The Australian band Pond just released their new album Tasmania. I had a chat with Jay and Jamie before their gig in Montreal back in November 2018, where they told me about the creation of their music, the ideas for the next record and much more.
The band originally started as a collaboration. You’ve all had or have solo projects, what made you want to come back to this project (Pond)?
Yeah, Joe, Nick and I, we've played in other bands and then we started Pond which wasn’t a super serious thing. I think we’re quite good at working together and we made a lot of progress over the years. The early stuff is pretty hard to listen too but we’ve managed to make it listenable over the years. Its just been a lot of fun, we all make music on our own but it's not as fun, it's a bit lonely.
There’s an energy that comes from being in a band
Yeah, and we’re getting better at using specific parts of people’s energies to make our albums better.
When you’re making an album, what gets you into a creative mindset?
The last 2 records we recorded in Perth. We were at a studio that was a few minutes walk from the beach so that was good. We recorded in the summertime. We tend to record in summer because everyone comes home for Christmas, so we take that time to record over a couple of weeks by the beach which is very nice. That definitely makes you feel good about making music.
You released Burnt Out Star and Sixteen Days, are those songs going to reflect an upcoming album?
Every record has a long song and we never put them out really but for this we thought we might as well put out the 8 minute one first. Its a real highlight in the set when we play a show, especially the end of that song. We hadn’t done any music in a while, not that we recorded it as a jam but live we get to just do whatever for minutes. We used to do that a lot and now we don’t at all so its inspired us for the next record. Not the one coming out (Tasmania) but the next one, to do more freeform stuff and chop it all up later instead of the other way around; piecing it together.
What makes that album different from the rest?
There’s definitely more an r&b sort of influence in it, although people might not pick up on it. There’s not really any cymbals for some reason. Nick’s lyrics are really good, probably the best he’s written I think. It's kind of similar to the last one, The Weather, it could almost be a part 2. The next one is going to be a lot different. We recorded that album (Tasmania) a year ago so we’re already onto new ideas, no songs yet but the ideas are the most fun part of it.
