Now on their fifth album, entitled Dark Magic, Melbourne’s Sand Pebbles are a band whose members span almost all of the period of rock and roll’s expansion, with a member born in every decade of the genre’s heyday, from the 50s to the 90s . This smorgasbord of generations within the band has informed their work on the new record, which sees the band fusing together their various voices and influences to craft an album that speaks across the full stretch of rock and roll, having recruited the likes of Galaxie 500′s Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, Tim Holmes from Death In Vegas, Will Carruthers from Spaceman 3 and Spiritualized, even Malcolm McDowell.

MF: So, there are some pretty impressive names on the record; how did you get all these great people involved?

SP: Our Drummer and twenty-year-old dynamo Wes went on a wild trip overseas armed only with a 7 inch vinyl we’d made. He ended up at a bunch of parties and gave it out to some of our musical heroes and they, in turn, offered to do some mixing. It has given the album a sonic edge. Playing with people you admire is one of music’s true joys.

MF: It seems that collaboration was central to this album, both between individual members of the band as well as the various collaborators you brought in; can you tell me about that?

SP: Alfred Hitchcock would have a film in his head, everything worked out, and he’d make sure it came out just like that. Francis Ford Coppola gets a bunch of creative people together and goes on a trip. Many minds make light work (better). While I dig both of my fatties, I’ll take The Conversation over Rope any day.

MF: The theme to this was, and stop me if I’m wrong, to try and draw from the collective experience of the band members to present a sort of slide show of the history of rock ‘n’ roll, more in terms of drawing inspiration rather than blatant imitation. Can you tell me how yoU think that came out in the music as well as how you came to try such a task?

SP: It just happens naturally; we’re all at such different stages of our lives. It’s one of the keys to the band. Some of us are tripping, some changing nappies, some awaiting grandchildren. That has to come out when you play. And we’re the better for it.

MF: How did the writing process work with this album? Did you all bring in ideas individually and work on them together or were all the ideas work-shopped as a group from the ground up?

Spring Time was a real group effort. The others are more a band member bringing in an idea type situation. That said, we all share writing credits, which is as it should be. A beautiful guitar solo is as important as the lyrics. A drum beat as cool as a melody. Let’s be honest, singer songwriters are kinda square. It feels very old fashioned. Everything changes, everything can be made better.

MF: How would you say this album compares to your earlier work?

SP: Every album has its charm, and they are all very different: different personel; different moods in the band at the time. I think it feels like a Sand Pebbles’ album but with a softer side showing. It’s more concise. Like a stock: boiled down to is essence. It compares wonderfully. But I think all our records, with the exception of our debut, are brilliant. The debut is just plain old great.

MF: You’re about to set out on tour; are you guys a band who loves touring or who tolerates it?

SP: We’ve never really done it, so who knows. We are a band insanely dedicated to the music with pretty much zero dedication to pushing ourselves; it seems kinda tawdry. But that said, it may be time to spread the word a little further. One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be an adventure; and life without adventure isn’t life at all.

MF: With the live show do you set out to recreate the album or offer something different?

SP: No. Never! A live show is a one off, in the moment, thing. It must be a roller coaster. It should always feel like it’s about to come off the rails. Tension. Bands who sound like records are actually evil and against nature. We are naturists. The natural state of being is unpredictable. Live shows should capture that feeling.

Sand Pebbles 2011/2012 Tour Dates

Friday 2 December - The Front Canberra (album launch), with The Sun Blindness

Saturday 3 December – Goodgod Sydney (album launch), with The Sun Blindness & Astral Kaleidoscope

Friday 9 December – Byron Bay Brewery, Byron Bay (album launch), with Black Cab and The Windy Hills

Saturday 10 December - Eight Miles High Festival Brisbane, The Zoo, with Black Cab, Richard In Your Mind + more

Saturday 17 December – Grand Pooh Bar, Hobart (album launch), with Hey Mook!

Friday 23 December – The Espy Front Bar, Melbourne, with Matt Sonic and The High Times, Buried Feather + more

Friday 6 January 2012 - The Nash, Geelong, with Black Cab

The Dark Magic of Sand Pebbles

Pics by Samara Clifford

Northcote Social Club, Dark Magic Album Launch.

September 24, 2011.

Sand Pebbles
By Bruce Laird

The back-story of the Sand Pebbles is as colourful as the band’s music. Hanging out with Jeff Bridges in Los Angeles, pulling down screamers at the MCG, wandering through the forests with a mind full of fly agaric mushrooms, chewing the fat with surviving members of the Small Faces, writing scripts for television soap operas, even attending school with the enfant terrible of Internet libertarianism, Julian Assange - it all contributes to the total aesthetic experience that is the Sand Pebbles. Like a novel you can’t put down, there always seems to be another intriguing page in the Sand Pebbles story to explore. 

It’s been two years since the last Sand Pebbles record, the A Thousand Wild Flowers compilation released at the instigation of Galaxie 500 and Luna protagonist Dean Wareham, and three years since the last Sand Pebbles studio album, Ceduna. In that time, the Sand Pebbles have found a new drummer, swapped jobs, given up vices and added to the members’ progeny. “I’ve had two kids, written a novel, gone through a lot of emotions … a lot of stuff’s happened,” bass player Chris Hollow says.

Having relocated to a surf beach near Ceduna on the west coast of South Australia for the band’s previous record, the Sand Pebbles opted for a more conventional location for Dark Magic. “Most of it came about through two sessions we did at Atlantis,” guitarist Ben Michael says. “It’s a really beautiful studio - maybe not to look at, but it’s got beautiful old analogue equipment.”

For most of the band, recording in a larger studio wasn’t particularly a significant event. “We’ve recorded on digital before, but I don’t think we’ve recorded to tape,” observes Hollow. “None of us were nervous in the big studio at the time, but [drummer] Wesley [Holland] – who was 19 at the time – was shitting himself!” Hollow says. “Funnily enough, the first song we did was Blue Eyes in Black and White, and he was really nervous on that song because it was the first time he’d recorded in a studio, but on the last song, Spring Time, he was really loose - but on the record, Spring Time is the first song, and Blue Eyes is the last,” Hollow says.

Sand Pebbles albums have a tendency to sound like composite pieces, rather than a disparate collection of songs, and Dark Magic is no exception. According to the band, however, any thematic musical consistency is subconscious at best.  “We did the launch for the last album at the Toff a couple of years ago, and two of the songs on the new album are on that record, so we’ve had some of the songs for a while,” Michael says. “We had about five or six songs written going into the first session, and when you’ve got five or songs written, it’s time to think ‘time to start’, and the rest will take care of itself,” says Hollow.

The title of the album is taken from a track on the record, though could equally have been chosen as a statement on the music itself - not that Michael and Hollow necessarily agree. “Quite a few of the songs have a dark edge,” muses Michael. “And there’s quite a bit of magic on there,” adds Hollow. “I suppose we didn’t really name the album because of a theme or anything. There’s more a touch of folk on the record, so maybe it picks up on that.”

What isn’t subconscious is the demographic spread of the members of the Sand Pebbles’ membership. With the arrival of Holland on drums, it was quickly realised that the Sand Pebbles had members born in the 50s (Andrew Tanner), 60s (Ben Michael), 70s (Chris Hollow), 80s (Tor Larsen) and 90s (Holland). “I can say for me that because there’s all these other responsibilities, music is a really important part of my life - probably even more so,” Michael says. “And everyone’s at a completely different stage in their life, which I think is a really good thing,”

Holland’s ‘passion and drive’ led the band to benefiting from the mixing services of Tim Holmes (Death In Vegas) and Will Caruthers (Spaceman 3, Spiritualized), when he found himself with the opportunity to play both some Sand Pebbles music, which found immediate favour. “That was Wes’ great contribution to the record, getting those guys to do the mixes - and the mixes they came up with were fantastic, just found something we wouldn’t have,” Hollow says.

The contribution from Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips cements the relationship between the duo and the Sand Pebbles that began a few years ago when Hollow sent them a copy of the band’s second record, Ghost Transmissions.  So when Wareham agreed to bring his Galaxie 500 celebratory tour to Australia, the Sand Pebbles was his first choice as support band. “He’s been involved for a couple of years, and he’s never let us down,” Hollow says. “We’re big Galaxie 500 and Luna fans, and he released those records when that sound wasn’t in vogue. And you go back and listen to them now, and they still hold up just as well.”

It was via a posting on Wareham’s blog last year that the latest curious Sand Pebbles fact leaked out when Wareham revealed that Hollow had attended the same high school as Julian Assange. “Julian and I are the same age, were in the same class,” Hollow explains. “He was just as mysterious and enigmatic then. He was big into the Lord of the Rings. Whenever he felt put upon by other students he would yell, ‘Philistines! You’re all Philistines!’ It made it doubly funny having to go to the school library to look up what it meant,” Hollow laughs.

Sand Pebbles launch their new album at the Northcote Social Club on Saturday September 24. Dark Magic is out now through Dot Dash/Remote Control.