Interview
Interview
Dead Pony: “Our sound belongs in arenas…”
Vocalist Anna Shields talks the evolution of Dead Pony, and how their debut LP swerves away from convention
Navigating the modern-day music business is not a simple task.
With a reliance on algorithms and a feeling of information overload making opportunities harder to grasp than ever before, artists often find themselves feeling overlooked. An oversaturated market where crafting infectious songs and backing them with vital messages sometimes still isn’t enough, and musicians need to find new ways to stand out – which is precisely what Glasgow’s Dead Pony are doing.
Releasing a debut album that challenges the industry to Ignore This, the four-piece are sick of feeling like their voice is being lost in the crowd. With a shapeshifting collection of songs that demand your attention, they’re ready to make a statement, rising up as a powerful voice for anyone who’s ever felt cast aside from the mainstream.
From the sticky floors of dimly lit Glasgow alternative clubs to the immersive embrace of modern cinema and the nostalgia-ridden sounds of Y2K pop, no inspiration is off-limits for Dead Pony. A euphoric sonic cocktail that has already led the four-piece to the main stage of Glasgow’s TRNSMT Festival and a sold-out first UK headline tour.
Making their Download debut this summer, and as Dead Pony prepare for their biggest year yet, vocalist Anna Shields talks us through their bold vision, the importance of creative control, and their ambition to become the biggest band in the world.
Going back to your childhood and teenage years, did you have a particularly musical upbringing?
Oh, definitely. I was lucky because early on in my life, my mum and dad noticed that I had a real love for music, and they encouraged me to pursue that. I’ve always played instruments; I played violin for a while, and then I played guitar for a bit. After that, I realised that what I really wanted to do was become a singer. My parents are both huge music fans, so when I was growing up there was always music playing around the house.
Then, when I was a teenager, I became what most people would refer to as a scene or emo kid. I had a group of emo friends, and we would go and see bands like My Chemical Romance and blink-182 together. There’s a club in Glasgow called the Cathouse, and on Saturdays from 12:00 until 16:00 they used to have an underage event that we’d go to every week. I honestly don’t remember a time where music wasn’t the biggest part of my life.
Dead Pony’s sound takes inspiration not only from that alternative scene, but a whole host of other things. There’s a nu metal groove, a healthy dose of synth rock, and some of the classic driving rock of bands like Queens of the Stone Age. As a fan of music as well as a songwriter, are you typically drawn to more unconventional sounds?
I love so many different types of music, and most importantly I like to be inspired by bands that I feel moved by. I like to feel things, and to make music that makes other people feel a certain way too. The Prodigy is a huge influence on me, and I love Limp Bizkit, but I also love a lot of early 2000s pop music like Nelly Furtado and Gwen Stefani.
When we were first starting to make music, Blair [Crichton, guitar/programming] and I didn’t know what sound we wanted to shoot for, so we just went with what everyone else was doing. It’s fine doing that if it sounds good, but unless you’re truly being authentic to yourself and making the music that you love, you’re never going to be happy. Glasgow has a booming punk rock scene, and over time we found ourselves slipping into that. It took us a while to realise that we were happier making heavier alternative music. That’s where we feel most at home.
That seems like an important realisation coming into your debut album, because Ignore This shows us that Dead Pony don’t particularly fit comfortably within the modern scene…
We’ve realised that our sound is unique. We incorporate a ton of different influences, and what I love about our sound is that it’s both nostalgic and modern at the same time. There’s this whole segment of the alternative scene that’s making super polished rock music, which is amazing, but I love music to have a nostalgic element to it as well. On our debut album there are songs inspired by N.E.R.D., Justin Timberlake, and Nelly Furtado, and having that nod to our childhoods has allowed us to create a whole new genre of music that’s entirely our own.
It’s 16 tracks long too, which feels like quite a bold move for a debut…
Early on, Blair came up with a concept for the album, and he decided that it was going to be 16 tracks long. We locked ourselves away in a studio for two weeks and wrote a track a day, which was a long and gruelling process, but it was our baby. We always knew that we wanted this album to be a real statement, and I think that the length of it plays an important role in that.
How do you view the journey of Ignore This, then?
When we wrote the album, we were in a totally different place than we are now, both mentally and career-wise. When we wrote these songs, Blair and I were drawing from a place of anger. A lot of the songs are quite angry and aggressive, but we don’t harbour as much anger towards things now as we used to. We’ve totally grown with this album, especially because we released the first single back in June of 2023. That felt like a new beginning for our band, and since then, our live show and everything else has completely blossomed and become more refined. We’ve totally grown as people as well as musicians.
This album is likely to be many people’s introduction to your band, and it’s important to note that Dead Pony is an extremely independent project. Everything is handled internally, from the writing and the recording to the production. Why is it important that your evolution isn’t guided by external influences?
It’s always been important for us to have complete control over our sound. Blair and I are the driving force behind the songs, and we write everything together. We love self-producing things too, because Blair will be the first to admit that he is a total control freak. We both have such a specific vision for how we want the band to sound, and there really isn’t anyone that we trust enough to help us at this point. Maybe one day we’ll work with other producers and songwriters, but our vision for our sound and aesthetic is so strong that right now the only way to make it happen is to do it ourselves.
A lot of thought is put into the visual aspects of this project too, and there’s a cinematic feel to your songwriting and storytelling. Does cinema have an impact on the decisions you make as a musician?
The thing that inspires me most in my songwriting is cinema. I love movies, and what I love most about them is that they create their own little universe for you to escape into. That’s what I wanted to try and do with this album, and why the artwork is made up of DVD spines that relate to each song – we wanted the album to feel like you were flicking through your DVD collection and losing yourself in these different universes.
Have you found that you can express yourself in different ways through music, then?
When you’re making music, you allow yourself to be more vulnerable. I know for a fact that Glaswegians have a hard time opening up and being emotional, so I definitely find that I put a lot of my negative energy, anger and grief into music. That’s not to say that every song that I write is directly referencing an emotion that I’m feeling, but the act of making music is just so therapeutic. It’s the best way to process any emotion that I feel.
There’s certainly a lot of emotion within Dead Pony, but there’s also a hell of a lot of fun to be had. Your songs are full of energy, and that’s something that is directly channelled into your live show…
Definitely, and you shouldn’t be doing anything in life unless you enjoy it. We genuinely all love music, and we all particularly love performing live. I don’t like to take myself too seriously in any aspect of my life, so I try not to take myself too seriously when it comes to music either. There are some songs on the album that Blair has written purely for fun, and having fun is truly the most important thing you can do in this life.
Are you hoping that your music can help instil some sense of positivity in others, then?
Absolutely, because when I was growing up, I was so shy. I’ve always seen myself as a bit of an outcast compared to my peers, and the one thing that I got a lot of comfort from was music. I want to be that band for other people, and that’s why we focus on never trying to be something that we’re not. You can’t be happy if you’re living a lie, so everything we do is authentic, and all we want is for people to come to our shows and have a good time.
When you look out into your crowds, do you see people who remind you of your younger self?
On our last headline tour, there were so many young girls that came to our shows dragging their dads along. It was the most amazing feeling because I remember being 14 and watching Paramore and Avril Lavigne, thinking that those musicians really spoke to me. I got so much confidence from them, and to be that person for someone else is mind-blowing. I have so much gratitude and love for our fans, because for the longest time we thought that making a career in music wasn’t possible. These people have taken a chance on us, and they love our music, so because of that it’s becoming a reality. I love those people so much, because they’ve given us so much, and I hope that we can give some of that back to them in our music.
With visuals being a vital part of Dead Pony, are you hoping that this project can travel beyond music and delve into other mediums going forward?
We’ve always loved making music videos, and we have a lot of fun with the artwork, photoshoots, and visual concepts. The big thing that I want to do on our next headlining tour is to focus on having a solid stage show that’s theatrical enough to capture the cinematic nature of our sound. It’s one thing to have good music, but your music is only as good as your image. Having that strong image allows us to explore another avenue of our creativity.
Where do you hope to take Dead Pony over the next few years?
I want to headline arenas, I want to headline Reading & Leeds, and I want to have a No.1 album. People always say that our sound belongs in arenas, and I totally agree. A lot of rock bands are better suited to small venues, but we’re made for the biggest ones we can possibly play. I want us to be the biggest band in the world.
