#pascal babare

Pascal Babare hasn’t been to a music festival since 2013. That’s when his longtime friend, musical collaborator, and former roommate Matthew Nicholson gave him a hash cookie during All Tomorrow’s Parties in Melbourne, a festival that featured performances from My Bloody Valentine, Swans, and Thee Oh Sees, among others. The festival was held on an abnormally, obscenely warm day—42 degrees Celsius (which translates to about 107 degrees Fahrenheit)—in a concrete industrial park, with the stages housed inside large sheds. It’s still up for debate, but Babare recalls Nicholson minimizing the potency of the treat in question. So he ate all of it.

“All my favorite bands are playing, it’s going to be this fun day,” Babare says. “I love music, I love getting blazed, and I love cookies.”

By the time Swans’ Michael Gira began speaking in tongues, Babare realized he was in over his head. The escape from the fest was troubling, with Babare running into old friends, teachers, and even acquaintances he hadn’t seen since he was a teenager living in Japan. He found solace in a bottle of Gatorade at a gas station. The memory makes it difficult to consider stepping foot on festival grounds again, but it’s something Babare and Nicholson have been discussing. For the first time, the two musicians have strayed from their roots in experimental folk, art, and film scores and have embraced pop together under the name At/All. And it’s music fit for fields of sweaty, dancing kids.

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