Pons

By Sean Maldjian, Contributor

Photo by, Michelle LoBianco

Meet Pons

A self-portrait by, Pons

Would you rather…

battle a unicorn or 6 My Little Ponies?

A unicorn. Very respectable creature. Even if it kills you, it's a very noble way to die.

Some questions with Pons

Right off the bat a big HELLO and welcome to the blog! Can you tell us about the project who is Pons?

Hello! Pons is a constantly changing/growing experimental project started by Sam Cameron and myself (Jack Parker) in North Carolina directly after we graduated high school in 2018. After releasing a couple of demos, playing some shows as a two piece, and relocating to Burlington, Vermont, we added our percussion player Sebastien Carnot to the live lineup in 2019. Our recorded music and live set are extremely different from each other in terms of arrangement and presentation of the songs, but most people describe our music as being no wave/noise rock adjacent. There are also a lot of influences from glam rock, tribal/percussion music, and psychedelic music as well. Pons is all about fighting expectations and striving for constant evolution. Trying to be on the road as much as possible is also definitely part of our M.O.

Do you collect anything, what is it, and why?

Sam: Copies of presidential birth certificates, for posterity

Jack: A profile of every person I've ever met, for posterity

Sebastien: Coins, mint condition only, generational reasons

What is something you find is unique only to the NYC music community?

I think it's cool that in NYC you have to be an active member of the community as a whole to have any success as an artist or as a musician. If you're not out there participating as a community member and supporting/uplifting other artists and creatives, nobody is going to care about what you're doing. That's definitely a pretty stark contrast to smaller music scenes we've been a part of in the past. Also, this is probably just a thing with big cities and not specifically NYC, but a lot of bands are extremely image-focused and it keeps us on top of our game in that regard.

What is the best pizza in NYC?

We are absolutely the wrong band to ask about this. Pons is not a very pizza-centric group of people (heresy, I know). BUT, we will plug the hell out of Best Deli on the corner of Myrtle and Bushwick any chance we get. Best Deli. What more can we say? It's in the name. The boys will treat you right over there, just tell em Pons sent you and they'll break out the red carpet.

What was it like going back and re-recording your first song as Pons “LEAVE ME TO MY WORK”?

It was something that had to be done. It was the first song Sam and I collaborated on after our middle/high school band broke up and it was written and recorded before Pons was even conceptualized as a thing. We didn't have any initial intentions of doing anything with that song, but in a lot of ways it ended up being the impetus to start Pons. The finished product surprised both of us and kind of exceeded our expectations, so we decided to keep writing and recording with the sole intention of doing something that pushed us creatively and here we are four years later. LEAVE ME TO MY WORK is a mainstay in our live sets and it has structurally changed a ton over the years, so we wanted a version of the song that accurately reflects it in its current state. It's a really intense live song and that aspect of it isn't totally captured by the 2018 demo, so we were determined to go into an actual studio and give that track the treatment we feel like it deserves. We definitely aren't ruling out revisiting another one of those early tracks at some point.

Can you cross your eyes?

Um, do we want them to get stuck forever? No thank you.

Your live performances are chock full of energy. What has been your most memorable to date? Why?

It's hard to choose, but our 2019 show at Traxide in Montreal was probably one of the most chaotic shows we've played. Someone put Sam's (bare) foot in their mouth in the middle of our set, someone fell from the second story of the venue down into the pit on the first floor, and our song Fabrication allegedly pulled someone out of a k-hole. As for the tour we just went on, someone landed a backflip in the pit at our Providence show which was pretty impressive. We want to see more stunts. Big stunt band. Playing with Vundabar and Macrock festival last year both get an honorable mention.

What is your worst habit?

ADDICTED TO THE RUSH, HOOKED ON THE LIFESTYLE

I know you’ve been playing a fair number of shows but what else have you guys been working on?

We’ve been sitting on LP 2 for over a year now and we are currently wrapping up an EP that we're planning on recording this year or early next year. We're just trapped in logistical hell trying to figure out how to release these projects, but it will happen. Right now we're still just focused on playing as much as possible and establishing the PONS BRAND in NEW YORK CITY and surrounding areas. We're super stoked about the material we have in the cannon, so we're just trying to make sure it will actually be heard when we release it.

If you could bring one venue back from the dead, which would it be?

There are too many to choose from! The Lip and Scooter Lounge were two top tier DIY spots in Burlington that unfortunately did not survive very long. The Meatlocker in Montclair technically still exists, but I'd love to bring that place back with the people who ran it in its heyday. We had a very weird experience there on this past tour with the current owner. Also, I really wish The Tabernacle in North Philly was still having full-band shows. They had to switch over to acoustic only shows because of neighbor issues. Another one that comes to mind is Las Rosas in Miami. It's an iconic DIY spot that closed down two weeks before we were supposed to play there and I'm still bummed that didn't happen.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

We aren't releasing music anytime soon, but we play almost every week in the area so catch a show! We'll also probably have some tapes for our EP "The Pons Estate" in the near future so be on the lookout for that. The meaning of life is consumption and hedonism and nothing actually matters because we're all probably going to die horrific climate change induced deaths, so give us your money while there is still time.