Everybody loves them some Pond. As the esteemed rockers from Perth prepare yet another album (a whopping eighth) for release, you’d think that just about every secret about these guys had already made it to the interwebs.
Wrong. Before Tasmania hits shelves on March 1st and the band hit the road to celebrate, we asked frontman Nick Allbrook to share the juicy tidbits that remain. Here are 10 things you didn’t know about Pond, right from the horse’s mouth.
Before they drop their eighth studio album Tasmania and embark on a national tour to boot, do a little background reading into Pond.
1. The members of Pond thus far include – Nick Allbrook, Joe Ryan, Jay Watson, Nicholas Odell, Lucy Baxter, Kevin Parker, Jeremy Cope, the Green Man, Cameron Avery, Ben MacDonald, Julian Barbagallo, James Ireland and, possibly Nathan Savage, Richard Ingham and Felicity Groom (TBC).
2. Jay’s father, Ian Watson, is a leading specialist on Western Australian shrubbery. He wrote a doctorate on it, entitled Rangeland monitoring across the arid shrublands of Western Australia.
3. Jamie is a connoisseur of everything that you put in yr mouth – coffee, wine, whiskey, fish, fruit, sake, whatever. He also eats real loudly. I assume this enhances the flavour, so have never confronted him face to face about it. I don’t wanna get in between that shit.
4. James Ireland, the newest member of Pond, is, apart from a great drummer and electronic music producer and a lovely bloke, an otter (Lutra ultra) and likes nothing more than to feast on clams cracked on his belly.
5. We played our first show in Tanya’s backyard with Rabbit Island and Carbuncle.
6. Joe keeps a San Pellegrino bottle full of ocean water next to his bed to give his hair that briney hold that you can only get from the residues of millennia.
7. The first CD Nick ever owned was a Daryl Braithwaite single that came free in a Weetbix box. From the very moment it emerged from the Derby Woolworths it became Nick’s favourite artist, song and album, and would remain so until he finally got his hands on either Mmm Bop by Hanson or Calypso by Spiderbait. I hope the kind folks at Spiderbait don’t take any of those associations badly. They’re in esteemed company.
8. Gum and Gin are in an on tour gang/clique/duo affectionately known as the ‘Noid Boyz’, because they’re so paranoid about everything – sickness, misadventure, caffeine, THC, loss of life/beta blockers etc. etc. etc. (this kind of neurotic behaviour is probably also what makes them far and away the best musicians in Pond).
9. Before any of us knew what ‘mastering’ meant, Nick tried to ‘master’ Psychedelic Mango Vision on GarageBand in our share house, in a furious race with time before he was rendered incapable of normal cognition by a trippy sugar cube.
10. The last album we ever do was always planned to be called Excalibur – a truly pompous, overblown, self indulgent, washed out, tasteless piece of shit – with an album cover involving a flaming sword and an eagle.
Pre-order Pond’s eighth studio album Tasmania here, and make sure you catch them on their upcoming Australian tour:
Sunday 3 March – Astor Theatre, Perth (All Ages)
Tuesday 5 March – The Triffid, Brisbane (18+)
Wednesday 6 March – Metro Theatre, Sydney (All Ages)
Thursday 7 March – The Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne (18+)
Tickets available here.
