Dead Pony

Dead Pony, formerly known as Crystal, is a rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. The band started as a duo comprising vocalist Anna Shields and guitarist Blair Crichton after she wanted a guitarist to make music with. After she formed Crystal with Crichton and three of her university classmates, the band supported Paolo Nutini at a BBC Scotland's Hogmanay concert, appeared on Tony Visconti 's Unsigned Heroes, and released the Sex Rich EP. Shields and Crichton then formed a quartet with bassist Lizzie Reid and drummer Aidan McAllister and released numerous singles, before Liam Adams replaced Reid and the band changed their name to Dead Pony. After Euan Lyons replaced McAllister, the band released the EP War Boys, which was inspired by the 2015 movie Mad Max: Fury Road, and performed at numerous festivals. Their 2024 album, Ignore This, charted at No. 8 on the Scottish Album Charts.

2015–2019: Formation and early releases
In 2015, Glasgow YouTuber Anna Shields contacted fellow Glaswegian Blair Crichton, as she wanted a guitarist to make music with. The pair bonded over their love of 1990s grunge bands, and eventually began making music as a duo, choosing the name Crystal after an early track reminded Shields of a Spyro the Dragon sound effect triggered by Spyro collecting gems and crystals. Shields and Crichton were later joined by Lewis Clarke, George McGarrity, and Ross Taylor, who Shields was studying commercial music alongside at the University of the West of Scotland. The band first came to prominence in 2016 after winning a competition to support Paolo Nutini at a BBC Scotland's Hogmanay concert. After being featured on Tony Visconti's Unsigned Heroes, a Sky Arts series, they released the singles "Passed Down" and "Sugar Sweet" and the EP, Sex Rich.

The band then diversified into blues rock and then into grunge; around this time, Clarke, McGarrity, and Taylor left. The duo were later formed a quartet with acoustic folk musician Lizzie Reid, the granddaughter of the trade unionist Jimmy Reid, and blues rock musician Aidan McAllister. In 2018, they released "Heaven", a track written from the perspective of a theist questioning their belief system, alongside a music video. They then released "Sex Rich" in January 2019 and "Sugar Sweet" in April 2019. After winning Pirate Prodigy 2019, a competition operated by Pirate Studios, they released "Speak of the Devil". Reid then left the band and was replaced by Liam Adams in late 2019.

2020–2022: Name change and War Boys
In April 2020, the band renamed themselves "Dead Pony" after their then-unreleased track "Everything is Easy", an attempt at conveying the feelings of betrayal the band felt when they were told that Santa Claus was fictional. They did this as Shields and Crichton wanted to tighten up their image. Shields and Reid released a remote cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" during the pandemic, and "Everything is Easy" was released on 1 May 2020, their first release on LAB Records. A subsequent track, "Sharp Tongues", addressed rumours and those who started them and was released in July, with a self-shot music video released that September. In November 2020, the band were nominated for "Best Rock/Alternative Act" at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards, an award won by Fauves; they were later nominated for that award ceremony's Sound of Young Scotland Award in 2022, which was won by Berta Kennedy.

Later that month, the band announced that they were working on an EP and released "23, Never Me", a punk rock track about ending unhealthy friendships. The cover art for the single featured a recently-administered tattoo of the track's title on Shields' arm, which was performed by the drummer for Lucia & the Best Boys. Euan Lyons replaced McAllister in mid-2021; by August 2022, McAllister was gigging as half of the alternative rock duo Brasser. The band then released a further single in March 2022, "Bullet Farm", which was based around a riff from a chase scene in Mad Max: Fury Road. They then supported Twin Atlantic. That June, they released "Zero" and announced their debut EP, War Boys, which was entirely Mad Max-themed. They then played Glastonbury Festival 2022 on the BBC Introducing stage, before releasing the EP's title track and then the EP that September.

2023–present: Ignore This and festivals
The band supported Mother Mother that November, before releasing a cover version of Nelly Furtado's "Maneater" the following month. In June 2023, they then released "MK Nothing", a track Shields wrote after dreaming of a woman brainwashed by MKUltra to assassinate villains, alongside a music video. The band then supported Chvrches and performed at 2000trees, before releasing "Mana" in July, a track describing survival in a post-apocalyptic ghost town. Around this time, they performed at TRNSMT, Truck Festival, Y Not Festival, and Tartan Heart Festival. They released "Cobra" in August 2023, a combination of rock music and break beats, before playing a headline tour the following month and releasing the lost love ballad "About Love" the month after that. That November, the band won won the P&J Live Spotlight Award at the Scottish Music Awards.

The band announced their debut album, Ignore This, in December 2023, alongside the release of new videos for "Cobra" and "About Love". The album got its title from the band's experience of being ignored, and was recorded during two weeks in a Scottish Highlands cabin, during which time it rained constantly. On the last day, they wrote the self-empowerment track "Rainbows" after the rain stopped and they saw one in the sky; they released the track as a single that March, followed by its music video the month after. Ignore This was released in April 2024 and featured "MK Nothing", "Mana", "Cobra", "About Love", "Rainbows", four interludes, and seven other tracks. Designed to evoke surfing between VHS tapes, the album charted at No. 8 on the Scottish Albums Chart. The band then asserted that they would play a seven-date headline tour in December 2024.

Artistry
Shields stated in a April 2018 interview with The Skinny that she personally took inspiration from Kathleen Hanna, the lead vocalist of Bikini Kill, while Lauren Jack of The Scotsman wrote that Shields "clearly" took inspiration from Paramore's Hayley Williams, even to the point of replicating some of her dance moves. Iain Smith wrote in November 2020 that Shields took inspiration "from the pop and indie spheres with elements of grunge" and that Crichton's influences included metal and hard rock, while Crichton used a 2023 Skinny piece to suggest that "Nirvana's simple, tasteful chord progressions and interesting note choices" had moulded the band's sound.

"Heaven"'s style was influenced by Nirvana and The Breeders, while the song's vocals were inspired by Wolf Alice and Fleetwood Mac and its music video was initially inspired by the works of Courtney Barnett and Wolf Alice. Their cover of "Maneater" was inspired by N.E.R.D., Justin Timberlake, and Limp Bizkit, as the band were listening to significant volumes of music from the early 2000s at the time, while "Cobra"'s musical stylings were inspired by The Prodigy, who the band described as their "idols" in a 2024 Rock Sound interview.

Emma Flynn of DIY described "23, Never Me" as "menacing" pop-punk and likened its chorus to works by the Marmozets, while Alex Curle of When the Horn Blows described War Boys as having "flairs and dabbles of grunge, punk and hard rock with sounds similar to the soft and hard undertones of Wolf Alice and Bikini Kill". Reviewing Ignore This, Samantha Hall of Distorted Sound wrote that the album "features everything from nu-metal riffs to pop-punk energy, as well as classic rock guitar solos and electro-synth".

Members

 * Anna Shields – vocals, guitar (2015–present)
 * Blair Crichton – guitar (2015–present)
 * Liam Adams – bass (2019–present)
 * Euan Lyons – drums (2021–present)

Headlining

 * Ignore This Tour (2024)

Supporting

 * Baby Strange - Land Of Nothing Tour (2021; seven shows)
 * Mother Mother - Inside Tour (2022; eighteen shows)
 * Kid Kapichi - World Tour (2024; twelve shows)
 * Against The Current - UK Summer Tour (2024; two shows)