ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Allison Ponthier

Photo by Julian Buchan

This week’s ANCHR artist of the week goes to singer-songwriter Allison Ponthier, who is currently based in Brooklyn after migrating from the Bible-belt of Texas.

Sonically, Ponthier blends rock n’ roll textures together with the Western twang of alt-country influences and velvety-smooth, rich vocals of pop powerhouses. Visually, Ponthier’s imagery and presentation possess both a classic, vintage feel combined with a surreal, other-worldly sheen. It’s the perfect display of her ability to expand her physical horizons alongside her artistic boundaries, while also giving a nod to the place where she grew up. Ponthier has described her big move to NYC as a creative inspiration for her, but it was also scary and challenging as she moved there without any ties or friends. Once she got settled into New York, Ponthier finally felt comfortable enough to speak her full truth. “Having a very supportive environment to a LGBTQ person is really that important because I didn’t feel safe to come out until I moved to New York. I think that being somewhere where you feel safe in yourself is a priority, and safety is always a number one priority when someone comes out,” she says about her experience coming out after the move.

Nowadays, Ponthier continues to express her vulnerable truths through her songwriting, which listeners have gotten to experience via her 2021 EP entitled “Faking My Own Death” and this year’s “Shaking Hands With Elvis” EP. The latter sees her opening up even more, and Ponthier acknowledges that maturity, stating, “I want to always feel like I can grow, and this project reflects that.” The EP’s title track has Ponthier sharing so much of her emotions with listeners, as she wrote the song following the passing of one of her friends. "Whether or not there's an afterlife, I want to believe that he is not by himself," she says. The lyrics in the song paint a vivid picture of an idyllic afterlife with The King himself, giving nods to Graceland and Elvis’ over-the-top wardrobe.

Throughout the other five songs on the “Shaking Hands With Elvis” EP, Ponthier also broadened her dynamic sound by working with different producers like Mike Del Rio, Dan Wilson, Ethan Gruska, and Luke Fitton. “The exciting part of this job is that you get to do something new every day,” she says. “So I was excited to make harder rock songs, songs that sound like they came straight out of the '70s, songs that are sensitive but that have guitar feedback all over them."

Make sure you tune into the full EP here, and follow Allison Ponthier on Instagram | Twitter | TikTok.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Sir Sly

Sir Sly is Landon Jacobs, Hayden Coplen and Jason Suwito. Photo courtesy of Press Here Publicity

One live music trope I can’t stress enough is to always catch the opening band when you get a chance. Back in early 2014, I showed up to St. Lucia’s show at Lincoln Hall having never heard their supporting band before, and now Sir Sly is easily one of my favorite bands.

Since those early days of being the opening band and the era of their debut album You Haunt Me, Sir Sly has continued on a trajectory of slow and steady maturity. Thanks to lead singer and songwriter Landon Jacobs’ vulnerability and transparency as a storyteller, listeners can sense a stark shift in tones from their first album to their sophomore release Don’t You Worry, Honey; An artistic shift that stems from the major changes that occurred in Jacobs’ personal life. At surface value, you could listen to 2017’s Don’t You Worry, Honey and hear glossy, upbeat melodies destined to gain popularity because of their catchiness, but at its core, Jacobs candidly shares his struggles of losing his mother to cancer and dealing with the disintegration of his young marriage. On top of that, Jacobs managed to turn an experience of a panic attack in a hotel room into the hit “High,” which saw chart success and made appearances in shows like 13 Reasons Why and Riverdale.

Almost four years later, Jacobs and his bandmates Hayden Coplen and Jason Suwito are ready to embark on a new chapter with their third album The Rise & Fall Of Loverboy, which is slated to be released on April 23, 2021 via Interscope Records. To accompany the news of the album, Sir Sly released the fourth and fifth singles off the upcoming record last week: “thx.” and “Loverboy.” In contrast to the mellow vocals and faded instrumentals of the former, “Loverboy” jumps right into an effervescent hook that expresses the joy and ease of a new relationship. On the third album as a whole, Jacobs has said, “The Rise & Fall Of Loverboy is an album about falling in love with someone new, and the magic that brought into my world.”

You can pre-order the new album here, and listen to “Loverboy” in full below.

Keep up with Sir Sly on Facebook // Twitter // Instagram