THIS weekend, Dead Pony return to TENEMENT TRAIL for their biggest appearance at the festival yet.
The band have worked their way up the bill since 2018 – first making themselves known in the dark underbelly of The Priory before returning in 2022 to tear the roof off BAaD with a memorable early evening set. Now they’re back to take on the iconic Barrowlands, sitting high on the bill just before our headliners Pale Waves.
It’s a slot that they are more than capable of making their own. Since their last appearance in 2022, the four-piece have gone from strength to strength – touring all over the UK and Europe, playing to huge festival crowds (including a career highlight show at Download earlier this year) and releasing their acclaimed debut album ‘IGNORE THIS’. With frontwoman Anna Shields at the helm, they’re a formidable force, so expect plenty of sledgehammer riffs, crunching alt-rock anthems and mosh pits.
So, before their eagerly anticipated set, we caught up with Anna to hear more about what fans can expect, Trail memories from the past, advice for new bands and what’s coming up in Dead Pony’s future.
Get your TENEMENT TRAIL tickets here.
How does it feel to be returning to TENEMENT TRAIL and to a Glasgow crowd?
We are so, so excited to be returning to Tenement Trail this year. Not only is it such a great festival, with so many opportunities to discover emerging talent, getting to play to a Glasgow crowd in the Barrowlands on a Saturday night is just God level stuff. I’m so, so excited to be playing another hometown show. Glasgow crowds just always know how to have a good time. It really, really doesn’t take a lot to get them going and I swear they are just the best audiences in the world.
Do you have any good memories of the festival?
I’d say that my fondest memory from Tenement Trail is probably from when we played a couple of years ago and we played in Bad. It was a really nice day. We’re playing during the day and it was lovely because our friends Gallus were also playing and it’s not very often that we have been able to share a bill together since we were a lot younger and we used to play gigs in the Priory and we used to hang out there. So it was actually really nice for our bands to be kind of reunited in that way. And it’s also really lovely because they’re also playing in the Barrowlands this year. So yeah, our bands have just come up together at a very similar time and it’s super nice to just share this experience with them in the best venue in the world.
How important are platforms like TRAIL for new bands?
I think that Tenement Trail is an incredible opportunity for new bands. It certainly was when we played it a couple of years ago and we played in BAaD and we were on during the day, but we had an absolute packed out audience and it was probably, at that time, one of the largest crowds that we played to. I think it’s a really great opportunity for bands to earn new fans because people will buy tickets for the festival, perhaps to see some of the headliners, but they’ll spend the whole day there hopping from venue to venue to check out artists and bands that they’ve perhaps never heard of before, or maybe they’ve heard their names mentioned here and there around the scene, but they’ve never listened to their music or never seen them live. So I think ot’s a really, really great opportunity for your everyday person to actually go and discover new music and to really see what’s going on in Glasgow at the moment. But it’s also a great opportunity for local bands to play and to make new fans.
Whats your advice for bands playing TRAIL for the first time?
My advice to bands playing Tenement Trail this year would be to really savour and enjoy every moment and also to really take advantage of the opportunity. I think that every time you play a gig, you should be giving it Your all. But I think that when there’s such a great opportunity to win over new fans, you should really, really, really be pouring your heart and soul into your performance. I would also say that you shouldn’t be discouraged if the venue that you’re playing isn’t totally stowed out and queued down the road. I think that this festival is all about playing to new people and discovering new emerging talent. And I think that whether you’re playing to 25 people or to 250 should really take advantage of that and just enjoy every moment of it
What can fans expect from the set?
Our fans should expect the same chaotic and loud Dead Pony energy that we always bring to every show. There’s going to be lots of jumping about, lots of moshin’. We might even have a guest appearance. And we’re also going to be playing some new songs that we’ve never played live before. So it’s going to be a great gig.
You’ve toured all over the UK and Europe – what’s the biggest lesson life on the road has taught you?
One thing that I’ve learned from touring over the years is that it’s so important to look after your health while you’re on the road, whether that’s physical or mental. It’s obviously so fun to drink beers every night and eat McDonalds every day, but if you really want to make touring and being a musician a sustainable career, it’s just not healthy or sustainable to indulge in these things every night. So I think that one thing I’ve learned is to try and keep myself as healthy as possible on tour.
Eat healthy, make sure you’re moving a lot, make sure stretching before and after you play, warming up your voice, practising singing as much as possible, eating healthy and exercising. And I think that when you start to treat touring as like, a job, rather than just like a fun thing that you get to go and do occasionally is when you kind of, like, change your mind about it. Like, you wouldn’t go to your office job and drink beer and, like, eat pizza every day.
Now, having said that, obviously we still like to have fun, we do still like to drink beers, and we do still like to go out for nice meals etc. But I think that looking after your physical and mental health really takes a big burden off of touring and means that you’re actually able to enjoy it for a much longer period of time.
What have been the highlights of your year so far?
My highlight of this year was definitely when we played Download Festival back in June. It was the first time we’ve ever played Downloads and we were playing on the Avalanche stage and I had no idea what to expect because it was our first time even at the festival. We’d never even been as punters, so it was just an incredible experience. And I always get quite nervous before a festival show because you never really know what to expect, especially if it’s a festival that you’ve never played before and you really don’t know what the audience is going to be like, if they’re going to be up for it that day. Sometimes even something as simple as, like, the weather can totally change people’s moods.
Iwas just absolutely gobsmacked when I walked out onto that stage and there was about 8 or 9,000 people all crammed into this tent, spilling out into the field. It was the most insane gig I’ve ever played in my life. We had multiple mosh pits going at once. There was a lot of Scottish people in the crowd, which I also loved. They were flying their little Scottish flags and it was just, yeah, it was such a surreal experience. It really was one of those moments where I was like ‘cool, I feel happy now. This is like a total bucket list moment for me.’
And then we also got to go and watch Green Day on the main stage later on that night, which was just like another bucket list moment for me.
What’s next for the band?
We’ve been hiding away in the studio, working on some really exciting things recently that I wish I could share with you right now, but I can’t. But if you want to catch us live, you can see us at Tenement Trail in the Barras this coming Saturday. Or you can catch us on tour in October with Skindred or December with Kids in Glass Houses. We’ve got some really exciting things coming up that I really just can’t wait to share with you.
