The Sand Pebbles. Little Rolling Stones. Rock in perpetual motion. Golden beach panorama. Waves washing and receding. Dry desert crunch. It's a great band name isn't it? All those images and ideas, conjured by the three little words that encapsulate members Piet Collins, Chris Hollow, Ben Michael X, and Andrew Tanner, are suitably relevant to band's sound. Progressive and retrospective at the same time, and constantly evolving, the Sand Pebbles' tasty tones are just as comfortable in sandy desert or sandy beach. There's a bit of country, a bit of psychedelia, a bit of surf instrumental, even a bit of spaghetti western in the Pebbles' cinematic, homespun concoctions.

Drummer Collins, guitarist Michael X, and bassist Hollow all met script writing for the TV show Neighbours. Not surprisingly they have a visual bent to their music. Singer and guitarist Andrew Tanner completed the line up and the part time concern has become increasingly valuable as the band members spend more time and energy together. This concentration of energy has had a recent climax in the band finally releasing their debut LP Eastern Terrace, an eye opening journey through warps in space and time.

_{'They're laughing with you...'}

Bass player Chris Hollow, days before his on-field triumph as part of the Rockdogs team at the Community Cup football match, reveals that getting the Pebbles' four members in one room at one time has always been a gigantic obstacle. But the very fact that the band is a part time concern for a group of people who are not making a living out of it, informs the creative freedom of its music.

"Because we're not making any money out of it, that is always the case," Chris nods. "And there is no pressure to come up with a hit song, it's just basically try to make it as good as possible.

"But it is definitely informed by our normal day to day jobs and the compromises you have to make in that. You've almost got artistic freedom in 'Neighbours'. It is quite a creative show in its own way but there are so many restrictions and so many things that you can't do, so that gets channelled into the music."

Chris confirms that maintaining focus and momentum in a band that doesn't play or record regularly isn't always easy, but that recent critical praise, radio support, and improved quality of gigs is helping to keep spirits high.

"The limitations on time make it what it is. 'Eastern Terrace' would be a completely different piece if we were to do it full time."

The self-produced album has taken the band about a year and a half to complete and release through the mainly overseas aimed label Camera Obscura.

"Well there's stuff from all over the place on there" Chris says of the album. "There's a song that was originally started in '97 and another song that was written when I was 21 ('My Sensation') that we used to do under a different guise and we did it so much we got bored with it and dropped it. Then we re-wrote it and put new chords to it and wanted to record it properly after all these years"

_{The band bullied Tanner (right) into singing falsetto}

"Well it's actually one of the flavours of the record now," Hollow confirms that singer Andrew Tanner was bullied into finding his falsetto on 'My Sensation' by the rest of the band. "Once we'd heard him do it on that song, we tried to get it on every song. It just made it so much more vulnerable and beautiful and it also made us sound a little bit different to what we usually do and to what other people are doing as well. So falsetto is one of the things we decided to go with."

You only have to listen to the live recording of the Pebbles doing Dylan's Things Have Changed (included on the 'Eastern Terrace' bonus disc) to know that the band can rock hard and loud. That side to the Pebbles has been left behind with 'Eastern Terrace' and the discovery of Tanner's falsetto magic helped lead them into more gentle territory.

"Our aim was to have the most beautiful singing possible without being over the top. Andrew's still very reticent to do it live because it's pretty hard to get the right volume and pitch. But we were pretty happy that we'd uncovered something special."

In fact 'uncovering something special' might be a good Sand Pebbles maxim. It's certainly something they aimed at in their recording techniques, designed to capture the nervous energy of a band still excited by a song played on its second or third take. Of course this can result in dramatic differences between the recorded version of a particular song and the way the band plays the same song live today. Ben's recent infatuation with keyboards has suggested another new direction for the band.

"I hope that we can stay together so that we can actually reach our peak rather than show a little bit of promise and then fade away," Chris says, looking towards the future. "My fear is that we won't realise our potential."