It’s a miracle that Pond ever happened, says drummer Dave Triebwasser, and here’s the Portland, Ore., rock trio’s third album, “Rock Collection,” making its big-label debut on WORK Group.
“The first album we did (‘Pond’ in 1993 on Sub Pop), those were songs we were playing live, so we recorded them,” Triebwasser said recently. “The second one (1995’s ‘The Practice of Joy Before Death’), we didn’t know what to do and we had a few months to record it.
“This time, finally, with ‘Rock Collection,’ it felt like this is something we can do. I finally felt comfortable as a band, going into the studio and recording an album and being happy with it all.”
That’s because, Triebwasser said, he and singers Chris Brady (bass) and Charlie Campbell (guitar) now are at ease with their creative roles.
“We’re unusual in that we have two fairly prolific songwriters and I’m involved a lot and we all have a say in what goes on,” he said. “But we also like what each other’s doing. A lot of bands, as they go along, they get tired of each other or they don’t agree about their creative direction.
“We’re at a point where I think we can write albums we’re happy with, that we think are slightly groundbreaking, and not feel like one of us is not getting to do what they want to do.”
Blowing caution to the wind, Pond laces its brand of noisy pop-rock with passion and reverence in such tracks as “My Dog Is an Astronaut, Though,” “Rebury Me” and the leadoff single, “Spokes.” Triebwasser said the band’s crunchy guitar sound has come full circle.
“The first album was, I think, highly produced,” he said. “It almost sounded too much the same through the whole album, but it had a lot of pop nuggets. The second one, we recorded mostly ourselves in our house and had a friend help engineer it, but I think a lot of people were like, ‘This is not Pond, what is this?’
“Now we have all those elements on this album – some weird stuff, but we also know how to write songs people might like. People are going to respond to these songs as pop songs with crazy extravagancies. It’s a melding of both albums.”