Pond frontman Nick Allbrook has opened up about the intense themes of their new double album, Stung!.
Perth’s psychedelic rockers released their 10th studio album last week, the follow-up to 2021’s 9, which made it to #6 on the ARIA Albums Chart).
In a new interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ for the publication’s June-August magazine edition, Allbrook detailed the “the horror and trauma” that was dumped into the songs on Stung!.
“On this album, there’s definitely a lot of moving through loneliness,” he said, singling out “Sunrise for The Lonely”, the first song that he wrote for the record.
“There’s also the tried and tested Nick Allbrook tropes I use, for example ‘Constant Picnic’, which is about Australia, and not ever being able to be one with the land that we’re actually on, and just sort of importing a British way of thinking, eating and dressing. It’s that sort of stuff, but it’s pretty varied.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Allbrook revealed exactly where their intriguing album title came from.
“Being filled with wonder and passion is so important to me, and that’s what the word ‘stung’ means to us,” he shared. “It’s kind of a dumb thing we always say. At first, we said ‘I’m stung’ to mean having a crush on someone, and then it just became, ‘I’m real stung by this restaurant,’ ‘man, I’m real stung by the trees in Sydney,’ or whatever.
“It just became a through-line for me that means keeping joy and wonder in your music and your life even through really, really tough and trying times, both personally and globally, I suppose. Because everything just seems to get harder and harder and more disconnected and you have to make more and more of an effort to be happy.”
You can listen to Stung! below.
Pond are currently touring Australia in support of their new album, with stops remaining in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Fremantle (more information here).
Pond’s Stung! is out now via Spinning Top Records.
