Interview: The Ponys
by David Zimmerle
Hailing from the Chicago area with all of the swagger and angst of the road, The Pony’s arrive to provide a truly remarkable sound for an audience grown tired of the current rock medium. Their recent release, “Turn the Lights Out”, first ever on Matador Records, has the make-up that that hollers in true punk fashion but still remains undefinable. Fronted by one Jered Gummere, he finds a distinct way in his electrical rigging to hold the listener throttled to the floor while fighting the sheer force of the G’s being unleashed from his guitar and vocals. His voice drones out and keeps the songs right in check along with his six foot plus presence on stage. Melissa Elias is a true doctor with her instrument and a definite professional with her pounding bass rhythms. Brian Case is a somewhat new addition to the band, this being his first full length album with The Pony’s after the replacement of former guitarist, Ian Adams. Brian is in charge of the button that makes the band’s sound explode, proving them a true weapon of sonic destruction. And keeping it all in time is Nathan Jerde, the backbone of truth, playing off the others with a smash of the stick and a stomp of the kick-pedal. Their overall sound is sleek and has the components of some true panther sexiness. A sound that’s roaming and out on the hunt, ready to leap and fly, with fangs driving at the throat.
What are some themes you would describe are prevalent in this new album?
Jered Gummere: We worked well with John Agnello at Matador on its recording. We also had two weeks to work on it this time, compared to our other recordings where we had like four to six days to get it done. We just tried to make a good record. From the beginning, we sat down with John and went over our options on what we were looking to do with the record based on the demos that he had. We had two different ways to do it. One way was like this English Brit Pop Shoe-goosey way or like Stooges Funhouse. And we decided on a Stooges Funhouse approach. Just a live sounding record.
What defines The Pony’s?
It’s hard to say. I’m almost 30 years old so I’ve been listening to music for a while now. It’s hard to say what sound we’re going for or who we’re influenced by. Mainly, we just try to put together good songs. When we all play together as a band, it just comes together and you end up saying to yourself, ‘This just sounds good!’
What pisses you off?
There is this stage manager back at a club in Toronto who is just a fucking bitch. I also don’t like open toed sandals on men. That just disgusts me. I don’t like Joan Cusack either. Something about her face just bugs me.
Who are you listening to lately?
It’s hard to really pick and choose especially when you have an iPod and you can listen to 400 bands a day. But The Cramps are my favorite band. Anytime I start listening to The Cramps, I’ll always go back and listen to the records that influenced them. So I listen to a lot of old 50’s and 60’s rock and roll too. I like Spacemen 3 a lot. There’s just so much more music out there.
Do you enjoy touring?
I’ve had a good time on this tour so far. Every one’s been cool and no one’s been a complete douche-bag. We’re all having a lot of fun with touring right now. There have been some other bands we’ve toured with, and I’m not going to name any names, but they’ve been not so friendly. We’ve been on the road with some dudes for like three weeks and now they won’t even say ‘hi’ to us. I know we don’t like that and it flat out just doesn’t make any sense to act that way.
Do you find beauty when things go wrong?
Sometimes. It just depends. For instance, our van was broken into in Europe and our tour manager, unfortunately, left all of our merch money in there as well. So we ended up losing like 1000 euros. The thieves went through the tour manager’s suitcase and he had a bunch of porn in it and they threw all of the ripped out pages all over the van. So there was porn everywhere and all of our stuff was gone, and we’re sitting there like, ‘What the fuck just happened?’ Looking back that was pretty funny.
2007 Turn The Lights Out (Matador)
2005 Celebration Castle (In the Red)
2005 Another Wound EP and 7” (Sweet Nothing)
2005 Pop Culture 7” (Solid Sex Lovie Doll)
2005 Songs of Junior Kimbrough (Fat Possum)
2004 Laced With Romance (In the Red)
2004 Prosthetic Head 7” (In the Red)
2003 Wicked City 7” (Big Neck)
2003 Maybe Chicago Compilation (Criminal IQ)
