Written by Annie Barber
Checking off over a decade in the music industry, the grunge pop duo from Toronto that goes by the name of PONY have no plans of slowing down. On February 13th, they are putting out a new album by the name of ‘Clearly Cursed’, which is a meditation on psychic powers, life, and love. PONY’s Sam Bielanski (singer, songwriter, and guitarist) and Matty Morand (multi-instrumentalist) sat down with Karma! to talk all things ‘Clearly Cursed’ ahead of the record’s upcoming release.
At the time we talk, the duo have just released a new single called ‘Swallowing Stars’. Bielanski reflects on the way they decide if a song should be a single, saying that it’s a difficult process for them: “every song we love, so we’re always like ‘that could be a single, that could be a single’.” For Swallowing Stars, it was a clear choice almost from the get go. When posting snippets of the album during the making of the album, fan feedback to that song in particular was overwhelmingly positive, with some begging for its release. On top of their audience’s reaction to the track, they both say that the song became one of their favourites when working on it in the studio. Morand says “it was kind of one that everybody universally, without talking about it, agreed was one of ‘the ones’.”
The music video for ‘Swallowing Stars’ is very artistic and distinct. Conceived and directed by Bielanski and Morand with artwork by James Palko and Nicolette Alvarez (of Pretty Rude and Pool Kids respectively), it is a multimedia piece containing animations. Bielanski reveals that PONY makes all of their own videos in their own apartment. Recalling the process, Morand says that Palko and Alvarez painted directly onto 35mm film, making for a distinct style.
The pair’s upcoming album is called ‘Clearly Cursed’, which is quite a dark sounding title. The name is inspired by Bielanski’s trip to a psychic which revealed an ex was cheating on them. They were told that the curse could be lifted for a moderate sum of $1500. Despite this backstory, the record’s sound is much more upbeat and joyful. Speaking about the creative thinking behind this, Bielanski says “historically we like to play with that juxtaposition where the songs sound really joyful and [are] songs you could listen to in the car or on the way to the beach or whatever but then the lyrics are a little more introspective, [about] self-doubt, and depressing at times.”
The album’s sound is a blend of the duo’s music tastes. Morand credits songs from the compilation album C86 and bands like Another Sunny Day as influences on the music due to listening to them when recording. Bielanski previously put together a long karaoke playlist that both of them listen to a lot, featuring the likes of Janet Jackson, which Morand says “set the tone for a lot of the production on the album.” Each of them used their respective talents to make this album what they wanted it to be: Bielanski took the reigns in terms of singing, putting a Kate Bush spin on the title track and composed harmonies for each of the album’s songs; and Morand’s guitar playing skills were put to the test. Both of their unique talents blend perfectly to create a transformative album.
The song ‘Brilliant Blue’ came from some unlikely inspiration. When refilling bottles of blueberry syrup at work, Bielanski looked at the ingredients and saw ‘brilliant blue’ listed. Around the same time, they developed a blue gatorade addiction, which also has brilliant blue in it. Humorously, Bielanski jokes “I’m addicted to brilliant blue, I can’t get enough!” Inspired in part by the strangely named ingredient, and also by Morand’s blue eyes, Bielanski says they wrote the song “almost in jest” but, upon hearing it, Morand thought it was a perfect contender for the album.
‘Brilliant Blue’ is no outlier though. PONY is known for inventive song titles. On each of the pair’s albums, they have a song beginning with the word ‘Sunny’ and followed by another, like ‘Sunny Rose’. When they realised there was no track on ‘Clearly Cursed’ to fulfil that tradition, they made one fittingly titled ‘Sunny Something’. However, Bielanski admits that it isn’t always a conscious choice: “a lot of times we’ll just name them one of the most prominent words in the song.” Despite this, for ‘Clearly Cursed’, they wanted to be more deliberate and “bestow upon [the songs] a proper name.”
Bielanski is most excited for the PONY audience to hear the album’s title track ‘Clearly Cursed’: “it is a song we wrote together — Matty wrote this instrumental — and I just loved it so much and it was not really an instrumental that I was like ‘oh this is a PONY song’.” Morand admits that it was originally written for their other project, Heavenly Sweetheart. After sending it to other people for them to add vocals, nothing came from it so he asked Bielanski to write something for it. It came along at a time when Bielanski was feeling disenfranchised from songwriting and had been journaling. After seeing videos that show the before and after of women patients who had been subjected to lobotomies, they journaled about it. “It looked like these women had been possessed by the devil or something but clearly they were just in a state of mental health crisis,” Bielanski says. The song’s lyrics are almost a direct lift from the journal entry. Morand adds that ‘Clearly Cursed’ “set the tone for the album — the theme, the artwork, and the aesthetic.”
PONY has been around for over 10 years now. The pair say that their artistry has definitely evolved over the years, with Bielanski admitting that both of them love and pursue change: “every time we’re writing a new record, we’re like ‘how can we do this differently? What can change? What can we try that we’ve never done before?’” Since the pandemic, Morand says that each year has improved upon the last. Reflecting on the past, he says “it’s kind of wild to think back to 2018 when we were doing a lot of completely DIY touring — booking tours at work, playing to no one, sometimes the support band doesn’t show up — and now, to be getting these offers and to be playing venues that I used to go to shows at… it’s been really great.” Particular highlights for the duo include touring with Drug Church and playing a show with Jimmy Eat World. Bielanski recalls the latter experience, jokingly saying “I think it was in 2021, it was right when things were starting to open up again and it was like the first time we had left the house in years.” A couple of days after playing the show, they saw Paramore playing the very same venue.
Finally, we turn to the signature Karma! questions. The answer to the first, ‘if you or your art were a colour, what would it be?’ is, unsurprisingly ‘Brilliant Blue’. Bielanski also suggests red and Morand quips “it’s gotta be one of the gatorade colours.” In terms of song recommendations for the Karma! Playlist, each recommend a track. Bielanski opts for ‘Since Yesterday’ by Strawberry Switchblade and Morand picks ‘I Care For You’ by Good Flying Birds.
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