What better way to celebrate your 10th studio album than by making it a double LP? Alternatively, what better time is there to make a double LP than for your 10th studio album? Such is the case for Pond, the Australian psych-rockers who check off both of those boxes with Stung!.
Despite being recorded in founding member Jay Watson’s (AKA Gum) backyard studio with members coming and going to lay down parts, Stung! overflows with a band-in-a-room feel. From start to finish, it feels like the ultimate Pond album: flanger-soaked guitars, propulsive drumming, and enveloping sonic details culminate in a stirring accomplishment of a record.
Following the record’s release in June, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist “Shiny Joe” Ryan sat down with Uproxx to talk about Shania Twain, cheese, and buying too many guitars in our latest Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music?
Eat more cheese now.
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered?
Well I suppose I’d like our music to be remembered as an example of a kind of egoless, joyful, creative freedom between friends? But even saying that makes me feel weird because as I think about it, all I want is that when you listen to our music your mind can drift off. Like when you’re washing dishes whilst listening to music. When you wash dishes or vacuum or knit or do something with your hands your mind can wonder and it’s a special time. So take that and apply it to 2050. If we even have dishes to wash or vacuuming to be done in 2050. Maybe we’re all in hyperspace on our way to the mars and the dishes have been sent ahead for us as a form of meditation to help us deal with a new planet??
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform?
Favourite city to perform in is Barcelona!!!! But I’m desperate to perform in Ireland, so all ye Irish promoters, hit us up please!
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why?
I’m playing with them now tbh. My band mates/best friends have always inspired me. But I get inspiration from new artists all the time and not just musical artists. Nice to be inspired by a whole different medium and what you’ve drawn from that you can apply to your music
Where did you eat the best meal of your life?
There have been a few unreal meals and they all hold a special place in my mind. It’s hard to pick one, so I won’t think about it too much. I’ll see which one floats to the top…. I’m going with eating NZ Green lipped mussels that we picked from the underside of Jamie’s dad’s jetty and ate immediately with a white wine sauce and some fresh fish that we caught that day out in the straight between the north and south islands of Aotearoa (Māori name for New Zealand)
Tell us about the best concert you’ve ever attended
Hard to say…. so, what jumps out at me now is Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds at Primavera Porto in Portugal. It was my first time seeing them, I had just started to get into Nick and it was unreal!! I was floored and hugely moved by that performance. Still feeling the effects today from that gig.
What song never fails to make you emotional?
There’s a song called “An Buachaill Caol Dubh” and it’s a lament played on the uilleann pipes by Liam O’Flynn. Uilleann pipes are the Irish bagpipe played basically by sitting down and strapping woodfire bellows to your arm while the drones lay over your lap and the chanter is on your knee. Liam is one of Ireland’s greatest uilleann pipers in my opinion and watching him play this song on DVD is how I learned to play the pipes myself. “An Buachaill Caol Dubh” translates to “The Dark Slender Boy” from Gaelic, so, when you type “The Dark Slender Boy by Liam O’Flynn” into YouTube, get ready for an emotional rollercoaster.