We sat down with Dead Pony vocalist Anna Shields and bassist Liam Adams ahead of their debut set at 2000trees Festival 2023. With this being their first festival of the weekend, we spoke with the Scottish exports about what’s to come in 2023 and why Dead Pony need to be on your radar.
Hi Dead Pony, you’re playing the Neu Stage later today. Have you had a chance to check out any bands?
Anna: Not yet.
Liam: We could hear Kid Kapichi playing just now, we hoping to see the rest of them if we can.
A: We love Kid Kapichi but it’s actually nice to get to hear them from back here anyway. Then we’re going to go and see Bob Vylan. But yeah, we’ve not been able to see anyone yet and then Eagles of Death Metal are playing tonight but we have to drive back to Glasgow straight after our set so we can’t see them which is so upsetting.
So that kind of brings us nicely to the fact you’ve last minute been added to TRNSMT festival this weekend. It’s a really busy one for you isn’t it?
A: Yeah, it is busy. We have to drive straight from our set to the Scottish Borders, stay overnight, and then drive from the borders up to Glasgow. So, it’s going to be a long day, but it’s so worth it to share a stage with Pulp who are one of my favourite bands.
Are you looking forward to your set at Trees later?
L: Absolutely buzzing for it. Yeah. It’s our first time here as well. So yeah, hopefully some new fans.
A: Yeah, it’s great to be at a rock festival as well, because we’ve not really played at any big rock festivals yet. So, this is our first time here, and it’s just great vibes.
Can you sum up Dead Pony in five words for people who might not have heard of you before?
L: Five words?
A: Best band in the world.
Some people struggle but you absolutely smashed that. You released MK Nothing not too long ago. And it’s about the CIA experiments. Can you give us a bit more insight into it?
A: So Blair kind of wrote the music for it and then he came up with this nu-metally sound that I really liked and he asked me to write lyrics for it. I had this sort of when I was trying to write lyrics, I had this sort of like daydream. It kind was in vivid comic book colour, I had this daydream of this woman who looked like Angelina Jolie. She’s so cool and badass and she’s been MK Ultra mind controlled to go out and kill all the bad guys in the world. So that’s kind of what I wrote the lyrics about but as the song evolved, we kind of interpret it in different ways now, and a lot of it is about, you know, how we feel as a band and how we feel we can’t be moulded to fit certain genres and we feel we need to just truly be ourselves and do what we want to do in life. And yeah, that’s kind of like what the inspiration for the song was.
Do you feel like it’s an indication of what’s next to come from you? Sound wise, can we expect an album to be along those lines?
L: Absolutely. Yeah. So MK Nothing is the first single off of our debut album, I feel like it’s the sort of the first song and in the new direction that we’re going down. I feel we’ve started playing about with more modern production techniques, and still keeping that quite sort of heavy underlying guitars and instrumentation, I guess. But yeah, I think MK Nothing is a good sort of cornerstone for what’s to come.
A: Yeah, absolutely. I would agree. I think that just visually and sonically, Dead Pony is to me is like starting to really transform into something that’s like way cooler and like more definable. And I’m just itching to get these new songs out, because they’re so good and interesting. I just want everyone to hear them.
When can we expect some announcements? New songs?
A: We will have new music very soon. I wish I could tell you when but I can’t yet or else I’ll get in trouble. But yeah, we’ve got some new music coming out very, very shortly.
Are we talking before the tour? After the tour?
L: Before the tour!
Talking about your upcoming tour, what can we expect? Sell your show to the people listening!
A: Well, it’s our first headlining tour of the UK and a lot of the shows have already sold out which is amazing and most of the shows are following suit, which is just so exciting. But in terms of the actual show, we’re gonna be playing all of the old bangers but also a bunch of new music from the album. We’re just really amping things up for this in terms of our performance. Anyone who hasn’t seen us yet you can expect big riffs and energy. Anyone who’s seen us before, just what you’ve seen before, but just amped up by 100%.
You’ve told everyone before you don’t need a lot, but what do you need right now? It can be anything. It can be an iced coffee, it could be anything in the world!
A: Do you know what I’m gonna say? And this is like, you’re gonna hate me because I talk about these all the time, there’s these Mexican candies right called Pulparindo’s or something like that. And I had them in LA and they’re tamarind fruit leather type things. They are unbelievable. I am obsessed and every time I see a Mexican shop, I try and get them. Then we were randomly playing a gig last week and there was some Mexican guy there and I told him about these candies, and he was like, ‘oh here you go! And whipped them out of his pocket’. So, I would say, any time of the day, that’s what I need and want because they are so good.
Get ready for a load of them on tour!
A: If anyone’s gonna be in Mexico or anyone is Mexican. Get me them, I want them.
L: I would like to go for a swim in the sea. Refreshing cold dip in the sea, pre-gig. Just like shock to the system. Come out refreshed. Gig ready. Nice.
That’s a really nice one. We’re at 2000trees and you’ve mentioned some bands you’re looking forward to seeing, but what would be your dream festival line-up obviously with you playing?
L: Dream festival line-up?
A: We would have to have Queens Of The Stone Age.
L: The Prodigy, Bring Me The Horizon, Paramore.
A: Green Day. Exactly. Gosh. There’s a bunch of people. Yeah, that seems like a really good line-up.
We’ve seen people say that you’re the best Scottish musical export. But what do you think is big or popular in Scotland but isn’t here?
A: I think that and I mean, Scotland’s music scene, particularly Glasgow is quite punky. Which I guess it is all over the UK. I guess I mean, yeah not to get too political. I mean, Irn Bru’s great. We’ve got some nice big woolly cows which you guys don’t have.
L: That’s a tough question.
A: I mean, we get free university education, which is pretty good. We get free periods products which I don’t know if you guys get.
L: Free dental care under 25.
A: We get free prescriptions.
Now you’re just selling Scotland to us all.
A: We also do have crippling alcohol issues, and drug issues within Glasgow and things like that. But it’s a great country. It really is. And we have a lot of great things.
And finally, we’ve kind of talked about it already but you’ve got your debut headlining tour later this year and an album on the horizon. But what else is to come this year?
L: A bunch more festivals throughout the summer. Before our headline tour as this is only our second festival of the year so we’re just getting into the swing of it.
A: Yeah, we’ve got like another 10 or something or another eight or something before the end of the year which we’re excited for us and we can’t wait to start releasing some more new music.
Amazing. Well, thank you for your time and I hope you now get to catch some bands!
L: Thank you so much.
You can read our review of 2000trees 2023 here – Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Dead Pony recently released their new single MANA, you can stream or purchase the track HERE.
See Dead Pony live at one of the following dates:
September 2023
Wed 6th – ABERDEEN – Tunnels
Thu 7th – INVERNESS – The Tooth & Claw
Fri 8th – GLASGOW – St Luke’s
Sat 9th – EDINBURGH – Sneaky Pete’s
Mon 11th – NEWCASTLE – Bobiks
Tue 12th – LEEDS – Oporto
Wed 13th – SHEFFIELD – Sidney & Matilda
Thu 14th – MANCHESTER – The Deaf Institute
Fri 15th – NOTTINGHAM – Rough Trade
Sat 16th – BIRMINGHAM – Sunflower Lounge
Mon 18th – BRISTOL – The Louisiana
Tue 19th – SOUTHAMPTON – Heartbreakers
Wed 20th – BRIGHTON – The Hope & Ruin
Thu 21st – LONDON – Omeara
Tickets are on sale HERE.
