In support of his two recent outings ‘All Things Being Equal’ and ‘Almost Nothing Is Nearly Enough’, Pete Kember a.k.a Sonic Boom will be heading over to these shores for a string of dates. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here and it’s time to cut loose!  Damian Robinson caught up with Sonic to find out more.

Hi Pete, congratulations on All things being equal, it’s such an interesting record which fits between minimalism and pop. A year on from the release of the record, how do you feel about it now?

Thank you. I’m very happy with it. It was meant to be a plea about the collapsing state of our society and our ecosystems. medicine for the steep climb we have to make after the freewheeling previous blinkered generations felt acceptable. It’s release as the pandemic sat the world on the proverbial naughty step was perfect timing.

There was a lot of critical praise for the record, is that something you take note of?

Not really, though it was novel & I appreciate it. It seemed to resonate faster & deeper with critics than any record I did before. But if I relied on that I wouldn’t be here now doing this.

Will your next step be back into creating more music for yourself or are you planning to head back to the producer chair for your next project?

I’ve been making a collaborative LP this last year with my buddy Panda Bear . In many ways it follows a similar theme – it has been estimated accurately for decades (by M.I.T. amongst many others) that the levels of our abuse & consumption would see total collapse of our socitey & ecology in 2040. 2020 was given as the year that the changes would be critical if we’re to pull out of the dive. Every action & consumption has to be considered – there’s a big bill to pay. to that end, I’m not sure what else is important to talk about. We’re not interested in preaching , but hoping our example speaks for itself. Hope & ignorance just won’t cut it . We all were part of creating this & we are the only people who will fix it. If were looking to people like Boris Johnson, it’s game over.  Production is always in my view. I like the sharing.

You’ll be out on tour soon to support the record. Can you tell us a little about what to expect from your live show in Newcastle in terms of set-list and the band?

I’m just playing ATBE. All of it. I’ve toured for eons playing S3 & Spectrum songs & I think this set of songs merits it. We also made an hour long abstract ‘light show’ film that accompanies the show, integrated with lasers.

With covid getting in the way of your original tour plans, have you changed the live show from how you originally envisaged it and how you might see the album a year later?
No. I’ve only played this show twice – in Chile & in Holland, and I’m looking forward to doing it in other places.

Sept. 7th, 2021 – The Cluny, Newcastle, UK