Image by Pooneh Ghana //

With their forthcoming album ‘Tasmania’ just days away, we caught up with POND’s Nicholas Allbrook to discuss activism, environment, and (of course) dancing.

Looking at issues like climate change, toxic masculinity, and nationalism through their spacey psych-funk lense, WA’s POND have produced their most politically-inspired and accomplished work to date – their eighth studio album, Tasmania. Musically, the record picks up where 2017’s The Weather left off, complete soaring synths, cosmic acoustics, and uptempo rhythms, the four-piece continue to find comfort in stylistic switches of gear; from ballads, to oddball electro numbers.

Singles ‘Sixteen Days’ and ‘Daisy’ are further evidence of their endeavour to push further into weird territory, with the former seeing the group performing (and we mean performing) as captured by oiled-up cameramen, whilst the latter features Allbrook take to his elasticised dance moves to bushland in Western Australia. Again, it’s seemingly stylistically incohesive, yet both undeniably feel like POND.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dtptXFjjB0

They’ll be hitting the road this week too, with a national tour kicking off on this Sunday at The Astor Theatre (info here), so we caught up with frontman Nicholas Allbrook to chat about touring, Tasmania, and toxicity in all its forms:

You guys have spent so much time on the road recently, what do you miss about ‘home’?

The heat. The beach. The people who make things without expectation of money or recognition or social capital. It’s just home – you have your plants, your love, your fridge, your friends, studio. People yell at you from Monaros on the highway. People beep loudly when you try to be a pedestrian.

Tasmania has a kind of environmental theme running through it. Are you guys optimistic about the future of the word in that aspect?

Not really, but it’s worth a red-hot crack.

Why Tasmania? What’s so special about Tassie?

It was kind of thought of as the last escape from the burning up globe. It’s an escape from noise, from people, from heat. But it’s a fraught and impossible escape. It’s a comfort that we just hold onto even though it can’t be true. Yet another thing to distract from facing the fire.

Where did you write the album?

All over. Perth, London, France, Airplane, Melbourne, L.A.

How do you feel when a record is coming out? Are you nervous? Excited? Sick of waiting?

I think after this long we’ve all heard it so much that it barely feels like our own thing anymore. I always get a little bit nervous about how it’ll be received, because – as much as I try not to give a fuck – I cannot avoid music journalists telling me whether myself expression is worthwhile or not. Fucking dumb, but it’s hard to control your ego around these things ya know? It’s also a bit nerve-wracking when you say things that can be seen as inflammatory or “political”. People are always gonna get grumpy. At least I don’t look at Facebook or Insta or comments sections.

Your song ‘The Boys Are Killing Me’ looks at manhood and machoness in Australia, do you think ‘The boys’ are different here compared to other countries?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap2gStsDZZo

Yeah, of course they are. I grew up in country Australia, and I think a lot about how we are expected to toughen up and make a gag and foot the bill. Have a beer. Have a wife. People die from this shit. Women too – HAVE BABY. WASH DISH. COOK FEED. ETC. But it’s also about the boys on a global scale. Ruthlessly killing the planet and its inhabitants to prove the size of their dicks and make massive massive amounts of money.

Can you tell us who the doctor of ‘Doctors In’ is?

The Doctor is an easterly breeze that cools down Perth in the afternoon. It comes from Fremantle direction.

Do you guys aim to change people’s minds and attitudes when you write advocacy music, or is it more about getting it out there for people to make up their own opinions?

I’m no prophet. I don’t know policy or economics. I am just expressing how I feel, and sometimes that is scared, angry, unjust, guilty or in love – sometimes it relates to politics, yes, but I am not a politician. We are all affected by these things and I can only write about things that I actually feel. I do hope it makes people think about their own feelings towards these things, of course, but I don’t really want to push anyone to change their minds. I’m too shame to be that pushy. Too much pressure. I’m not smart or important enough to be a big influence on pals thoughts I don’t think.

Nick your dance moves have become a familiar part of the POND package. Did you ever imagine yourself to become something of a dance idol to the younger generation?

HAHA. Whenever I go back up to Derby the old gang always say “you still dancing, young fella?? I remember you at Teeshas wedding (I was about 5 years old) dancing away like Michael Jackson”. So, I guess if you believe the Kickett family’s memories, it was always gonna happen.