Photo by Joe Yarmusch
Pony Up!
Issue #23
The Montreal five-piece doesn’t mind being labeled pop-rock. The “cute” thing, though, is getting a little old.
By Caralyn Green
Published: March 1st, 2005 | 4:35pm
Whenever a band has an exclamation mark in their name, my first thought is “Do they really deserve such an ebullient distinction?”
The five lasses of Montreal-based indie-pop act Pony Up! certainly think they do. Here’s why: They practice in an industrial loft basement next to a boiler room, and don’t mind the dankness. They’re feminists. And they’re sisters, friends, co-workers, and roommates. Drummer Lindsay Wills and keyboardist Laura Wills keep things all in the family; Lindsay, Laura, and bassist Lisa J. Smith have been buddies since tweenhood; Smith and guitarist Sarah Moundroukas work together as hairdressers; and Laura roomies it up with Camilla Wynne Ingr, player of the glockenspiel, concertina, tambourine, and ever-popular cowbell.
The three-year-old ensemble is signed to Aussie rock prodigy Ben Lee’s label, Ten Fingers Records, a partnership with Dim Mak. Ten Fingers released a split seven-inch featuring Lee and Pony Up! this past summer, as well as the pop rockers’ first EP, a self-titled affair that hit shelves in January. The quintet is beelining back to the studio soon, with hopes of releasing their first full-length album by fall.
How’d the whole Ben Lee connection come about?
Lindsay Wills: He played a show in Montreal in the spring of 2003. After the show, we gave him our demo and told him he should come out for beer. We didn’t think he’d show, but he did and had some time to kill, so we offered to take him out to breakfast, and took him for a walk around this mountain near us and hung out the next morning. Later, he called up and said he wanted to release something from us.
Sarah Moundroukas: That was like, “Whoa dude. Things are starting to roll.”
What sound were you going for on the EP?
SM: A lot of the songs are different. I’d say it’s pop-rock, but less commercial and more all over the place than, like, Avril Lavigne. I actually love Avril. We all do. [Her music is] catchy. But, ew, Hilary Duff is too sugary.
Lindsay: The Matrix didn’t write Hilary’s songs as good as they did Avril’s.
SM: I say amen to that.
What past gigs are unforgettable, both for good and not-so-good reasons?
Laura Wills: Our first show was in a pizza parlor full of jocks in Burlington, Vermont. We had never performed before and it seemed like a good idea not to play our first time in our hometown. Another time, we played in an abandoned movie theater with 30 people in the audience, made up entirely of these old high school teachers. A good show, though? The Knitting Factory in New York.
How does sharing lead vocals work out for you? Any plans to pull a Broken Social Scene and start rotating instruments too?
Laura: It happened because all of us wanted to sing and all of us were interested in writing lyrics, so there’s no one frontperson. It’s not a problem for us; it’s an essential element of how we work and function. We couldn’t change it now. The band is about keeping a balance creatively, and having no one lead vocalist and no one frontperson is part of that. We’re pretty adventurous and playful musically, so switching instruments is kind of inevitable, because we’re into exploring.
Everything I read about Pony Up! can’t seem to get over the fact that you’re all girls and you’re all cute. Why the fixation?
SM: It kind of sucks when people want to pigeonhole you. The whole “cute” thing, though, it’s not forced. Really, it’s just a coincidence that we’re all cute girls.
Lindsay: We try to avoid it, but it seems to happen no matter what we do. Every time there’s something written about us, we try to guess how many times the word “cute” will appear, I guess ’cause we’re happy, jokey people, [jokes] not angry and hardcore like Avril.
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