UNITED KINGDOM: Indie electro-rockers New Young Pony Club brings avant-pop back in vogue

To call the New Young Pony Club sassy would be an understatement. The five-piece ensemble brings together three women and two men to create a unique sound that combines Eighties new wave with dance rhythms and synths. Their force on the UK music charts has surprised even them, with their debut album "Fantastic Playroom" achieving both critical praise and commercial success. "Doing an album wasn't something we even thought about," said Andy Spence, the band's guitarist. "We didn't even know we were even going to get a single out, never mind an album so it's all been a very organic process. It was slowly making singles, they got released, people got excited about them, got a deal, made an album or finished an album and put it out. And did a lot of touring," adds Tahita Bulmer, lead singer. While it may seem the band has achieved overnight success, the group has been performing together since 2004. They were first signed to a small label but found more exposure on the Australian label Modular Recordings. Coincidentally, the New Young Pony Club has a strong following in Australia. The group call their sound is avant-pop, influenced by a whole host of obscure bands as well as the more well-known i.e. Talking Heads, Prince, and Blondie. When asked what, in their words was avant-pop, Bulmer said: "Anything that just takes what music can be, makes it great, makes it this emotional almost physical force but at the same time it's not about trying to alienate people. You're trying to make people's lives better to excite them, invigorate them so it's something they can take with them," said Bulmer. The New Young Pony Club's energetic live shows have made them a staple of the UK festival circuit, with lead singer Bulmer dancing in wildly erratic ways, spurring on fans. With the girls wearing bright red lipstick and 1980s American prom dresses and the boys sporting day-glo sunglasses and coloured skinny jeans, the band has been labelled "new rave", a category they tend to shy away from. Bulmer said they work hard to be different from other pop groups. "I think the main thing that's been happening that's been great for female performers is that there's been shift in emphasis from airbrushed perfection, kind of Britney Spears on a good day, to real performance, real women, talking about their lives on the one hand, on the other hand, not being so perfect and being a lot more accessible in a rock and roll way, like say Mick Jagger was rock and roll accessible, not having your hair perfect and having mascara streaming down your face because you're giving energy to the crowd or whatever." In the U.S., their single "Ice Cream" was used under the television commercial for computer processor Intel Core 2 Duo Multiply. Not satisfied with this little success, the group are looking to take their sound and performances across the Atlantic. The group will perform throughout the UK and Europe in summer festivals and begin work on their second album in autumn.

ITN Source | August 9, 2007

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