Piet, Ben and myself all write for an Australian television show called ‘Neighbours’. That’s how we met. Both Piet and I also worked with Andrew at a radio station here in Melbourne.

What are your musical backgrounds?

All of us have played in other bands with varying success.

Which pawl has pushed you to play together?

Ben and I have been playing together for a long time. He’s one of my best mates and we’ve successfully shared a vision for the band. Piet and Andrew came onto the scene a couple of years ago and are both great friends and brilliant musicians. You could say it all came together in an earth shattering kaboom.

I haven't listened to "Noah's Ark" 7", was it your first recording as The Sand Pebbles and how does it sound?

Our first recording was a self released cd called ‘Shakes’. It’s a collection of songs and recording experiments. It got Camera Obscura interested in us. The ‘Noah’s Ark’ 7" was our first release on the label. It has three songs - a power pop effort (‘Noah’s Ark’) and a couple of one-chord wig out instrumentals (‘Hey, Let Me In’ and a more mono mix version of ‘The Sundowner’).

_{Ladies, beware}

What was the feedback that you received when Camera Obscura released this record?

Some people really loved it and could tell what we were trying to do. Critically I suppose it got what it deserved. Nothing over the top but it piqued some interest and got people wondering what we’d get up to next? Which direction we’d go in.

When have you begun to work on "Eastern Terrace", your debut album?

‘Eastern Terrace’ was pieced together from recording sessions over a long period of time. So it wasn’t like we went in and banged it down in a couple of sessions. ‘One Time at Sundown’ was done back in 1998 for a Film Festival here in Australia. We just put it away and didn’t really think about it again until we started putting this record together. ‘Moving Too Fast’ would’ve been the last song to get written and recorded in the middle of 2001.

I found that this album is very aerial especially on the vocals and the melodies, how did you work on the falsetto / girlish vocals?

We were working on ‘My Sensation’ and someone suggested Andrew try and sing falsetto. He did it for a joke and we loved the results. Then we had to convince him it sounded good. It really brought out the emotion and vulnerability of the song. We then went falsetto mad and tried to get it on every song on the record. It also works well with ‘Moving Too Fast’.

Julian Cope's "Out of my Mind on Dope and Speed" is very spacey with lots of effects. Wasn't it too hard to put together all these effects without denaturing the essence of the song?

The bass and drums to that song are quite hard and rockin’. We wanted something to counter that hardness so we didn’t want chunky rhythm guitar or copy Julian’s original that has wild piano on it. So we did those spacey overdubs in Ben’s kitchen on a sunny Sunday afternoon. We were sitting at his kitchen table - he played his old 70s string synth while I fiddled with the frequencies and effect pedals it was going through. Both of us are very primitive when playing keyboards so there’s nothing musically challenging going on there but we had a ball doing it, getting those freaky sounds.

On "Moving too fast", the guitars sound very raw at the beginning then there is a quite big contrast with the light vocals and the last dreamy part on the track, how did you develop this one?

We’re always looking for contrasts in songs especially contrasting sounds. ‘Moving too Fast’ has that gnarly sounding guitar at the start so we wanted to have beautiful singing over the top to off-set that guitar. Then it goes into that dreamy section with the horns and things. It’s an unexpected twist that takes the song and the listener in a completely different direction. But it works a treat. I’m really proud of that song. It’s one where we successfully nailed what we were trying to achieve.

Why do you end "Eastern Terrace" with a reprise of "Moving too Fast" with only strings and brass?

We were mixing the record and played a version of the song with just Clare Moore’s string and horn arrangement and Andrew’s vocals. We thought it sounded beautiful, deserved it’s own time and decided it was a nice way to round off the album.

The electronics side of "One time at sundown" is very interesting as it brings something special to your music, How did you get this idea use samples and loops?

The idea was to try and do some psychedelic music with electronica, loops and samples. A friend of ours Murray Jamieson is a bit of an electro-wiz and he can snap, crackle and pop sounds in very quick time. So Ben and I started doing some stuff with him and the very first sessions produced both ‘One Time at Sundown’ and ‘The Sundowner’. That incessant melody line is Murray’s.

Tracks as "The Sundowner" or "Charmed" are very light, dreamy and by the way very psychedelic. It shows another side of the band. Why does your music move from Pop / rock songs to quite long progressive instrumental numbers.

The band loves doing both short, sharp and shiny pop songs plus longer, more psychedelic instrumentals. When we were putting it together we saw there was quite a natural progression with the songs. So the album starts out with the most accessible tracks and then, as you keep listening, it starts getting weirder, wilder and wiggier. It starts off in one place and by the end you’re somewhere else altogether. I especially like ‘Charmed’ just because it floats along for eight minutes seemingly without direction but there’s a fair bit going on with different things coming in and out. Check it out with some headphones.

The cover and booklet are made of blue, I found that this color is perfect to illustrate the mood of "Eastern Terrace", like if a part of your music was attracted by oceans and seas.

That’s interesting. All of us live close to the sea so it’s definitely in our sub conscious if nothing else. Plus I love surfing. We took a road trip at the end of the millennium from Melbourne to Cactus - a notorious surf beach in South Australia with plenty of big sharks. It’s where the desert meets the ocean. The beach is surrounded by these desolate, mountainous sand dunes that are like moonscapes. It’s a very rugged, quite breathtaking place. I always think of Cactus especially songs like ‘The Sundowner’. I can see a brilliant red, orange and purple sunset where the desert meets the ocean.

How has you got in touch with the Opera singer Sophie Viskich and who had the idea to include her vocals on "The Big V"?

Sophie is the girlfriend of one of our best mates Hannes Berger. She does big productions here in Australia - opera plus things like ‘The Sound of Music’, Andrew Lloyd Webber type shows. So when Hannes started seeing her we were immediately thinking we’d use her on one of our songs. Edith Piaf inspired a part of ‘The Big V’ so it all made sense. Sophie came and recorded her part at Ben’s house. It was funny seeing this star with headphones that were way too big, singing into a microphone stuck to a wardrobe and doing a melody she’d never heard before. She took it all in her stride. She’s done ‘The Big V’ live with us a couple of times and it always gets a great reaction.

Will you do some shows to promote the record ? Any plans to tour abroad?

Got a party coming up? We’ll be there. I was in France at the start of this year and was totally blown away. Such an amazing, beautiful place. I also did my best French accent that mixed very well with my dulcet Australian tones. It’s the new language of love. Or is that the nouveau langue l’amour?!

_{Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?}

Do you begin to work on any new songs?

We’ve recorded a fistful of new tracks that are shaping up all right. The next album will be a lot more rock, a bit looser and with a bit of raga thrown in.

Why do you prefer to include band's quotes in the booklet the lyrics?

We all work as writers for radio and television so we all reckon we’ve got something to say! Also, as music fans, we like to read liner notes while we’re listening to an album.

How do you describe in five words your music to a guy that has never listened to the Sand Pebbles?

Mogadon pop wigged-out rock

Any last words?

Thankyou Renaud, thankyou Zoopaloop, thankyou ball boys. May all your news be good news!