SONIC YOUTH

SONIC SESSIONS: SEAN POLLARD

Courtyard Fremantle Arts Centre
Friday, December 16, 2011

The premise for the Sonic Sessions is as unique as it is simple. Grammy Award winning Lucky Oceans hosts some of the stars of Australian songwriting to get a rarer insight into their creative lives. Around these conversations the artists perform stripped back versions of their songs accompanied by Oceans on pedal steel.

Previous Sonic Sessions has seen seasoned big hitters like Robert Forster, Paul Dempsey and Don Walker embrace the format, but the most intriguing event of this season was bound to be when relative novice by comparison Sean Pollard invited us into his world of song.
If Tim Rogers can be known for his unkempt hair and a dapper suit then Sean Pollard is bound to make his baby face and footballer’s shoulders his trademark. The tall man with the small guitar delved into the Split Seconds debut release with Elizabeth, before showing he is one of the minority in Perth who have heard Kid Sam (with an even smaller number of the population actually being able to locate their copy) by throwing in a cover of Soft, Grey Rain early on. If it was a humble beginning, it did give the opportunity for all to see how Pollard’s voice has developed out of sight over the past few years.
It was when Pollard became seated and Oceans joined him on stage that the tales of his tunes and experiences writing them came to the fore. It was revealed that much of the Split Seconds EP was written while Pollard was finding himself musically in Europe. This involved working in a shoebox sized office on the outskirts of London as minor celebrities attended rehab on the same site, being chased by dogs in Portugal and subsequently learning Hotel California, and longing for home when seeing the devastation of the Victorian bushfires televised on BBC.
A Sonic Session the previous evening had Tim Rogers regaling stories of excess and experience, while the fresh faced Pollard won the crowd over with his unassuming chronicles of the innocence of youth. Of course the songs were what got most people through the door and there are plenty in the Pollard cannon with current single All You Gotta Do, the shiny new She Makes Her Own Clothes and local radio fave and song inspired by trashy English tabloids Paper Boy signalling intermission.
It did appear like it would be the perfect opportunity for Pollard to delve back to his New Rules For Boats days to illustrate how his songwriting has evolved from the likeable, playful tunes of the past to the more sophisticated approach of his current band, but he opted to put his best foot forward with possibly his finest moment to date in Maiden Name, and the tune that is getting Split Seconds invited to any festival worth its salt – Bed Down. Pollards delicate leaning towards urban country gave Oceans plenty of time to shine as pedal steel was the perfect accompaniment.
It is a shame that Pollard doesn’t spend more time playing tunes with a loop pedal, because in solo mode he transforms What A Week into one out of the box! And it wouldn’t be a Pollard solo show without him tipping his hat to his idol Dan Kelly via Pregnant Conversation. As a songwriter Pollard plays the role of self-effacing minstrel to a tee, but his mastery of the craft of vaguely ironic songs with open chords, will see him held in the highest of regard for some time yet.

_CHRIS HAVERCROFT