Summer Dreamer is the latest taste of music from the Western Australian musician.
Over the past eighteen months, we have gotten to know Matt Ponio. The first introduction came in the form of his debut studio album In A Fog Again. Having dropped in July of 2023, the album opened the ears to Ponio’s poignant production, laced with levels of instrumentation and quirky inclusions.
The eight-track was a welcoming into Ponio’s music world, one that he had been nurturing since the ripe age of 13 and sits largely in an electro-pop and hip-hop space.
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Moving into 2024, and now at 19 years old, Matt Ponio added another staircase to his music haven in the form of his sophomore album Modify. Adding another eight tracks to the Ponio party, the album included singles 24 (featuring kusorari), Storm In The City, Is Everything Alright and Adrift.
So it comes as a surprise that the end of the year welcomes even more Ponio poisons. This time, Ponio gets us excited for the warmer weather on his new single Summer Dreamer, a teaser from his upcoming third album.
Written in July of this year, the track is the first song written for the to-be-announced album. While the mood doesn’t automatically scream “Summer is here”, Ponio aims to capture the feeling that summer evokes for him.
“It is about a feeling that I get, that I can’t really explain. So I had to translate that feeling the best I could through the music. It’s something that happens in the Summer, maybe it’s a mix of nostalgia and forgotten memories but it definitely has something to do with the air on certain summer afternoons where I live. It makes me feel a certain way,” he says.
“That’s the main focus behind the song but it’s briefly about having someone in your life that keeps you fighting through a tough time, it’s about hope I guess and also an otherworldly atmosphere that keeps that hope alive more than anything.”
Prominent throughout Ponio’s catalogue is the heart-on-the-sleeve approach Ponio takes to songwriting, drawing from life experiences including that of alienation, isolation and loneliness.
While Summer Dreamer tends to hook into a sense of longing, his works are wrapped in melancholy; the electro-pop elements dimmed by deep states of thought that serve as a stunning contrast.
Perhaps it’s a timestamp of his childhood music influences having grown up listening to grunge heroes Nirvana, reggae rockers Red Hot Chilli Peppers and dramatic darers Muse. “I remember waking up early on Sunday Mornings and watching Rage with my family.”
Whatever it is, the crux is that Matt Ponio is unafraid of experimentation whilst maintaining a pop sensibility and Summer Dreamer is the perfect expression of that.
Summer Dreamer hits the streams today, Friday 13 September 2024, due for the drop at 8pm on Spotify. Listen here.
This article was made in partnership with Marr Ponio.
