Storytellers takes a glimpse into an artist’s inner psyche through a story of their choice.

In this edition, POND give us a behind-the-scenes overview of a “very remote city” called Perth, Australia.

Perth is just another place on the surface of the planet Earth. Sure, it’s an English speaking first world western place, where making music and art and smoking weed and being a general fiend won’t get you killed or put in prison, but it sure as shit ain’t no New York or London or any other city listed on posters for new boutiques ‘COMING SOON.’

Starting to play music there was a pretty innocent thing. Friend X has a drum kit and friend Y has a garage and is a pretty cool guy with fun ideas. So you get in said garage and play shit. Sometimes covers or songs, but mostly shit. Fun and horrible and loud shit.

This doesn’t leave much room for AMBITION. The capital letters signifying the type of cold-hearted, business-minded, international AMBITION oft found in the super-cities. The type of AMBITION that makes people start a project already fully aware of how they want to be perceived, and that they will be perceived. Are we naff, fun, brooding, punk, mainstream, artistic, electro? Am I a bedroom genius or a sweaty guitarist? How far do we want to get and how should we portray ourselves? What is our scene?

There’s a lot of shit in Perth that begins as copying a DVD you and your mates just watched. But of course you are all shit musicians so it sounds completely bonkers. You know the guy who runs venue A or is having a house party so somehow you get to perform. Everyone has a great time because the band has a great time. More gigs, band gets better, music gets more original and woopsie, the band is now completely badass.

For example: Electric Toad, Doctopus, and the Good Boys crew. The shittiest guitarists/best blokes/frizbee champions accumulate in Troy 2 and play a 3 chord cycle for 20 minutes. The song is called “We are the Electric Toad.” They somehow get gigs. They find a fucking good drummer, John Lekias. All of a sudden there are 17 guitarists, 2 bass’, a kaos pad (shout outs to Shiny Joe) 2 drums and the best goddam gig of all time. It was in an art gallery in Subiaco of all places. I filmed some here it is. Shout outs S.O.B and fuck y’all Weagles.

The first gig POND ever played was at one of Tanya’s parties (Space Lime Peacock). She used to throw the best parties ever. Once she said we could play because me and Jay and Joe had kinda made a band that day and were cracking her up on the phone with our rather psylocyb-ish banter. So, yeah, POND was born.

Another time I saw Rabbit Island in that same garage and cried. Actually, fully cried. Another time I saw Tame Impala. They had just got Jay (POND) drumming and were beginning to show that kind of confidence where you think, “holy shit they are actually moving beyond all of this.” I wasn’t watching a friends band about to fuck up. I think they had been signed to Modular.

Once Mink Mussel Creek played in 208’s, a house behind a tattoo parlor in Maylands. We took nangs while playing and someone turned the lights off and it was blackness and madness. Then me ‘n Joe ate some curious things and watched the loudest gig ever, by CEASE. I saw Andrew’s fishnets quivering like shackles or an angry reptile. Then we got on the roof and there were fireworks and Amber from Astral Travel was there and she said we were great. That was amazing because she is actually the one who is great.

There have been so many more things. Yardstock, Peter Bibby’s Welcome to the Week, Mojo’s Bar, Hyde Park Battery Gigs, Magnolias Late Night Live, Friz awards ceremonies, The Museum of Natural Mystery, Sunday’s at the fucking Norfolk, Spliff Cove at city beach! Fuck. Anyway, there’s a quick guide to a very remote city.

WARNING: it is very easy to find lots of awful crappy things in Perth. Get a good guide or be engulfed by mining boom gentry madness.

Snag POND’s latest LP, Hobo Rocket, via Modular Records.