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New York City no wave noisemakers Pons have a new single out today called "Nelson Hold (BUG)," a totally reimagined version of the 2019 original. Often confrontational in nature in the sense of urban despair, the new single showcases the trio at their most feral with its brute minimalism of clashing synths, chaotic tribal percussion, and overblown production. To dive deeper, we chatted with drummer Jack Parker to discuss his band's evolution over the years and why he's most excited about where they take their sound next.
First tell me what you've been up to lately? What have you been listening to, reading, watching, or spending a lot of time doing?
Jack Parker: We just wrapped a few weeks of recording and a 16-date tour through the Midwest and Canada, so we've been laying low and experimenting with new ideas for the live set. I've been listening to a ton of Todd Rundgren lately, mainly A Wizard, A True Star and Todd. I've always been a huge fan of True Star, but I really came around on the rest of his music recently. Both of those albums are extremely beautiful and freaky. The king of the ballad. Suicide and Escape-ism have been in frequent rotation as well. I watched Decision To Leave recently and it was the best movie I've seen in a while. It's a really surreal and dramatic murder mystery directed by Park Chan Wook, who did the original Oldboy. I'd definitely recommend it. Other than that, I'm going to Morocco later this month and will hopefully work on music, so a bunch of planning and packing.
For our readers unfamiliar, tell us about the origins of Pons. How did you all meet and decide to start making music together?
Sam [Cameron] and I grew up together in North Carolina and have known each other for a really long time. I think 2024 actually marked our eleventh year of playing music together, which is crazy. We started Pons right after graduating high school in 2018 as an experimental recording thing and didn't even really consider playing live for the first year and a half of the project. We moved to Burlington, Vermont and started playing out in 2019, which is where we met our percussion player Sebastien. We were already moving in a more rhythm-centric/no wave direction at the time, so adding extra percussion felt really natural. For the past three years, we've basically toured non-stop with that orientation. The idea of adding more electronic elements to the set has always been very intriguing though!
How do you feel looking back on your catalog? Do you still like or relate to your past releases?
I am very proud of everything Pons has done. From a personal and artistic place, though, I feel like this is something I'm constantly swinging back-and-forth on. I feel like our sound has evolved and changed a lot over the years, so it's almost impossible to look back on the old material and not feel a little conflicted about it. We've been releasing music through every iteration of Pons, so I think it's pretty cool you can kind of hear the sound evolve in real time. I'm still really happy with the way our debut album The Liquid Self turned out in general.
How would you say you've grown musically together over the last few years?
I think we've gotten a lot better at incorporating a wider array of influences into our music in a way that actually comes across to the listener. We've always been super inspired by the really intricate orchestration stuff from artists like Foxygen, but I don't think we were able to make things as grand-sounding as we wanted to until recently. I'm definitely excited to share what we've been working on and think it could open a lot of cool doors moving forward in terms of where the sound goes. We were definitely in the groove of constantly trying to make everything as brutal and unforgiving as possible, so it has been a lot of fun trying to break that cycle of writing and challenge ourselves with more melodic instrumentation.
Today we're premiering your new single "Nelson Hold (Bug)." How did this one come about and what were the inspirations behind it?
I've always been really into the idea of an artist's back catalog being this living thing that is constantly being re-done and revised. James Brown's music is super interesting to me in that way. I love it when there are like six versions of the same song and it's all super convoluted and impossible to tell what the official version is. "Nelson Hold" and our 2022 single "Leave Me to My Work" are both updated versions of old songs that felt fit for proper releases. "Nelson Hold" has been a staple of our live set for the past few years and has changed so much since it was initially released, so it felt like a good choice when we had the opportunity to record a single with Zack Abramo.
How would you compare this reimagined recording of the single to the original 2019 version?
This version is so much heavier and more brutal than the original. We took it in a way more extreme direction in terms of the speed and added this Filth-like industrial-sludge-breakdown section in the middle of the song. The vocal processing is also a huge part of "Nelson Hold" and almost serves as another instrument. It definitely feels like a main texture whenever vocals are in the mix. In general, I'd say "Nelson Hold" expands upon what the original was doing way more than "Leave Me to My Work" does and takes a lot more liberties with the song structure.
Will this single and last spring's "Can't Stand It" be part of a new album? If so, what can you tell us about that?
These are just one-off singles. I initially had the idea of releasing them together as a 7", but releasing them separately ending up making the most sense with everything we have going on. That being said, I would love to either do a cover EP or an EP of revisited old material at some point.
What was it like working with Jeff Berner on the "Can't Stand It"? Did he tell you any memorable stories from his days with Psychic TV?
Working with Jeff was awesome! That whole thing is kind of a funny story because we were actually awarded the session with him after winning a battle of the bands. That specific process was cool because we’ve never really worked with someone as hands-on as Jeff before. He really takes the producer seat and actively throws thoughts and ideas out there, which was a totally new thing for us. I gelled with Jeff a lot on a creative level and it felt like we both wanted to work at a similarly fast pace. With the whole Psychic TV background, he definitely picked up on what we were going for pretty much right away. I think it's the least back-and-forth we've ever had to do with an engineer/mixer. We unfortunately didn't talk about the band much, but Tony Maimone of Pere Ubu dropped into the session for a little bit, which was super sick!
What are some future plans for Pons?
For the first time since like 2021, it's actually really hard to say what is going to come for us next! We're currently in the process of finishing up all of the music we recorded this summer and it really feels like it takes everything we're doing to its most extreme conclusion. I think it would be cool to challenge ourselves and see how we can reinvent everything moving forward.
Thank you for taking your time. Any advice or last words you'd like to share with our readers?
Paperface is keeping rock 'n' roll alive! Thank you! And to whoever is reading, keep that dream burning—that's the most powerful thing.
"Nelson Hold (BUG)" is out now on Dedstrange Records.