With a sound that calls on everything from post-punk to grunge, Glasgow’s Dead Pony are stepping up post-pandemic with a summer of festivals, and a long-awaited debut EP. Self-proclaimed “guitar hero” Blair Crichton battles through hayfever to introduce his band.
Give us the tl;dr of your time together so far – what have you been up to?
We became Dead Pony in early 2020 and have been releasing massive songs and playing massive gigs ever since. We recently toured with Twin Atlantic and got to play the venues such as The Roundhouse and The Barrowlands (our dream venue). We have also supported Lauran Hibberd, The Maine and The Mysterines, which has been great.
Is being a musician living up to the hype so far?
99% of being a musician is doubting and regretting your life choices. The other 1% comes when you play a really good gig or get some really nice feedback from a fan. I think the musician lifestyle may be overhyped by people who don’t know it.
You’re about to release your debut EP, right? How did that come together?
We released three songs in 2020, and then we were having trouble finding studio time to record more stuff due to Covid. By the time we booked ourselves into a studio in 2021, we had loads of material and felt like we wanted to put a project together to let people hear how we were evolving musically.
You’re sounding a bit rockier now than on your earlier songs – what prompted that evolution?
We have always wanted to be a heavy band, and I think now we are allowing ourselves to delve into that more. The other thing is that we don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves to one particular sound and style when we are interested in writing in other ways.
What are you most drawn to writing songs about?
Recently it has been movies. Pretty much every song we have written recently has a link to a film somehow. The EP was heavily influenced by Mad Max: Fury Road. Some other stuff we have been writing recently has been influenced by the Matrix and Natural Born Killers. Films allow you to enter into a different world and experience a feeling and an energy that you wouldn’t otherwise be aware of. It feels easy to feed off that energy and turn it into a piece of art.
What’s the best song you’ve written so far?
I think our new single ‘Zero’ is the best song we have ever written. Saying that, there are about five demos we have at the moment that will definitely take that spot soon.
What other bands are you enjoying at the moment?
Kid Kapichi, Wargasm, Kojey Radical, Lizzie Reid, Ghostbaby.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Play lots more gigs, release more music and film some music videos. We are playing a few music festivals in the next few weeks too which we cannot wait for.
Tell us a secret about yourself?
I have 14 fingers and 27 toes; this allows me to shred harder and faster than anyone else in the known universe.
Taken from the September issue of Upset, out now. Dead Pony’s debut EP ‘War Boys’ is out 23rd September.
