Pool Of Sound - Sunship Baloon

The psychedelic alt-pop venture 'Sunship Baloon', made up of Dan Haggis and Tord Øverland Knudsen of indie rock band 'The Wombats', started this new project in 2019. They told 'Rolling Stone Australia' that creating the new project was both about doing something outside of 'The Wombats', and to have a new outlet for songwriting. With a lot of songs that they'd made in the past, that had started off as ideas for the 'Wombats', with a few on their hard drives, they thought it would be cool to go over to Norway and make what became their first EP  In February 2020 they announced two headline shows at Liverpool's Kazimier Stockroom on the 29th of March and at London's Waiting Room Venue on the 7th of April. For that first ever show, supposed to have been at the end of March in Liverpool, they had rehearsed the set with two musicians who were joining the live band - Then came the global Pandemic.

The duo had released their first EP under the moniker 'Intergalactic Teacup Travel Centre' in November 2019, which received critical acclaim with its kaleidoscopic synths and grandiose hooks and they then began working on an album. They had their first tour planned for May 2020 and were supposed to be supporting the 'Night Cafe' (a great Liverpool band if you haven't heard them!) around the UK but the tour was postponed because of the pandemic. 

Dan says, " Tord and I are used to working together from different cities, so we're lucky that we can keep writing and sending each other ideas to work on from lockdown. Album two is starting to take shape already! We are releasing our first album in September and so, given the circumstances, we are trying to adapt and stay productive and making animated music videos to accompany the three upcoming singles, rather than 'live' ones. We are making lockdown performance videos from our bedrooms filmed on our phones, too! Martin Scorsese, watch out! Overall, I mostly miss playing music together with my friends in the same room and all the social aspect that goes with it. My highlight so far is hearing my little three-year old nephew shouting 'Hey Alexa. Play 'Up On The Moon' by 'Sunship Balloon' at the top of his lungs and then singing along to the chorus. Don't think it's going to get much better than that, to be honest! Well, we haven't played a gig yet with this project, but honestly can't wait to play Liverpool one day and have a proper good night out with all our friends and family! We're releasing our first album and then hopefully we’ll play some shows and start recording our second album - as well as finishing and recording 'The Wombats' fifth album, of course! We're playing our latest single 'Up On The Moon' from our EP  'Intergalactic Teacup Travel Centre'."

In May 2020 Everton Football Club announced, "On Friday 22 May at 8pm, Everton Football Club brings you an evening of live music in support of our Blue Family campaign which is helping those in need during the coronavirus pandemic." Eleven acts featuring Everton fans recorded exclusive sessions in isolation ahead of the big show and again Don explains, " We really are so proud to support this campaign. I've been a lifelong Everton fan, and have known about the great work Everton in the Community do helping people in need around the city 'normal' year after 'normal' year. But this year is far from normal and so when I heard that Everton were making a special effort to reach out to people who were struggling perhaps even more than usual through these strange times, I wanted to help the Blue Family campaign in any little way I could."

Now, the pair have released 'A4 Life' as the first single from their newly-announced debut album. Titled 'Everywhen', the record was released in September 2020, with John Congleton (Angel Olsen, St. Vincent, Bombay Bicycle Club) on mixing duties.  Living in separate locations Dan says,"It's pretty collaborative really. For the majority of the album Tord would have a backing track idea and then send me over stuff, then I would move things around and sing over the top of them and see what melodies came out. We'd have different melodies for some of them." Tord adds, " We were in two separate cities, even back then, so it was a similar way of working as we had to do in lockdown. We would work on things remotely and then send them back and forth. Obviously you have to be in the same place to finalise the recording process. Which is what we’re doing now. We've even started working on the second album."

Its lead single serves as a perfect taster of what to expect, with 'Sunship Balloon's' psychedelic alt-pop sensibilities on full display throughout the four-minute cut.

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/04/pool-of-sound-john-witherspoon.html