Since forming in 2006 it’s been hard to categorise Pond. It’s tempting to mumble general non-committal musical phrases like psychedelic rock/pop, but shade your eyes from the bright electric blanket of neo-psychedelia, and you’ll see there’s a lot more going on.
With their sixth album Man, it Feels Like Space Again released this month, the band once again manages to dwell in complex sound but never feels complicated. The guys make the delicate balance of serious and silly feel harmonious and completely natural. Talking to frontman Nick Allbrook you’re reminded that they’re chillers and lunatics, providing hints of warped perfection in something raw.
So your new album is called Man, it Feels Like Space Again, what do you think space feels like?
I don’t know. I can imagine it would feel pretty uncomfortable. It would be pretty painful getting your lungs collapsed out there. In a more whimsical way I imagine you’ve got this feeling of immense loneliness, like the quiet and black, you feel really—I don’t know—like that feeling when you’re out way too far. Like out in the ocean when you don’t know what’s beneath you or what’s above you or where anyone is, floating. That’s the image that I get but I guess more realistically it would just be a very quick death.
Are those the kind of spaces that inspire you?
I guess personal space does, human space, being alone for long periods of time, conversational space, being away from other people. Being away from talking.
Is that important?
Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s a really good thing. Well it’s a great thing for me, I love it, a lot of people find it kind of scary or uncomfortable. I don’t know if it’s something that’s a good thing for you, but it’s a good thing for me. I’m not sure if that’s really healthy for everyone. We’re social animals.
People spend a lot of time trying to place you in a genre, according to Facebook you define it as “Bruce Springsteen if he was a catfish”. Do you think there is too much emphasis on genre?
Yeah, I do. It makes it easy for everyone to see where they’re going, to see what direction they’re facing. It’s a full spectrum of noises from people banging rocks to a fat bass line—but I guess if you start saying that there’s no genre and genre’s not important, then you could keep going and say: “What’s the definition of music? Why put names over visual art and sonic art? Why call us humans and call monkeys monkeys?”.
I guess we need classification so we can communicate. I think there’s a lot of weird genre stuff, like we get called psychedelic or asked about psychedelia but I just don’t even know what makes us psychedelic; whether it’s us like whacking on a flanger pedal, I’m not sure when psychedelic starts.
What’s the weirdest comparison you’re ever had?
Stuff that seems kind of obvious sometimes—like when Black Sabbath would crop up. I don’t know. I suppose everyone can hear certain things. We got a Footloose call the other day, which is pretty weird, but it’s also totally true. We’ve got heaps of great ones, like Lenny Kravitz, or like some sort of trumped up, weird version of 90s Chili Peppers.
Do you ever feel people are too serious?
I think a lot of people are too serious. A lot of people put way too much stock in being serious as the only valid emotion. There’s this idea that serious emotions, like a big frown or a furrowed brow, are important and culturally worthwhile; whereas smiling and laughing and making a stupid face, that’s somehow not intellectually or culturally worthwhile at all. It’s just vapid. But I reckon that’s absolute bullshit, being a donkey and being all melancholy are both just as important to life.
Do you guys strike a good balance in that regard?
That’s something I’m sort of proud of – flying the flag in terms of trying to actually accept each aspect of our emotions, not just putting one aside when we’re hanging out with our friends and having a laugh and when it’s time to make art and we want people to think that we’re very clever, we wipe the smile off our face. That seems kind of silly.
I’m interested, what would Bruce Springsteen be like if he were a catfish?
I think he’d have a bit less success in the whole music business. I don’t know how the record labels would be able to pile all that 80s cash into a catfish. He also wouldn’t have the vocal chords to put across those ideas. He wouldn’t be able to belt out those massive stadium choruses. I think his ideas and songs would just have to rest with him in the water, poor bastard.
Pond play the Laneway Festival this February. Read our guide to the festival season here.
Credits
Text Erin McConchie