“You know, when you start your first band, it’s really hard to see yourself and what you want to do very clearly,” he says. “We didn’t have a clear definition of ourselves, except the words ‘cinematic’ and ‘landscape’ kept on coming up. There wasn’t any focus on songwriting; that kind of developed later. It was more about getting the mood right, finding the atmosphere. After lyrics, if it still had that kind of feeling, that’s how we know a song is finished.”
It’s a philosophy that’s served the band well so far. Their songs have a striking, somewhat sombre tone that is still energetic and drenched in colour – one need only check the video for 2011’s Bermuda to see this sensibility in action. Nebraska, then, is a departure for several reasons. While the fingerprints of their mood are obvious, it allowed Bailey the chance to approach arrangements from an entirely new perspective.
“The thing is, we’re really not Bruce Springsteen fans at all,” he says. “I don’t think I’d want to hear a record that covered Nebraska if the band was really respectful, you know? So we came at it very disrespectfully. I’m so surprised that people haven’t thrown shit at the stage. The first time we [performed] it, there were these old dudes up the front with their arms crossed, and we just knew they were there comparing the songs and didn’t look that impressed. It wasn’t until we reached Highway Patrolman that they started to nod along and come on board. Doing this thing, reproducing a demo, lo-fi album there were two rules that I felt we had on our side. The first was coming at not respecting the original arrangements, not tracing what’s already been done. The second was not to hi-fi it up either, not to tart it up. I thought if we stuck to that, it’d be alright.”
Pony Face’s Nebraska is truly a thoughtful, unique re-imagining of Springsteen’s classic, which is now 36-years old. The original record was conceived almost accidentally; Springsteen wishing to record demos before introducing them to the band. Instead, we have one of the highlights of his career. For Pony Face, the recommendation to pursue this troubled world of serial killers, loners and drifters came from without.
“Pure Pop Records did their Summer of Classic Albums, and every band and its dog were doing one. I couldn’t think of an album that I wanted to do, one that didn’t sound like a whole lot of work. But then Dave [Stevens] suggested Nebraska, and I couldn’t think of a reason why not. We started, and then I realised there were so many words to learn. There were a couple of songs I was trying to skip actually, because I couldn’t work out how to sing them. Reason to Believe and Atlantic City. They’re so well known, it was really, really tricky. Especially Atlantic City, to find some way that hadn’t already been done. I don’t think I listened to the record as much as I just read the words. That was when I realised that the album was a masterpiece, all these short stories that are so beautifully put together. And I say this respectfully, but it took until about three-quarters of the way through the project when I realised I was working on something really special. It’s like taking a masterclass in songwriting.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
