Catching Up With Nick Allbrook of Pond
Australian band Pond has been around since 2008, with vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nick Allbrook releasing the debut album Psychedelic Mango under the project in 2009. Since then, Allbrook has collaborated with various friends and musicians to create an abundance of music. Pond started touring internationally back in 2013, and the current band roster also includes Jay Watson, Joseph Ryan, Jamie Terry, and James Ireland. Pond just released their 11th studio album Terrestrials on June 19, 2026, and in support of the new music, they have been on tour this summer supporting Djo. Soon, Pond will head out on their own headlining tour in North America. Ahead of their show at Metro in Chicago on August 27th, I caught up with Nick Allbrook of Pond to talk Terrestrials, breaking the mold, artistic inspiration, analog media and more.
Photo by Michael Tartaglia
If you look up the band Pond, they’re still primarily labeled as “psych rock” music, and heck, the word “psychedelic” was even in the title of their first release. But if you ask Allbrook what the band’s intentions were with their latest and greatest, he’ll challenge listeners not to be so quick to pigeonhole Pond in psychedelia (say that five times fast.) Allbrook describes Pond’s ambitions for Terrestrials, saying “We just wanted something that we could play fast and loud on like an East Coast Australian pub tour.” With that goal in mind, they wanted something energetic and something that would continue to break the mold. “We wanted to make something faster and more animated. Pretty much we didn't want to do so much of the ‘psych fluff.” Which we've actually been trying not to do for for years and years,” Allbrook continues.
I’d say that the outcome met that mindset; The new songs often feature punchy synthesizers and more robust, richer vocals from Allbrook, taking on more of a post-punk and power-pop sound. The often-upbeat melodies are juxtaposed by the band’s thoughtful lyrics that comment on human complexities and examine political and social themes. Take the track “Casuarina,” which kicks off with urgent guitar strums and a drum tempo that makes you want to tap your foot or sway your hips. The song lyrics are commentary on Casuarina prison, where teenager Cleveland Dodd tragically passed away by suicide in 2023. In the song’s chorus, Allbrook also alludes to corporate greed and wealth disparity, calling billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart out by name. “Counting the lights in Casuarina/ while coming down in block eighteen/how many mines just earn for Gina?”
There’s no shortage of references to other places in Pond’s home country of Australia on the rest of the record. “Roebuck Plains,” which almost sonically feels like a Fleetwood Mac or Tom Petty song, is named after Wetlands in Western Australia. The peppy melody of the track wraps its arms around lyrics that explore the grueling and lonely reality of manual labor.
I asked Allbrook about a quote in another recent interview with NME where they said they had Master Chef on mute while they recorded the song "Through the Heather.” I was curious what other media the band was consuming while making this record, but as it turns out, they weren’t actually watching the cooking show after all. “I think it wasn't Master Chef, actually. Soon after I was just thinking of the most basic, uninspiring piece of television I could think of. Apparently, it was Love on the Spectrum. Have you seen that show? It rocks,” Allbrook says. The singer also describes how he always imagined an album being made, and as it turns out, reality is quite different than his and most people’s expectations. “My idea of people making an album when I was young would have been a lot more rock and roll and inspiring. You know, like people in a room, smoking joints and playing sitars or some shit. Instead of 90 percent of the people in attendance sat on the couch going [Mimics remote clicking] and then someone playing a little guitar,” he says. There you have it, though! Pond makes music to a background of reality dating shows.
Allbrook also divulged about the music he was consuming during that making of Terrestrials. He describes a few “British gothy, post-punk” bands, like Magazine and Killing Joke, but he also went down a rabbit hole with The Boss. “I went through an enormous, enormous Springsteen phase, very late in my life. But it was like—discovering music again,” Allbrook says pensively, really emphasizing the impact of this phase. That’s the great thing about music, you can always go back and rediscover something that’s been there for decades. “It didn't really make a huge imprint on this album as far as the vibes and sound, but I think it just kind of got me out of that feeling of like, listening to and consuming music as a researcher, and back to just chucking it on at every possible opportunity in the car, or going for a walk,” Allbrook elaborates, comparing this phase to when he got back into reading for his own joy. “I found myself really just trying to read important, worthwhile pieces of literature, and I was like why am I struggling to get through things? Then someone gave me A Wizard of Earthsea, a fantasy book about wizards and dragons and shit. And I remembered what it feels like to miss your bus stop because you're stuck in a book. I feel like that was it with Springsteen just being absolutely obsessed with an album and wanting to put it on constantly,” he says. Allbrook also shared that he has Springsteen’s CD Darkness on the Edge of Town in the CD player in his car, keeping his music consumption analog. “It’s the best! I’m not going back,” he says.
More physical media consumption is a human behavior I can get behind, but I also wanted to know what are some human behaviors Allbrook would like to see more and less of in 2026. “More understanding. I think it seems like it's very easy to forget that most of us are on the same side. I think being forgiving of other people's differences,” Allbrook says. He’d like to see less greed, which again is something that the stories on the album navigate.
One way that I like to see people come together and focus on what we have in common is to go out to support live music, and Allbrook concurs. When I asked him what he’d like someone to take away from Pond’s shows, he shared, “I think just going to a show is enough. Having a moment with other people, like being in a large group of people, letting your guard down for a moment. Being stupid and vulnerable and yelling and I don't know…Get sweaty and have a couple of beers. Yeah, I think it's increasingly important for our collective health. Not us (Pond) specifically, but if it happens to be us then that's great!”
If you’ve had the privilege of attending a Pond show before, you know Allbrook does an excellent job at bringing people together and interacting with the crowd during a performance. I asked Allbrook which other artists and performers have influenced his stage presence, and his answer includes a mix of modern and veteran musicians. “It changes all the time! The Who really lit a fire under me when I was younger. Seeing people swinging shit around and trashing stuff, kicking amps over and being loose. Janis Joplin…” he starts to list. Still pondering the question, he adds “I love seeing Iggy Pop writhing around. Peter Garrett and Midnight Oil like making a point of not leaving the stage until you're in a pool of sweat. Seeing Amyl and the Sniffers recently. That’s amazing, that's how you fucking do it! It’s pretty cool isn't it how Liam Gallagher just stands there and just stares people down.” Allbrook also shared a story of “Gum” (aka Jay Watson) running into Gallagher backstage at a festival. “He was like ‘you're not one of those fucking bands who fucking dances around and shit, wearing frilly shirts, are you?’ And he was like, uhhh, no?” Gallagher signed off by telling Watson to “stand there and deliver.” While I did really enjoy the Oasis reunion, I have to say I’m glad Pond keeps their shows lively instead of doing the Gallagher method!
When he’s not making an album or touring, Allbrook also acts as the Chair of Contemporary Music at the UWA Conservatorium of Music, and I asked him what he’s been able to take away from the students with this experience. “I learn a lot more from them than they do from me I think,” Allbrook says. “There is a very core love of music, and I think things are not so far gone as people my age or older imagine. It’s not as complicated as all that. People do stream music and are addicted to TikTok, but people generally want to like pick up a guitar and strum. I think it's just remembering that there's this kind of core appetite that isn't going away. Even in the slightest. I'm not there to sort of reawaken it, people just want to do that.” Here’s to more people picking up instruments and playing pub gigs in years to come!
You can get your fix of genuine live music and human connection by snagging tickets to Pond with Daisychain at Metro on August 27th.