Split Seconds interview

Sean Pollard - Pretty good at songs, not so good at press pics.

IF you do anything - even something you love - under stressful conditions for long enough, you'll eventually begin to hate it, and that's the kind of situation Split Seconds frontman Sean Pollard can definitely relate to. Pollard, best known as the frontman for the much loved Perth country/folk/rock combo New Rules For Boats, said his new, largely solo project was born out of the New Rules hiatus, when several band member went travelling overseas.

Pollard himself moved to London, and Split Seconds was born as a way of stopping him from going mad.

"In London I was just writing songs to do something, because otherwise I just would have gone mad spending a whole year over there and this was just a way to keep myself occupied,'' he said.

''That's the start of Split Seconds but I only played one solo show in the UK, I played a solo set in Camden so that was probably the first performance.

I also spent about a month in Portugal, and there was this British bar in Portugal full of drunk south London guys and I played covers there for about a month, playing for about three hours a night being ignored or shouted at by drunk guys.

''It was pretty well the worst thing ever, I want to play music but I'd don't want to do covers, it was just something to do, and I'm not sure Split Seconds have a massive Portugese following but if we ever release a cover of Wonderwall it might be a minor hit.

''I actually played that song so much that I started absolutely hating it.''

Since returning to Perth - apart from a trip back to London to mix the debut record with Aaron Cuples - Pollard has worked with a revolving door of musicians, currently consisting of Rhys Davies (Faith In Plastics), James Trewenack (The Jackards), Nat Carson (The Bank Holidays) and Benjamin Golby (New Rules For Boats), and is looking forward to playing more shows, starting with supporting Cloud Control and Richard In Your Mind in Bunbury this Thursday.

"I've got pretty good memories of Bunbury, New Rules played a bit down there when we were younger. It mainly consisted to us playing to about four people but that's more a reflection on us than the pub.

"We had fun though, we always got thoroughly drunk and I think Golby tried to climb on the roof once, but yeah I'm looking forward to the show.''