The Bad Penny (beta)

San Diego rock group Lead Pony are gaining speed on the heels of their long-awaited debut album, which finally dropped last month after the band formed seven years ago. As you’ve probably already surmised, the psych- and blues-inflected indie group used to take a leisurely (or even lax) approach. But with Vultures, the musicians are saddled up and turning their trot into a gallop.

(Now, as the introverted Lead Pony become more commonly known, they face the daunting prospect of suffering through an endless stream of puns related to their band name. As a public service, The Bad Penny is incorporating many (too many) of those puns into what is also a fairly accurate summation of the band, in the hopes that no other writing about Lead Pony will ever include even a single pun.)

Jesse Hofstee, Hillary Laughery and Dylan Stallard didn’t exactly bust out of the gate, slowly germinating their project in 2016 while studying at San Diego State University. As good friends, their stated purpose in playing together was merely to explore new musical dimensions on a collaborative level; touring and even recording weren’t considerations, at least not at first. Lead Pony didn’t care about joining the rat race, living in a dog-eat-dog world or even smashing the music charts like bulls in a china shop.

“We wanted to hold onto the imaginations we had as kids and show that, as we got older, change was still possible for us as musicians,” Hofstee recently revealed to The Bad Penny.

To that end, Lead Pony roped in a fourth member, bassist Seancarlo Ohlin, last summer. The time was neigh — oops, nigh — for a full-length successor to the band’s previous releases, the EPs Eclipse (May 2017) and Two Love Songs (May 2018). The band linked up with producer/engineer Trevor Spencer (Beach House, Father John Misty) and birthed Vultures.

“We traveled a thousand miles away and lived in [the studio],” Hofstee recalled. “It was so immersive and beautiful. We immediately dove [into recording], and then we kept it rolling and put our heads into it until we found a narrative.”

The story told in Vultures revolves around moving to the city with great aspirations that are soon crushed by the harsh realities of simply trying to survive in an overwhelming urban environment. Over the course of its 10 songs, Vultures charts a path from hopelessness to hopefulness, ultimately leading to a quiet redemption that Lead Pony’s soft music also evokes.

“It’s a simple narrative … that ends with the beauty of what can be built from something that’s fallen, especially with the help camaraderie,” Hofstee imparted, alluding to his bandmates. He added that Lead Pony’s debut shares some traits with My Morning Jacket’s The Waterfall — and that he’s Dylan-head too.

Pleased with the results of Vultures, they released it in May. Around the same time, a sense of pride swelled up in the musicians’ hearts, and they finally decided to fully commit to the project. Suddenly, Lead Pony found themselves gleefully snorting at the prospect of becoming the cat’s meow for fans of mellow modern indie rock — the kind for which whistling (“Please, Stay”), shoe-gazing (“Sincerely”) and unbridled forays into light atmospheric rock (closing tracks “Holiday [Forever]” and “Creatures”) deliver delight. Along with college radio taking notice, a smattering of tour dates felt appropriate too, and Lead Pony’s instincts again proved correct as they staged them.

“Tour was a dream,” they wrote on social media Wednesday, alluding to additional gigs in the near future. (Hofstee mentioned in our conversation that Lead Pony would target the Southwest in the fall or spring.)

Dreams are what art is made of. Dreams of future plans are what keep bands motivated. And in case you’re wondering, yes, ponies dream too.

This entry was posted on 08/24/2023 at 6:04 am and is filed under Interviews with tags Lead Pony. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.