Dancing About Architecture With Ponytail
Ponytail, with their infectous experimental pop, have been steadily winning our hearts with each live performance. This past Sunday, at the waterfront kick off to the Pool Parties, was no exception. Whenever this band comes to mind, I always find myself using the same adjective– primal. While collective tongue-roll, wail, and yelp are not what one usually considers as vocals, Molly Siegel, echoed by Dustin Wong, contorts her sound in a most transfixing sort of way.
Backed by clangy guitars and flooded by cymbals, Ponytail’s natural vibrance seeps through it’s own medium, feeding their audience with raw energy. If you’ve been in the crowd, you know exactly what I’m talking about. This is the kind of noise rock that, rather than the lyrically thought-provoking prod of neo-folk, induces physical emotion. Just really good fucking stuff, period.
We caught up with Molly about her primal honesty, Fleetwood Mac, the importance of downloads, and most importantly, our longing for the next LP… Check out the interview after the jump…
Let’s start at the beginning, Ponytail was originally an art school class project. Did any of you know each other before getting involved in the class? And how did the sound unfold– did you make a conscious decision to go in the direction of experimental music, or was it a natural occurrence?
Well, I knew Dustin somewhat and Jeremy and Ken knew eachother pretty well, we also had a fifth member who Dustin and I knew. I think we all knew we wanted to make music that we would want to listen to/rage to, which I guess is mostly good experimental music and maybe straight pop. We just used what we knew.
What band or musician would you say is one of the most effecting, yet more obscure, influences on your music?
For me the most direct influence is The Pixies, I feel like I actually thought about them more than any other band while we were doin stuff. We have influences across the board tho. Right now I think were all pretty into 80′s pop like Policey stuff. Also Max Tundra…
With artists such as yourselves, Dan Deacon, Double Dagger, Future Islands, and Beach House, Baltimore is buzzing with off the beaten path sound. What do think it is about the city that inspires the scene?
It’s cheap and really easy to do stuff but it’s connected enough to other cities not be in too much of a bubble, even though it can feel like that sometimes. It’s also so off the map you can kinda hide, ya know.
Ponytail shows seems to induce a sort of primal honesty in the audience, why do you think that is?
Thanks! Yeah I hope so, I love the sound of that. I can definitely get on the primal tip, I think it’s really important. One thing I think we are always striving for as a band is honesty, you can’t take yourself too seriously.
Art school kids, doing art school things…
Some musicians say that being on stage is like therapy in a certain sense, I would imagine especially so in your case, considering the noise and movement– how do you feel when you’re performing?
Yeah I have been equating it with that in my mind lately actually. At my best I feel really receptive to what’s around me and connected to my angst and then just let it out from there. It feels really awesome! These days it feels particularly great when other people get psyched.
What has been your favorite song to perform &/or write?
Beg Waves always really does it for me.
When on the road, what is something you can’t survive without?
My sleeping bag and Fleetwood Mac 
Any current music obsessions you’d like to share with us?
I havn’t had a computer for a few months so I havn’t been able to download which has been killing me but I am pretty obsessed with what MEN are doing. I’ve been really psyched by the live videos I’ve seen. Also Bird Names have been impressing. Also the obvious top 40 hip hop
Can our mouths start watering for a third LP anytime soon?
Give us a few 
Recently, as part of an art project at Bushwick Open Studios, I made a list of things I want to accomplish this summer. What are 5 things you plan on doing before the warm weather fades?
Man there’s lots of things, I just got off being on tour for forevs so I havn’t done much for a while. I wanna work on other music/dj stuff and go swimming in the lake as many times as possible, those are top of the list.
[Photo c/o Damon Winter]
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