PONY

Early Praise for PONY:

“The charismatic pull of Bielanski’s vocals are on full display on the group’s new, ’90s-alt-rock-nodding single ‘Peach,’ a bittersweet tale of love bombing and, eventually, cold clarity. ” - The New York Times ‘Playlist’ about “Peach”

“...a fired-up, fizzy fuzz-pop jam that’s working with some serious Letters To Cleo/Bettie Serveert energy” - Stereogum about “Did It Again”

“PONY mastermind Sam Bielanski trades in deliciously crunchy pop-rock with a sneakily huge emotional wallop” - Billboard about “Peach”

“This blushing bedroom pop song by Toronto band PONY captures the youthful romance of lovesickness.” - NYLON about “French Class”

“...an infectious mid-season contender for song of the summer”

– CBC Radio about “Did It Again”

Toronto, Ontario’s reigning power pop champions PONY–the duo of singer/guitarist Sam Bielanski and multi-instrumentalist Matty Morand–have announced today that their sophomore album, Velveteen, will be released on May 19, 2023, via Take This To Heart Records. They’ve also shared the soaring, driving, and infinitely catchy new single “Très Jolie,” which follows additional album singles “Did It Again,” “Peach,” and “French Class” that saw praise from outlets like The New York Times, Stereogum, Billboard, NYLON, Exclaim!, CBC Radio, and more. “‘Très Jolie’ is obviously a love song. It’s about falling hard and fast, and allowing your love brain to trick you into believing that you’re in a healthier mental state than you truly are,” explains Bielanski. “I know I tend to hide the ways that I struggle in the beginning of relationships because everything else feels brand new. ‘Très Jolie’ is about the conflicting emotions of falling in love with someone when you don’t quite love yourself yet.” An album that’s as sure to melt your heart as it is to remain on repeat, Velveteen is now available for pre-order.

PONY–who played shows with artists including Jimmy Eat World, Fucked Up, and Militarie Gun in 2022–will head back on the road this spring for dates supporting Softcult in Canada and then Superheaven in the U.S (including a May 19 show at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, NY). Find the full current itinerary below.

There’s a long tradition of bands that can compellingly explore the nuances of the human experience within the confines of pop music, that can elegantly consider both the lighter and darker elements of life through a deceptively sunny-sounding three-and-a-half-minute song. On Velveteen, PONY manage the task with both finesse and panache across 10 irresistibly hook-filled tracks–and further cement their place in the genre’s lineage. Influenced by countless hours of self-reflection, literature, television, and insomnia, the record showcases the band’s elevated sound and is their most fully-realized to date–examining the complex relationships between longing, connection, and being true to oneself. 

For Bielanski, the time around writing Velveteen included a nine-month struggle with insomnia, during which they reached for the nightly balm of an audiobook of The Velveteen Rabbit. The classic tale resonated so deeply with them that it ended up inspiring the album’s title and influencing the themes that run through it–feelings of existential dread or worthlessness, as well as self-acceptance and vulnerability. “I became obsessed with it but I always fell asleep before getting to the end. The way I interpreted the story was that it's the love that we give and receive that makes us real or whole,” they explain. “The one chapter I found especially heart wrenching is when the velveteen rabbit is trying to hang with the real rabbits of the forest, and through comparison, he realizes he isn’t as real as he thought he was. It was a good lesson for me, even now, because I'm constantly fighting the urge to compare myself to others. Your individual experiences make you who you are and nothing can change that. That's what I thought, until I finally listened to the whole thing and found out that at the end of the book, a fairy turns the velveteen rabbit into an actual rabbit, which I felt undermined the earlier lessons of the story. After that, I was really confused.”

Velveteen emerged through this combination of seclusion, introspection, entertainment deep-dives, and the sleep-deprived osmosis of a children’s story. Bielanski, due to a bad neighbor’s demands for quiet, was forced to record many of the album’s demos into their iPhone while tucked away in a closet (which happens to also double as a vocal booth for their voice work, aptly, as Jazz Hooves on the current generation of My Little Pony). Despite the isolationist nature of this process, they double down on the importance of connection and collaboration when reflecting on Velveteen’s creation. “Once I was happy with the songs, Matty would add their contributions until we felt the songs were nearly done,” Bielanski says. “It was amazing to see how much the songs would change every time a new person was added into the mix. It wasn’t until we recorded them in the studio with [recording engineer] Alex Gamble that the songs truly came to life for me.” 

Bielanski’s read of a stuffed rabbit’s quest for self-acceptance is the beating heart that gives Velveteen life. The album’s consideration of love, finding a feeling of belonging, and the pursuit for authenticity is woven throughout. “I’ve learned that we become our most authentic selves when we allow ourselves to be open and deeply affected by someone else,” explains Bielanski. “A lot of the songs on TV Baby were about finding the power in being alone. Since then I have done a lot of growing and realized that isolating oneself from others doesn’t serve you in the pursuit of happiness. Showing the love that we have for others is what matters.” And with this open-hearted, reflective, and effusive album, there’s no question that PONY is definitively real.