Desert Daze music festival took place from September 29 through October 2nd at Lake Perris,CA. Pond closed out the festival with an electrifyingly trippy set at the Block Stage. Earlier that day, I had the chance to sit down with the band to chat the deluxe version of their most recent album "9", see how they felt about playing the festival, as well as plans for new music.
Check out the interview and photoshoot below:
How are you guys doing on this hot desert morning?
Nick: We're good! A bit sleepy though.
Where did you guys fly in from?
Nick: All different places - Perth, Dublin, and Warsaw.
How do you guys feel about closing out the tenth anniversary of Desert Daze tonight?
Nick: Great! It's an amazing festival and really special. This will be our third time playing.
As for '9' I'm really loving the Deluxe version. Were the additional songs written before the original record and what did you want to convey in this new edition?
Nick: They were from the original recording. We wanted to get em out and have people hear them.
James: We also wanted to release the album cover as the holographic version. We always wanted the original to be like this one but then for the deluxe version we decided to go with the holographic.
What made you guys go for black and white with the first version?
Nick: There was a bit of back and forth and massaging the direction of it until it became what it was and we all just settled on that.
Back to my previous question, I was wondering thematically what were you guys trying to convey from a messaging standpoint with these additional songs?
Nick: I think it's the opposite. The original one is more of a concise nine songs, ninth album. All the songs sort of feel thematically and sonically coherent together. With the deluxe one it's just extravagant - here's the rest of the shit we were thinking of but didn't make it onto the album.
James: They were B-Sides. We still liked them as much as the other tracks on the album and we had to get them out somehow.
Nick: We left them off the first one to make it more of a succinct album with a deluxe one, not succinct. Whatever other shit was lying around.
Do you guys have any insight on what's next?
Nick: Probably make another album and do some more tours I'd say! Get crazy!
Can't stop it now.
Do you think ideally within the next two to three years? Sooner or later?
Nick: Oh yeah. Much much sooner.
James: Hopefully before the holidays! For 9 the music seems old to us now. We started it pre-pandemic so it feels pretty old.
Nick: It's gonna be fun getting back to Perth and working on new music.
Interview conducted and scribed by Gemma Mastroianni.
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