I’m at Tramlines in Sheffield on my birthday weekend (what better way to spend it), some great bands are here for the biggest party in the centre of Sheffield at Hillsborough Park. It is wet though and muddy, but that’s all part of the great Brit culture of festivals isn’t it? Plus I finally got the chance to chat to ‘Hell Kitten’ Anna Shields and Liam Adams from Dead Pony.
Words and Photos John Hayhurst (aka @snapagig)
Mucho excited today, as I’ve finally managed to track down 2 members of Dead Pony this morning, I’ve seen them around 6 or 7 times at different festivals over the last few years and watched them grow in stature. It’s their hard working DIY ethics that I love as much as the music, the live performance is exceptional with ‘Hell Kitten’ Anna Shields prowling the stage and staring down anyone who dares to make eye contact, Blair Crichton punching out the biggest nu-metal fuzzy riffs this side of Rage Against The Machine, and Liam Adams (Bass) and Aidan McAllister (Drums) keeping a tight ship at the back.
This interview has been 12 months in the making, as each time in the past they have driven in to a festival, done the gig, and then driven back to their hometown of Glasgow, they just don’t stop to take a breath.
Last year they played the same stage at Tramlines, The Leadmill Stage, it was packed to watch this explosive band show why they are one of the brightest talents to come out of Scotland for years, it really is only a matter of time before everyone gets to know about them.
Newly signed we still await their debut album. Their first UK headline tour (which starts next month) is selling out across all venues, and they are playing several festivals like Tramlines in the lead up to it.
Managing to keep Anna and Liam in their seats for 10 minutes, we had a chat and some bottles of water backstage at Tramlines (very rock’n’roll), and I’m wearing my exclusive ‘Dead Pony’ Vampire T-Shirt to hide my Fanboy status.
John: I want to chat about all the new stuff that’s happening – which is exciting, but also to go a bit further back, I first saw you at Stockton-on-Tees at the Gathering Sounds Festival, where you were called ‘Crystal’ Why the name change?
Anna: Wow that was years ago!! It’s basically just a change of name as ‘Crystal’ was our old band, older songs, older line up, now we are a new band, although two members are the same (Anna and Blair) but other than that it’s all completely new so it made sense to change the name.
John: It’s nothing to do with Brewdog either is it? (pointing to the mini fridge which had several cans of Brewdog beer, but ironically no ‘Dead Pony Club’)
Anna: No we named the band ‘Dead Pony’ and then I found out about the beer, I promise we didn’t steal it from Brewdog, they’re from Edinburgh I think.
John: So now your a new band, how does writing new songs generally work?
Anna: Normally Blair, the big tall guy, the guitarist, he writes the guitar composition of the song and then I’ll come in and write the melodies and the lyrics, but it’s mostly me and Blair doing the writing together.
John: I find it a bit frustrating as a fan that there is nothing to buy on your website, no physical products (Vinyl) available. There was this T-Shirt (I’m pointing at it) just before Xmas but that’s it, and even that has sold out now.
Liam: There’s nothing at the moment, but we are going to have something soon.
Anna: We did those T-Shirts recently and we had vinyl originally when ‘Sharp Tongues’ and ‘23 Never Me’ came out on 7inch single. But in all honesty its really difficult to get vinyl printed, or it was last year.
Liam: Its like a 6 month backlog, due to covid.
Anna: One of the materials used to make vinyl is difficult to source now, so we’ve not been able to produce anything recently. People have asked us about CDs too, we are bringing out an album, so we will be looking at physical products like vinyl and CDs for that definitely.
Liam: And there will be some fresh T-Shirts too.
Anna: We have some fresh merch dropping soon.
John: Is that in time for the tour?
Anna: Yes.
John: What can you tell us about the debut album?
Anna: We are currently releasing some singles that we recorded through the year, ‘MK Nothing’ and ‘MANA’ as part of an album, but we’re still keeping it kind of secret as to when the album is coming out, and what exactly is going to be on the album, and what it’s called. The new singles that you’ve heard are building up to the album.
John: So its unlikely that anything off the ‘War Boys’ EP will be on the album?
Anna: No its going to be completely brand new music.
John: So do you think you would re-issue War Boys as a vinyl product later (trying to shamelessly get a copy)?
Anna: I guess if there was a demand for it possibly, but we feel like War Boys was this thing that we did, and it was great, but now what we are writing and releasing for us feels like a step up from that. Not that War Boys isn’t a representation of us, because it is our music and it was what led the way for Dead Pony. However, we are really focussing now on the new singles and the album. But in the future we might bring it out on vinyl, I’ll let you know.
John: You are looking forward to your tour in September?
Liam: Yes 4 shows are sold out already.
John: Which of the cities are you looking forward to playing?
Anna: Glasgow obviously (Hometown), I’m looking forward to London we are at the Omeara which is like an old theatre, so I’m really looking forward to that.
Liam: I’m looking forward to Brighton, I think it’s a really cool city.
Anna: To be honest I’m looking forward to every show, because they are selling so well and its small venues, I think it’s going to be a nice experience to play, because this is our first ever headlining tour, we’ve only ever done support tours where we’re playing to other bands fans, it’s going to be good to play to our fans. I’m obviously looking forward to Glasgow but London will be special too.
John: I’ll be coming to Leeds, you are playing The Oporto (12th September) which holds about 150 people so its going to be loud.
Anna: We’ll make sure it is.
John: You play a variety of stages at festivals both outside Main Stage (Kendal Calling 2022) and smaller inside venues like today’s at Tramlines. Which do you prefer to play?
Liam: Its a different vibe each time because with festivals you’re never playing to your fans, your finding a wider audience and its a bit more about trying to win the crowd over.
Anna: Yesterday we played Truck Festival in Oxford and we were 2nd on the main stage on the Thursday, so we thought it was going to be dead and no one would be watching. It was rammed and we had like a huge moshpit, our first festival moshpit and there was a wee guy from Glasgow who had a Celtic top on jumping about and it was amazing. I guess the smaller stages are more intense, like the one we play today, it’s easier to get the crowd going, but then sometimes you are blessed with a really hi-energy crowd that are kind of up for it anyway, regardless of whether its main stage or a smaller one.
John: You’ll be praying for a bit of rain just before you start to get more people in the tent.
Anna: Yes its supposed to rain from about 3pm today so that’s perfect.
John: What’s the next 18 months look like for you, what’s the plan, what’s the dream?
Liam: We’ve got our tour in September and the album.
Anna: Hopefully get across to mainland Europe at some point, no plans for that yet, but we’d like to. Just to release more music, as much as possible, that’s the main focus.
John: So the album will be out after the tour?
Anna: Probably a wee bit longer than that.
So reading into Anna’s final sketchy comment I’m pitching the debut album to be out early next year perhaps, either way you need to get a ticket for their tour which starts on Wednesday 6th September in Aberdeen. Be quick because several venues are already sold out. Full details below:
It might not have rained too much when Dead Pony played Tramlines this year but that didn’t stop another blistering performance and the two new singles ‘MANA’ and ‘MK Nothing’ are sounding very fresh and heavier than some of their earlier stuff. If that is a sign of the future then the new album will be one to play very loud.
John has been to gigs for over 30 years and he travels all over for festivals. Genres range from folky female singers to bloodbath metal whores - Live for the Music!
