Where does one even start in the process of turning an album into artwork? Turns out, least surprisingly, the music. Artist Jessie Nash was tasked with bringing Pond’s newest album – Terrestrials, out June 19th – to visual life, armed with a toolbox of paint and music and reference materials. What resulted was a kaleidoscope of faces that both distinctly reflected the bundle of songs it stood in front of and Jessie’s own idiosyncratic style. Ahead of the release of Terrestrials, we chatted to both Pond (you can read all about it in issue 132) and Jessie – picking their brains about art, music and the collision of the two. (Following snaps by Yazz Jansen.)Tell us a bit about you and your work. I am an Australian artist currently living in the UK. I live in a town by the sea, which isn't too much like living by the sea back home, but it's really beautiful and inspiring. I paint and make ceramics, and painting people is the most thrilling thing for me.

How did this collaboration between you and Pond come about? The medieval business approach of Instagram DMs! Jay was familiar with my work and basically just put the idea to me one day. I was ecstatic, and we started talking about ideas and possibilities pretty much straight away.What kind of reference imagery or ideas did you draw on when creating the album and single cover for Terrestrials? The band had two or three album artworks they referenced as inspo, so I looked to these initially – to understand the general composition, subject matter and energy that they wanted the cover to embody. They were all really great ‘art’-weighty covers. Funnily I found it important not to look at these references too much once I got started – when you're working in a collaborative way with references to other artworks, it can be easy to start comparing the work you are making to these references and thinking, “My work is not that, so my work must not be right” – when that's not the case. These references to other album artworks in my approach were more about the premonition, the curiosity or the idea they generated, the feeling they put in someone before they even hit play on the album; akin to how a book cover relates to or communicates with the words inside.

I asked the band to send me a bunch of selfies and somewhat unremarkable photos of them throughout the album-making process, ensuring they weren't posed or whatever, and then I used these to make arrangements on the canvas with paint. The chaotic and heated colour scheme was a real driving point, as was the idea of incorporating portraits of the band. These ‘portraits’ needed to indicate and acknowledge each member of Pond, while simultaneously capturing a possibility that they were portraits of something or someone from another world or planet.How do you approach translating a medium of art that is sonic (music) into something that is visual (the album artwork)? Listen listen listen! I listened to the album with my eyes open and closed, and in lots of different places. From really early on I was lucky enough to be trusted with some demos which gave me a good idea of what the album sounded like. This allowed me some space to figure out what the album looked like to me – and also to the band. The band had some simple reference words which they felt summed up the album for me to jump off – “desperate”, “Oz”, “agro” and “hot?” were some of these – which let off a firework of ideas for me. A sound, plus a person (the band), plus some random words like that, made picking up the paintbrush and getting ideas started surprisingly organic. I really liked the idea of translating this idea of “heat” to the artwork too. Ultimately, I just listened to the music and did my best to translate that for the band in a way they were excited about and believed in.

Do you listen to music when you paint? I always listen to music when I paint. I listened to a lot of Aussie rock when I was working on this project, which was nice because this was the music I was raised on – Midnight Oil (shoutout Dad) and Cold Chisel (shoutout Mum), and the Divinyls (RIP Chrissy Amphlett). On top of that, a lot of Green Day, pop music, and obviously Pond.How do you think your specific practice of art intersects with the art practice of a musician? I do think my work is often very self-reflexive, which relates to that of many musicians who naturally gravitate to making music about themselves and how they came to be who they are. In the sense that they write lyrics or music about an experience, a feeling, a place, a relationship – so many of our favourite songs are about these things – I can relate to making work about these things too. But more importantly I think the most significant similarity between the two practices is just choosing the practice in the first place. It doesn't matter if you're making a sketch on the bus to work or painting a super important portrait in your specialised studio, nor does it matter if you're strumming a guitar on your bed or selling out arenas – the part that matters is the choice to have the practice in the first place. To follow that gut instinct to turn the feeling or the idea or the experience into something, out of thin air. To turn it into something that didn't exist beforehand, regardless of what might happen to that ‘thing’, let alone what that ‘thing’ might look, sound or feel like once it's earthbound.

So much of Pond’s music – Terrestrials especially – is imbued with the environment in which it was created in and about. How does the environment around you influence your work? I do admit a lot of my work references the personal, domestic, private environments in my life. Beyond this, I am super interested in the personal environments of other creatives, particularly female painters throughout history. Their environments then influence my environments, and thus, hopefully my work. Being a painter alone in a studio for hours on end can feel really self-indulgent at times, so I gotta praise Pond for the music they make and the way they confront and highlight such timely, scary, important topics around larger, more literal ‘environments’ in their music – in a really intelligent and loud (albeit accessible) way.Where do you look for creative inspiration? Super cliché but I look around me. Genuinely, if I don't know what I want to make or what I want to do, I just look around – sometimes I sit looking, rather than making, for weeks. Then I might go back to basics, pick up an apple and paint a still life and go from there. I think that's also my approach to creative blocks – inspiration to creation to block is an endless cycle that any creative just needs to accept and learn to ride – painful and unrelieved as this may make you feel, failure to sit with a creative block is usually the death of most creatives. Identifying when you're in a creative block can be really helpful too – rather than punishing yourself for being ‘lazy’ or not making anything, simply saying out loud “This is a block” and then choosing to sit with it until you get to the other side (however painful/boring/depressing). Push on!

Favourite song from Pond’s Terrestrials? “Two Hands” was electric and heavy while simultaneously beyond captivating and positive from the first time I heard it. An important song for the ages for sure, I am super glad this was one of the singles. I think it holds a lot of weight on this album, and is very timely in the broader context of society at the moment (as Pond somehow always manages to be).

 

 

 

 

 

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Feast your eyes on more of Jessie’s work on her Instagram. To have a squiz at our chat with Pond about their new album, Terrestrials, snag yourself a copy of issue 132 from the frankie shop. Plus, sign up to our newsletter to stay in the loop!