Hitting your 30s is a huge milestone for anyone. The financial struggles of youth are hopefully nothing more than a memory, and the spontaneous partying you’ve kept up for well over a decade fades once you realise it takes three days to recover after a big night of beers with your mates. Ultimately, the 30s are a time for reflection. Pond drummer Jay Watson says it best: “It’s easy to pull off being a goof when you’re 21, not 31,” he laughs.
For psychedelic rockers Pond, who have been on a tiring schedule of non-stop album tours all over the world since their formation almost ten years ago, it’s this idea of maturity that sees them feeling more comfortable in their own skin than ever before.
“We take Pond very seriously, but we’re also adults making noise for a living,” Watson laughs. “I hope we’ve matured, yeah. But I also think we don’t take the whole thing very seriously because there’s not really anything to take seriously. This is music. It’s noise. It’s art. But it’s not a cynical outlook. The position we’re in now didn’t come from thinking like that. You know, this doesn’t happen to everyone, so in that regard we’re extremely lucky, and I think we kind of have to take it seriously.”
As luck would have it, Pond – fronted by the effervescent Nicholas Allbrook – have become one of Australia’s most influential contemporary bands both here and overseas. The Weather is their seventh studio album in ten years – a mind-bending trip that takes the constraints of genre and smashes them to pieces with maniacal experimentation and vivid psychedelia from fleshed-out synthesizers.
“There’s lots of parts on this new record that go all over the place,” Watson says. “Weird funky bits, weird ’70s rock bits, right up to modern R&B, and you know, some parts are just completely electronic. I guess it’s more synth-based this time around, because that’s exactly how we wrote it. A lot of the time we were using keyboards, or even our laptops. We still use guitar quite a lot, but instead of just strumming through the chords all the time, we used the guitar more like pepper and added it in later.
“But we also don’t really listen to much guitar music any more, I guess – it’s mostly stuff that’s made with computers and synthesizers. You know, I think Nick and Jamie [Terry, bass] almost exclusively listen to rap music and modern R&B. I’m still stuck on my old synth records, but it all goes into the pot, you know?
“I think there was definitely a concerted effort to make it sound more futuristic, and it was done deliberately so. I think we just get a kick out of making a smorgasbord of styles and sounds without thinking about it too much.”
We don’t take the whole thing very seriously because there’s not really anything to take seriously. This is music. It’s noise. It’s art.
Of course, Pond haven’t left their roots behind completely, and their success has been built upon a number of factors. Watson readily admits that one of those factors is the band’s close relationship with Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker. Watson not only shares stages around the world with Parker when he’s touring with Tame, but also credits Parker with being a creative stronghold who helps shape Pond’s sound and overall vibe.
“Having Kevin there for advice is great, and it’s also free of charge,” Watson laughs. “He’s mixed the last few Pond records, and produced as well, but sometimes I don’t really know where that line is drawn because he just has a hand in everything. He’s really invaluable.
“He’s very good at it from a technical level and a creative level. So with Pond, I guess the challenge is to use both those qualities as much as we can. We disagree on creative stuff quite a lot, but we almost never disagree on technical and sonic stuff. You can hear it in the output, and I wouldn’t have anyone else having a hand in our stuff the way that Kev does.”
While Pond’s touring schedule has been expansive over recent years, Watson explains the band has just enjoyed the longest break in its musical career, and is feeling refreshed and excited to get new tunes out on the road. This year, Pond will even be playing one of the most revered festivals in the world, Primavera Sound in Barcelona, to crowds that Watson says have only gotten bigger and more diverse as their sound expands.
“I think it’s pretty equal everywhere – maybe a bit smaller in America,” he says. “England seems to be pretty crazy, South America and Mexico are the same. But I don’t really think we could ask for anything else rather than to be equally popular all over the world.
“Primavera is a good one; I love Barcelona. We’ve kind of had our longest break in years, which is probably like a month. It’s much more fun touring when you’re 100 per cent behind what you’re touring, you know? Not to say we haven’t been before, but we’re just really eager to show everyone what we’ve got.”
Photo: Matt Sav
The Weather is out Friday May 5 through EMI/Universal.
