Sand Pebbles Monday, 05 December 2011

CHRIS HOLLOW, bass player for Melbourne’s enigmatic psych-rockers SAND PEBBLES, won’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. He chats with KRISSI WEISS.

Sand Pebbles began their musical journey when three scriptwriters from Neighbours – Chris Hollow (bass), Ben Michael (guitar) and Piet Collins (drums) – decided to join psychedelic forces. The line-up has changed a lot over the past 10 years with the band’s diversity augmented by the fact they have members born in every decade between the ’50s and ’90s. But despite Sand Pebbles’ latest release, Dark Magic, receiving rave reviews, the band are probably more known for the mythology that surrounds them. Normally musicians plead with the media to focus on the music but Hollow embraces the stories that have created this mythology. There’s their unique beginning, the infamous Meredith Music Festival ban (they allegedly stormed the stage during Rose Tattoo’s set in 2006, something that Hollow describes as “the greatest story that never happened”) and now revelations that Hollow went to school with the US government’s most wanted man, Julian Assange.

“There hasn’t been many people who have asked me about Julian Assange,” Hollow says. “I went to an alternative school down here, I had a fair bit of communication with him but it wasn’t as though we were close or anything… We were working as scriptwriters and storytellers so if the story is more intriguing than the music or it provides a way into it, then go with it.”

Sand Pebbles have managed to make quite a name for themselves over the past 10 years despite the fact they barely, if ever, play outside of Victoria. “It’s hard to talk about this without sounding egotistical,” he says. “But Melbourne is a big scene and there are so many places to play so we don’t feel like we have to push it very hard. I don’t want to sound like Melbourne is the best or anything but we are able to play here and still have people turning up that have never seen us. Also, heading to Sydney and Brisbane, well, we may as well be going to New York with the amount of organisation that is involved.”

Each time we move onto Sand Pebbles’ latest album, Hollow cuts things short, stating “I don’t want to bore your readers.” As we begin to wrap he tells me that he is much more interesting via email if I had any more questions and he once again reiterates that he doesn’t want to sound boring. We have a laugh about the notion of controversy and how people perceive that as being somehow more interesting. He decides to take a crack at controversy by discussing the latest album of 2011’s golden boy, Gotye. “Well, I lived through the ’80s and listened to Peter Gabriel and Sting so I don’t really need to hear all of that again,” he says laughing. “I am wrapped that he is doing so well though and is jammed up against Rihanna and any of those types of artists.” It seems that Hollow can’t help but be a nice guy, which some people still find interesting.

SAND PEBBLES with be at the Eight Miles High Festival at The Zoo, Saturday Dec 10, with Richard In Your Mind, Black Cab, Grand Atlantic and many more. Tickets are available through Oztix. Head to www.sandpebbles.com.au or www.thezoo.com.au for more information. DARK MAGIC is out now through Dot Dash.