Since forming in 2008, Perth, Australia based Pond has kept a busy schedule of recording and touring. That hasn’t stopped band members from looking way out into the future – even as far back as the release of their second album Corridors of Blissterday in 2009 – by joking about and finding hilarious potential names for their tenth album (with things getting more serious the closer they got).
A few weeks ago, the band got there, releasing 10th album Stung via Spinning Top Records. Guitarist Joseph “Shiny Joe” Ryan feels while it’s just a number, he’s proud of the growth they’ve achieved.
“Every album we’ve put out has been better than the last one, which is hugely important to us,” says Ryan. “Whether it’s songwriting-wise or production, it’s always been different album to album, never really repeating the same thing twice, so it’s quite fun and hugely interesting to still be making music that is adventurous for us to record, play and listen back to!”
He continues, “We certainly have never lived to anyone else’s expectations except our own and because of that, the whole journey has been an absolute joy.”
While they’re often associated with Tame Impala due to shared members, Pond has carved up its own distinct identity with each release and continues to showcase that on Stung!’s nine tracks. The band will be touring in Europe and the U.S. later this year. You can find dates here.
Scummy Water Tower recently caught up with Ryan by email to discuss the band’s new music and how leisurely hang outs helped reenergize them.
Making an album isn’t as simple as it used to be for the band with everyone busy with life and other musical projects. How has working on the album in piecemeal fashion been beneficial for the band’s latest music?
I suppose it was quite fun in the sense that every Wednesday we’d go to Jay [Watson]’s house and record, and we all had songs to contribute that were really cool sounding. We’d start work on a Nick [Allbrook] or a Jay or a James [Ireland] song one week and then I’d be like, “alright, but I’ve got a good song we have to do it next week.”
Having only a few hours each Wednesday kind of made me want to work on the album more. It left me wanting more each week and we were all super excited for the next session.
How do you think the band’s been able to find a good balance between music and daily life?
I guess a combination of necessity and genuine enthusiasm led to a schedule that we could all commit to and that left everyone happy and our families happy and didn’t impact on our daily lives negatively.
The new album is a departure from the last few albums in that the songs are much more expansive and jam based. Why did the band feel it was time to go in that direction? What aspects about that direction do you think the band really excels at?
In some ways, I actually feel this album has moments or similar feelings to some of our earlier albums like Beard, Wives, Denim and little hints from the albums after that. It wasn’t intentional, it just happened organically.
We are always trying to push forward and not go backwards in terms of songwriting or production. I think the overall caliber of songwriting has gone up. We’ve also stepped up our ability to record music well and now have James Ireland and Jay Watson mix all our albums together, so it’s a great in-house step-up that leads to a great sounding album we’re all proud of.
What sonic/lyrical influences were most impactful in the creation of the album?
All the members of the band have their own influences, but if I told you, it might change your idea of the album and it’s only just out, so I’ll let you formulate your own ideas for a while.
What were the most surprising and/or challenging songs to write and record?
There weren’t really any challenging songs. I wasn’t even surprised when Jay played me his demo for “Edge of the World Part Three.” I heard it and thought “he’s done it again, of course.” [Laughs]
I really enjoyed James Ireland’s contributions on the record, he is stepping up his songwriting a lot more and his ideas are great and, of course, Nick is a fantastic songwriter.
The new album is called Stung!. Why do you think that’s fitting for this collection of songs?
I suppose it’s a fun word that we’ve been throwing at each other for a while. It’s like, if you eat a nice meal or your girlfriend walks by or you listen to a good record, you say “I’m a little stung by that.” It just felt right, and we didn’t give it too much more thought (or at least I didn’t ha ha ha.)
The title track came together in quite a unique way after the mowing of someone’s yard and playing piano right after. Can you talk about that and the inspiration behind the song?
I can’t really, it’s a Nick Albrook song! Fucking good song though, great chords. I had a lot of fun playing slide on that one.
What was the inspiration for the song “Neon River”?
That one is a Jay Watson song. I have no idea what the hell he’s on about, but, again, great song to play guitar on. Really live and fun sounding recording too.
Lyrically, many of the songs touch on the feeling of disappointment people have with current times but also joy in the knowledge the younger generation, Gen Z, has. What got the band thinking of this idea?
Well, the world’s pretty fucked at the moment, so it’s not hard to draw inspiration from everywhere around you. We’ve been singing about it for a few albums now.
For a bit of time, various members came in to work in Jay’s backyard studio. In what ways was that conducive to song ideas and finding unique sounds? What were some of your favorite experiments that came out of that time?
It was great for creativity and a lovely space. He’s got some really nice sounding gear, too – outboard, mics and pedals. But one of my favorite moments, or at least one that jumps out at me now, is when James Ireland was doing the electronic breakdown in Edge of the World Part Three. It was pretty fun to watch him do that live, while I stood outside the door in the sun drinking a coffee.
The whole band traveled to Dunsborough to a friend’s studio and that really gave the band motivation to really put things together. Why was it important for the band to change scenery and leave gear at home? How was the ocean influential? What’s one or two of your favorite stories?
It was good, because we had spent all these Wednesdays making the music, tracking the songs and figuring out all the bits. To then go down to Dunsborough and record semi -isolated, but together, was great because we were able to record some stuff live and re-record other bits. We had been doing everything one-day-a-week, so to then suddenly be together down south, we got super productive and smashed it out painlessly and quickly, the whole time having a lot of fun.
The ocean is a gorgeous, fresh and wild ocean down there, you gotta be careful where you swim. We had so much fun, there’s a ton of stories – I liked watching James Ireland sing through the glass while I tried to make him mess up by acting foolish in the control room. Our friend who owns the recording studio had purchased a small quad bike, but it hadn’t been turned on in 10 years, so once we put some F10 and some new petrol in it we just drove it around the property at less than a walking pace – it wouldn’t go any faster. That was oddly quite fun and hilarious.
The band has a bunch of tour dates this year. What are you most looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to them all! We’ve just done the U.S. and half our Australian tour, and it’s been unreal. I’m looking forward to going back to Europe in September and October and back to the U.S. again in November and December. It’s a lot of fun playing the new songs.
What are some aspects about touring that you’ve become more appreciative of in recent years and why?
We are always appreciative of the crowd. We have a lot of fun and it’s good to see the crowd having a lot of fun, too.
I’m also very appreciative that we get one extra room for the band, so every three nights you get your own room. I love the lads but it’s a nice reprieve when you’ve been crammed into a small van for four weeks together. [laughs]
You can follow and find more about Pond on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and check out their music on Spotify.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
