Track By Track: Sand Pebbles Dark Magic

Unapologetic psychedelia, interstellar Taoism and A-list collabs – TOR LARSEN and WES HOLLAND talk us through Sand Pebbles fifth album, Dark Magic.

‘Spring Time (Who Hasn’t Lost Their Head?)’

Tor: I played a riff towards the end of the song that struck me as very familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but the next morning I woke up and realised it was from a track on [The Smashing Pumpkins’] Siamese Dream. My teenage guitar heroes coming back to haunt me.

Wes: My favourite band of all time is Primal Scream and last year I flew over to see them perform Screamadelica at the London Olympia. The highlight of the show was midway through ‘Higher Than The Sun’ when everyone dropped out, and Mani started playing Jah Wobble’s bass line by himself. I told Chris we needed a bass solo on the record, and he managed to slot it into this track.

‘Because I Could’

Wes: I read a story about Death In Vegas sending Iggy Pop one of their tracks in the mail with a letter, simply asking him to emote on it. Iggy obliged. I figured, I’d dish DIV some of their own medicine and try and get Tim Holmes to do us a mix. This was the first track I ever sent him, and since then he’s been an incredible supporter of the band. The keyboards he added to ‘Because I Could’ are Death In Vegas 101. That was really a dream come true.

Tor: Andrew’s defiant song about “male sexual guilt”. We’d been playing this one at shows for quite a while before we recorded it, long enough to have tried several different arrangements. Tim Holmes did a great, rousing mix. Good fun.

‘Long, Long Ago’

Tor: Based on traditional folk lyrics. We recorded it live in a small room with acoustic guitars, it was all very different to our normal setup. Everyone played with a restrained and gentle touch, it was great. A Sydney reviewer thought Britta Phillips did the vocal, but it’s actually me singing with a hangover. She played some beautiful keyboards on it, though.

‘River Sparkle’

Tor: Almost a companion piece to “Because I Could”. There were a lot of overdubs on this song that we stripped back during mixing. It feels short, sharp and direct. I love the swirling keyboards.

Wes: The album’s exclamation mark. Every time we play it live Ben giggles at the end. It’s the most un-Sand Pebbles song in the catalogue, and yet it fits on the album perfectly.

‘One Of These Mornings’

Tor: Another one that uses some traditional folk lyrics. I think it’s interesting to resurrect these moody, lost songs in a new context. Our producer Malcolm [McDowell] played drums on this one. It’s a strange song to be on a sand pebbles record, this one.

Wes: I was double booked the night this was recorded. I was going on a first date with an incredibly attractive lady. What a choice: the band, or the girl? I gave our producer Mal a call and asked if he’d be able to handle the drums on this one. It’s our ‘Back In The USSR’.

‘Dark Magic’

Tor: Recorded at the end of a long day of work in the studio, exhausted, stoned, thoroughly warmed up. It all came together very quickly. It’s got a great coasting, scenic feel to it. Lots of fun to play, but tricky. I have a suspicion that the name ‘Dark Magic’ is a secret nod to a Moby Grape live bootleg from the ’70s.

‘Occupied Europe [Take Me Across the Water]’

Tor: This was a labour of love, we tried it in so many different ways, going back to about 2008. Every time we came back to it, elements of the music we were obsessed with at that time would seep into it, so it gradually flowered out into something unique and interesting. Even on the day we recorded it, things were changing. That whole middle section was improvised. It’s a cosmic sea shanty.

Wes: Apparently this song had been around for years before I joined the band. The one thing they couldn’t get right was the drum beat. They needed something to really drive it. I was listening to [The Jesus and Mary Chain’s] Psychocandy the afternoon we recorded ‘Occupied Europe’ and ripped off Bobby Gillespie’s ‘Never Understand’ drums. We paid homage to him in the ‘Occupied’ video. What an incredible drummer.

‘Another Way To Love’

Tor: Unapologetic psychedelia. The acid is still very much in the punch. This is the kind of stuff I like doing the most. I wish I could talk the other guys into doing it live!

‘Entrance to the Stream’

Wes: Getting Will Carruthers to mix this was unbelievable. I’m such a massive fan of his. He’d played on some of my favourite records of all time. Spacemen 3’s Playing With Fire, Spiritualized’s Lazer Guided Melodies, even Sonic Boom’s solo album Spectrum all have the most incredible bass. I knew he’d push ‘Entrance To The Stream’ as far as it could go. It’s the loudest song Sand Pebbles have ever recorded, and it’s a ballad.

Tor: There’s a lot of imagery from Taoism in there, which is a keen interest of mine. The stream is the Tao. Will Carruthers mixed this and sent it off into outer space. I couldn’t have been happier with it. Interstellar, psychedelic Taoism.

‘Blue Eyes In Black & White’

Tor: Such a warm, pretty song. I was determined to have this make the final cut, it just felt right. It’s our ‘Goodnight & Goodbye’ song for the album.

Wes: The first song I ever recorded with Sand Pebbles, and you wouldn’t even know. To keep the “warm, prettiness”, the rest of the band decided to mix my drums out of it. The aches and pains of being a drummer, I guess.

Dark Magic is out now through Dot Dash/Remote Control. Review here.

http://messandnoise.com/articles/4335311