's kind of funny,” Allbrook ponders. “It's almost like three solo projects all get put through a blender before they come out as some sort of brown super-smoothie. But we're all on the same page, and that's the only reason we've kept going, because whenever we hang out and talk about it we're all pretty much talking about the same thing. Even when one of us feels like we're getting into a different area, you talk to the other people and they're all pretty much talking about the same thing.

“It's very relaxed – you can just do as much as you want by yourself sitting in your jocks in your bed strumming a guitar, and then when you're proud enough to show other people something then you do, and you continue from there.”

Which is probably why Hobo Rocket feels so eclectic – the way that anthemic single Xanman segues into the acid-tinged O Dharma, for instance, is indicative of the album's ramshackle nature. Does Allbrook like albums that cover a lot of ground? “I do, I do,” he asserts. “I'm extremely partial to The White Album and Exile On Main Street and Tusk – they're like the three flagship albums of being erratic. They're the most classic, erratic albums – long and sprawling and probably slammed when they first came out. But yeah, I fucking love that when an album just goes anywhere and everywhere, I think it's great.”

For Hobo Rocket – originally conceived as an EP before sprawling an album – Pond convened at Eskimo Joe's Wasteland Studios in Fremantle for just a handful of nights, recording primarily live to capture the unbridled intensity of their stage shows.

“Usually [live and in the studio are] different aspects, but we thought [recording live] would be a pretty good idea for this one seeing as they were pretty heavy and loose and space-station-cum-crack den anthems; we figured we couldn't do them track-by-track in a schmiko studio otherwise we'd sound like a joke,” Allbrook admits. “It was really fun to do it with all the lads being fiends and being loose and having fun. It was a Pond party – which is not the same as anyone else's definition of a party – but it was an awesome party vibe.”

The lyrics on Pond songs are Allbrook's domain, and he's once again delivered an idiosyncratic bunch of words. “I think I reference God or theology or some kind of divine spirit fourteen or fifteen times on the album. I'm looking up, down, around, you know,” he laughs. “There's no general rule [with lyrics] – sometimes things sound good and flow well when you're singing over someone else's song in your head, and it doesn't matter what they mean or what they say, but sometimes you'll be struck with a poetic phrase when you're walking along, and you'll take time to construct it as a lyric. There's no rule.”

Many influential WA bands like The Triffids have said that the landscape and isolation inherent in the western climes inspired their music, but [the now Melbourne-based] Allbrook didn't realise that this was the case until he spent time touring overseas.

“I do think a lot about Australia and what we've got, and I suppose that seeps in in the same way that salt wind seeps into a coastal whisky,” he offers. “I'm the same age as a fine scotch, so I suppose you could argue that the same applies. I don't even think I knew what home was until I went away for an extended period. I love Australia, I really do, and I have a much more profound love for Australia now than I ever did. As every teenager trying to be alternative-minded does at some point, you get really frustrated and down and hateful of the place where you are and I thought that for ages, but obviously that's fucking ridiculous. There's some unbelievable buffoonery here of course, above and beyond other places, but you get that in other countries too; there are bogans in France, and German bogans are worse than Australian bogans. But I love Australia, I think it's got enormous amounts to offer, especially to an Australian.”

Allbrook is looking forward to taking the Hobo Rocket material on the road, even if they have to wait and book shows amidst the hectic Tame Impala touring schedule.

“Yeah, it should be extremely fun if we get our act together,” he enthuses. “I think it's pretty anthemic – I'm really looking forward to playing Midnight Mass, the last song. We haven't played it yet – Cam can't do the drum fill. We'll see how it goes – he's going to be pretty hot on his bass chops when he gets back, maybe we'll swap him in to do that.”

Do the Pond guys pride themselves on being multi-instrumentalists?

“Nah, not at all,” Allbrook laughs. “It's pretty bad – we're all just like butter spread over too much bread. It's great fun getting out of your comfort zone, totally, but it's kind of embarrassing when you see someone who's really, really fucking shit hot on thein instrument. Like hanging out with The Horrors – they're just dedicated to their craft and they absolutely kick arse at it, and we can all plunk out something basic on every instrument.”

Last year the notoriously vacillating UK music paper NME named Pond “the Hottest New Band In The World” – are they keen to follow in Tame Impala's footsteps and conquer overseas territories?

“I love going overseas as a holiday, from the perspective of an Antipodean youth wanting to see the big, wide world,” Allbrook chuckles. “I really don't like to think about keeping the rest of the world – and particularly the rest of the world's press – interested. I'm super-aware of everyone's fickle nature, and that at any point everyone could forget about you and will forget about you – and possibly at the same time say that you're shit as well – so I try not to worry about it. I know that that's completely liable to happen at any point, so I don't want to make it a concern of mine.

“The UK press are notorious for that, but they're also such nice people, so I don't really know what to think. I just don't want to get desperate with it – I'd rather stay friends with the people I've met and let them do whatever journalistic bullshit they've got to do, and then have a beer with them when I'm in London. I much prefer not to look at it – the bubble is the best protection you can ever have.”