'Pretty vital, visceral and excited': Pluto reflect on Pipeline Under the Ocean

On Saturday night, Auckland band Pluto performed songs from their landmark album Pipeline Under the Ocean at a special one-night performance at Auckland venue Double Whammy.

Band members Mike Hall and Milan Borich say listening to the 20-year-old double-platinum record takes them right back to a slightly turbulent, but joyful time.

"We were young, and felt pretty vital, visceral and excited about what we were doing," Borich tells RNZ's Music 101.

Borich was just 13 when he first met Pluto guitarist Tim Arnold at Waikawa Bay, through a mutual friend.

They started surfing together, formed a strong shared bond over Black Sabbath and The Kinks, and decided to start a band.

Fast-forward to 2001 and Pluto released their critically acclaimed debut album Red Light Syndrome.

In need of a bass player for a gig supporting Neil Finn at Hastings Opera House, Borich enlisted Mike Hall, who was then playing with The Brunettes.

"I just felt really quite honoured to be asked to contribute to what was already great," Hall says.

Four years later, Pluto released Pipeline Under the Ocean – an album both Hall and Borich are really proud of.

"It captured a moment in time for us with authenticity and so really does hit home that time for us," Hall says.

Borich felt "very excited" playing with Pluto at the time.

"I'm really proud of all the lyrics that we've written, because they mean so much to us and to me,” he says. “It paints a picture of a time that I'm just glad that we've put onto canvas and that will always be there, you know?"

During recording, Pluto's 2005 hit single 'Long White Cross' was viewed as "a pretty self-indulgent tune" by the band, Hall says, and when it did well, they were genuinely surprised.

Borich fondly recalls performing the song to thousands of people at the 2005 Big Day Out.

"I was feeling so, so electric and so kind of like amped, because of the energy,” he says. “There were so many people, and this energy was coming back and people were singing the song, and it was just, like, 'Wow, are we going to experience this again?’"

Close friendship and "slight turbulence" made being a member of Pluto really exciting, Hall says.

"You do feel like a gang in a band. It's a really amazing camaraderie.

“It's like the team sport, you know. You've got this collective vision and this thing that drives you.

"It was a pretty unpredictable time. The personalities within our band, we're all a little bit different. 

“Sometimes things go well and other times it'd be a trainwreck, but the trainwreck itself was pretty exciting.

"Some people made comments that we were a great band. I don't think we ever tried to be great. 

“I just think we really tried to keep things interesting and exciting for ourselves.

"It's a joyful experience to be on a boat and thinking, 'Is this thing going to sink?' You get your buckets out."

Pluto are a band who also work really hard, Borich adds.

"We always wanted to get better at our instruments. We wanted to practice a lot.

“I still feel that way now. With every project we do, I always want to get better."

Although Pluto released a new track 'Liquorice' last year, they don’t play a lot of gigs.

The members still love hanging out, Borich says, and rehearsed for their Saturday night show.

"We're sounding good. We're psyched."

Pluto's deluxe double vinyl reissue of Pipeline Under the Oceanfeatures remastered audio and five never-before-released tracks.