BACKSTAGE AT TRNSMT WITH DEAD PONY

INTERVIEW | DEAD PONY @ TRNSMT 2024 by Anne Kelly

Having released their much anticipated debut album Ignore This back in April, Glasgow’s Dead Pony have made it impossible to do just that.

Receiving critical acclaim across the industry and surpassing expectations by entering the Official Album Charts. Reaching No.8 in the Official Scottish Album Charts amongst other credits, Ignore This continues to gain momentum across the UK and Europe where the band have been touring relentlessly.

Having spent the past 5 weeks on the road, performing at some of the biggest festivals in Europe (Rock For People, PINK POP) as well as supporting Against The Current, Dead Pony are back on Scottish soil. From 2000Tree’s to TRNSMT in the space of a couple of days, the Glasgow festival appearance marked a break in the bands busy schedule. Squeezing in an appearance at Belladrum Festival last week, the band will appear at YNOT (01/08) and Kendal Calling (02/08) this weekend before Official Reading & Leeds at the end of August. If you haven’t been part of a Dead Pony crowd yet, then you are massively missing out!

Anne caught up with Anna Shields (vocals) and Blair Crichton (guitar) after their TRNSMT set to find out how life has been since the album release, appearing in Rocket League and what happened to Liam (bassist)!

So it’s a return to TRNSMT for Dead Pony, this year on the King Tuts stage, how was it today? 

Anna: It was fun! I think the best thing about playing TRNSMT is that your family and friends are always there because it’s a home town festival. It was good and we had a lot of fun.

You’ve just come off a very busy summer tour, how many weeks have you been away for now?

Anna: So we’ve been away for like 5 weeks?

Is this the last show?

Anna: Yeah I think this is the last show for like, 2 weeks? And then we’re away again.

So hardly a break?

Anna: At this point, even 2 days feels like a good break for us.

Has there been any highlights of this tour? 

Anna: I think my highlight was literally just the other day actually. We played the main stage at 2000 trees and it must have been the biggest crowd we’ve played to in our lives. Like 5,000 people there?

Blair: I think there was like 5 or 6,000 at PINKPOP [Netherlands festival], so maybe it was bigger than that? 

Anna: So like 8,000 maybe?

My colleague was actually there, shooting your set and her camera broke…

Blair: What really?

Anna: Aw damn! Those Dead Pony vibes were just too strong (laughs). It was amazing though.

But you’ve been all over Europe with this tour but what happened to Liam [Adams, bassist]?

Blair: What happened to Liam (laughs)…Liam was, shall we say ‘galavanting’ and got a little bit too excited, fell badly and basically snapped his arm in half.

I seen the tshirts with the X-ray.  

Blair: That’s the real X-ray!

That is a nasty break.

Anna: Gnarly! He got his bandage off today and he’s got this gnarly scar.

I did see him at the side of the stage though, so is he still following you about?

Anna: Aw yeah, of course he is. We can’t do anything without Liam joining us. Like Blair and I  will try to go for a quiet pint and Liam will join us (laughs).

He’s some guy!

Anna: Yeah, he’s lovely though.

But you powered on and brought in Lizzie…

Anna: We did. We got Lizzie in and luckily she was free and willing to spend time learning all the songs

Because you didn’t even seem to take any time off, did you?

Anna: We had to cancel one gig. We had to pull out of Hanover which was supporting Against The Current because we literally didn’t have an alternative option, but when we got back to the UK that’s when Lizzie got involved.

But you’ve played with Lizzie before though?

Anna: Yeah, so we’ve been in a lot of different bands and made music with Lizzie in the past, so it’s been nice to be with her on stage but we are missing Liam.

How long will Liam be out of game then?

Anna: So they said when he broke his arm that it would be 6 weeks before he would be playing bass again so he thinks in like 4 weeks time that he will be playing again.

Do you have more festivals later in the year then?

Anna: We’re playing Reading and Leeds so we’re hoping he’ll be back for that.

But you have the UK tour as well in December, and I don’t know if you have officially announced it yet but you have your biggest Glasgow headline at the QMU?

Anna: So we haven’t announced it yet, but we’ve been teasing it and announcing it subliminally at TRNSMT.

I saw it on one of the big screen’s yesterday here!

Anna: It’s the QMU (Glasgow), December 13th on what will be the last date of the tour too. I’m excited for that, it’ll be our biggest headline show to date so it’s going to be good.

We chatted a wee while ago just before the album was released which has came out since and the reception to it was brilliant. Did it exceed what you expected?

Anna: I think I felt more accomplished than I thought I would feel when the album did come out. It’s something that we had worked on for so long and it felt amazing to just get it out into the world. It was just, like, really nice.

Blair: Yeah, I think…I don’t know…actually yeah, do you know what; I think the physical sales definitely exceeded my expectations. It blew my mind knowing that people actually bought the album. But its been a long time coming for us and it felt like the next natural step to get it out there and finally have it.

Let’s mention Rocket League though? You have a song in Rocket League, how did that happen?

Anna: Yeah we do! So there’s this artist called  Mazare, who is like a drum and bass guy. He got in touch with us and wanted to do a song with us, so we wrote this song called ‘Generation Gap’ and his team managed to get it into Rocket League.

In terms of other writing, have you had any time to do any writing? Or have you just been focusing on this hectic tour schedule.

Anna: Before we came away we were writing a lot. We’re always writing and we’re thinking about the next project before the album even came out. We’ve definitely got some more songs that we’ve been working on that we think are really good and a real step up. But at the moment we are really just focusing on the album and letting her have her moment.

So I’ll try to wrap up with one more question, The best thing about Glasgow is…

Anna: Ermmm…the breakfast rolls!

Blair: Ehhh, yeah, but I mean the people [are].

Anna: Yeah, I was going to say the people too. The people in Glasgow are amazing and when you’re home it just feels nice. It’s so good to be home.

Blair: Yeah, I was going to say, it is the people because there’s always other countries that seem better or that the foods better and things seem better, but there’s no better place in the world where I think the people are better than Glasgow. Glasgow is the best!

TRNSMT will return for 2025 July 11 – 13 with early bird tickets for on sale NOW

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