NIcholas Allbrook Photographed by Danielle Defoe.
Dashing and daring. Eccentric and incredible. Soundtrack to the summer. When mentioning Australian psych phenoms [Pond](https://www.instagram.com/ponderers/), such phrases come to mind. Known for their universally feel good vibes, Pond’s blend of unique and vibrant music transcends the grooviest of synth pop, to the grittiest of guitars. In the midst of the frenzy, we caught up with the band while on tour at The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, Ca., to share some of their stories, and it was as lively as you would expect it to be. Read the interview with Photographer Danielle Defoe below
**What’s your favorite show been so far this tour?**
Nick Allbrook: San Fran one for me.
**Really? Why?**
NA: It’s ahhhh.. I felt I sung alright, and it was full, it was sold out and everyone was having a really good time in the crowd.
**Jay Watson**: Yeah it’s always good in San Fran for Pond. It’s different for different bands in different places, and sometimes you don’t know why. There’s places we’ve played where you think there’d be heaps of people, and there’s no one there and you don’t know why.
**Really? Like where?**
JW: Well I needed an example before I said that. The flip side of that, you know the other way around, is that you would think people in Paris would be too cool for Pond, and we always have really good shows there.
James Ireland Photographed by Danielle Defoe.
What’s one this way around?
Shiny Joe Ryan: Pomona.
JW: Have we played? I don’t Pond has ever played in Pomona?
SJR: Oh we’ve played there twice, Tame Impala..
JW: Oh Pond and Tame Impala played in Pomona. \*laughs
**What’s your favorite city to play in?**
NA: Probably London or Paris, they’re always really fun.
**Yeah? What about in the US?**
NA: I mean I love San Francisco, I really like playing here too.
JA: We had a really fun show in New Orleans I liked.
**So you guys are coming out with a live album, what was the process of selecting the songs for that?**
NA: We sorted just played all the songs we play live at the moment, and the ones that sounded shit we didn’t pick. Then we dug up a couple of older ones that we haven’t played in awhile.
Jamie Terry Photographed by Danielle Defoe.
JW: We only had two days to do it, and learning a song you haven’t played in awhile takes like at least half a day, so we kind of had to just play stuff we knew.
**Did you do it in a studio?**
JW: Yeah it was in the studio
**Was it mastered after that?**
JW: Yeah the drummer Jim mixed it, and then we got it mastered. It’s not supposed to be a live album, just supposed to be live recordings so you can hear us play different versions of the songs. The last few of our albums have been made…not like inorganically, but it’s not a live band, like a rock band recording, like we record little bits at a time and stick it all together. So it’s cool to play the same songs, actually a like a group of musicians, we haven’t done that on the recordings for like ten years or something.
**Who writes the lyrics, and are they mainly fact or fiction?**
JW: We’ve all written lyrics before, but recently Nick has written the bulk of them I think.
**They seem pretty narrative.**
NA: Yeah. I guess its sort of based in reality, but it also sort of swings like, without any rules, from being from my perspective and imaginary maze perspective, and an imaginary archetype of back in Australia…
Shiny Joe Ryan Photographed by Danielle Defoe.
**What are you influences?**
NA: Well…that’s a bit of a.. you can’t really just like lay down a small..
**Well who do you love?**
NA: Well there are bands, or writers, or artists that we love, and you might get influenced..
**I’m not saying what influences your sound.**
NA: I know what you mean but, something that could influence making a song might just be something you hear on the radio, or a person, a sign, a moment on the street..
SJR: I think Royal Blue has been a big influence for me.
NA: What’s that?
SJR: It’s a color. \*laughs
NA: I saw Flaunt featured Jennifer Herrema, I love Royal Trux a lot. I love Haim, I love the Ray of Light Album by Madonna, I love a bunch of Kylie Minogue stuff. Outkast.
**Tell me a crazy story, like a CRAZY story.**
JA: The drummer fell off his Lime Scouter last night, hurt his wrist, and we thought we were going to have to cancel the show today. You can’t get much crazier than a Lime Scouter.
Jay Watson Photographed by Danielle Defoe.
**What’s your favorite place to eat in LA?**
SJR: There’s this food truck in the Walgreens in Silverlake, it only comes out around 6pm.
**So Mexican, there’s probably no Mexican food in Australia.**
JA: Not good Mexican.
**Do you believe in God?**
NA: Nah.. I’m a spiritual person but I don’t believe in God in like a Christianic, Dogmatic way.
**What’s your favorite fine artist?**
SJR: God.
**If you could have dinner with anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be?**
NA: Ohhhh well, well I would have liked to have dinner with George Orwell. He seemed like a pretty fun dude, also a grumpy mother fucker, but like I figure we’d either get really drunk together or he’d get tired and go to bed which would suit me as well.
SJR: There’s an Australian who invented the power strip.
JA: Oh yeah we invented the multi power cord.
Photographed by Danielle Defoe.
**Have you ever been arrested?**
JA: I almost did in Mexico City, well I was put a police car..
**What did you do?**
JA: We were at a club, and there were all these Mexican dudes pissing in the alley way, so I was like I’m going to join them. Well I needed to wee, I needed to sort it out before I had to sit in the car for 20 minutes you know? And then I’m like 6’3, and I had a bright yellow jumper on, and they put me in a car and wanted $2000 US dollars or they would put me in a cell, it was really scary. The sound guy, and our Mexican friend who was taking care of us, haggled them down to about $200. We ended up giving them $120, which was all we had.
**What about you?**
NA: I haven’t been arrested, but I have been put in jail. It was because of immigration, in the US of course.
SJR: In Chicago?
NA: LA. They kept me there for so long, that customs closed, and they all went home and they took me to downtown LA. They put me in there, and I slept on a toilet roll on a bench, and I tried to of course call my parents cuz I was so broke, and mentally I was like “I wanna talk to my mom”, and had this little piece of paper with some really convoluted instructions on it, I went to this shitty payphone, which didn’t work.
**How’d you get out?**
NA: Air France
**What is next after the live album? Are you going to make another album? We’re looking forward to it.**
SJR: Yeah me too. I don’t know how, where, or what it’s going to sound like, but absolutely, it’s in the pipeline.
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