This interview is one of a series in collaboration with Loveless Festival 2026, taking place July 25-26. Buy tickets to Loveless Fest here.

Glittery, dreamy, and power-packed, PONY is creating the soundtrack to unreleased 2000’s rom-coms. Since their formation in 2014, the band has released three albums and have toured across North America. Now, after their most recent tour throughout the United States, PONY are back in Toronto to headline the upcoming Loveless Festival. 

PONY is led by the powerful artistic duo of Sam Bielanski and Matty Morand. They describe their sound as “If Dinosaur Jr. and Madonna had a baby,” which wonderfully captures the band’s unique combination of nostalgic pop and alternative rock. It’s easy to see how PONY is particularly influenced by the soundtracks of ‘90s and 2000s movies like Freaky Friday, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Josie and the Pussycats. The latter has been particularly important to the band’s sound, as PONY’s music embodies the fun, sparkly nostalgia of the film. As Morand states: “You have Anna Warren writing songs on it, you have Biff Naked on it. There’s so many people involved that are just massive powerhouse songwriters, and it swings so far above the level that it needs to.” 

While their sophomore album Velveteen’s lyrics are mainly inspired by movies and TV shows, PONY’s latest release, Clearly Cursed, is much more autobiographical. Though the band pulled many lyrics from other pieces of media during the COVID-19 lockdown era of their songwriting, for their latest record, they wanted to move away from fictional inspirations. Bielanski says that  “I found when we were playing the songs live, I was like, ‘I don’t connect with this.’ When people ask you ‘What’s that song about?’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s about an episode of Gilmore Girls,’ they’d get kind of bummed out about it. Clearly Cursed is definitely… we kind of went back to the old brain.” 

The songwriting process for Morand and Bielanski varies from song to song. As their partnership has grown stronger, they’ve been able to work together in many different ways to create music. “We always talk about this, about how we work so well together because we don’t get hurt feelings if an idea isn’t working. If someone doesn’t like something, we’re just like, ‘Okay, cool, let’s take a little snack break and then come back to it,’” Bielanski says. Morand adds, “Yeah, it’s always just about what’s gonna be best for the song. It’s never emotional.”

Not only does the duo work together to create the instrumentals and lyrics, but they also take on the creative direction behind their album art and music videos. They explain how their music videos are inspired by older horror movies that use practical effects, like Rosemary’s Baby, Possession, and Death Becomes Her. They use a technique they call “refrying” to create the desired effect: a spooky vintage haze. “We will make the video, and then we will shoot it from the screen with a Hi8 video camera, so that it gives it that kind of effect.” Bielanski explains. All of their effort pays off in the final product. PONY’s music videos add an intriguing horror aspect to their dreamy pop-rock sound. The unique artistic outfits–such as the iconic star costume from the “Superglue” video–are often created by the duo themselves as well. The duo has worked hard to create such a distinctly cool image, leaning heavily into a DIY approach to ensure everything aligns with their vision. Morand says that “I shot the album art, Sam did the art direction, I did all of the design for the album layout. Sam edits the music videos, I shoot the music videos. We’re working in a little vacuum.”

As for their most recent tour, PONY have been able to work with many different American bands–such as Phoneboy, Heart Attack Man, LiquidMike, Teen Suicide, and CloudNothings–and take the stage at venues all over the country. “We played a lot of smaller cities, cities we’ve never been to before like Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, St. Louis–a lot of smaller places. And the people in those rooms, I think, were just so grateful to have music brought to those cities that they were just going nuts. It was a really great energy. I think that in Toronto, there is a lot of choice. Some people are doing several things a night, [so much so that] maybe the enthusiasm isn’t quite there. But when you go to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, people are like, ‘I’ve never seen anything like this!’” says Bielanski. Morand further explains how “[We’ve] never been on a tour with an American band that did not say that the Toronto crowds were stiff. It’s never happened, so… definitely something for the audiences to ponder.” Hopefully, this is something that fellow Torontonians rectify at Loveless Festival.

Bielanski goes into detail about the process of choosing a setlist for their tours. “The way I describe us putting together this setlist is like, if you had a crush on someone that you really, really liked, and you wanted to make them a mixtape, and you were painstakingly changing where the songs go in the playlist. The flow has to be perfect so that they know how much you love them.” So much effort gets poured into all the elements of a tour’s success. Bielanski and Morand discuss how they try to switch up their setlists for different tours, but how they often get fans requesting the songs they swapped out. Despite it being hard to please everyone, PONY prioritizes the flow and seamlessness of a set above all else.

While both Morand and Bielanski agree that being on tour does not provide the comfort needed to write music, they find that after it’s all wrapped up, they have the tools they need to create even more. Bielanski states: “When I get home from tour, my cup is full, I’m ready to write. We’ve been trying to keep the momentum up since we got home, and just stay in our little headspace of writing. So we do have new music on the way.”

Not only that, but PONY has recently announced another tour, this time with PUP and NOBRO. Now that they’ve finished their three-record contract with label Take This to Heart, they have much more freedom for any future creative endeavours. With their upcoming performances and new music in the works, PONY is staying booked and busy. Check them out at Loveless Festival!