Horsing around

The term ‘Nu-Rave’ is generally abhorred by anybody even remotely connected with the ‘scene’ itself, and wisely so. After all, nothing dates a band quicker than being lumbered in with a gaggle of ‘me-too’ bandwagon jumpers when that particular vehicle leaves town.

There’s something decidedly different about London’s New Young Pony Club, however.
OK, so there are plenty of glowstick-friendly big beats in their heavily produced sound, but to these ears, there’s more of an ‘80s synth revival than the ecstasy-fuelled hedonism of the early ‘90s about their debut Fantastic Playroom. More Blondie than KLF, then. The comparison with Debbie Harry isn’t merely facetious, either. In frontwoman, Tahita ‘Ty’ Bulmer, NYPC are possessed of the most captivating microphone-slinger this side of CSS’s Lovefoxx. Music nerds note: Ty provided the vocals for Blue States’ 2002 album, Man Mountain.
In person, Ty is equally arresting, prompting this interviewer’s mouth to dry up like a sponge in the Sahara at one glance into those deliciously arresting eyes. I decided to direct most of my questions towards guitarist Andy Spence instead (no offence to Andy’s aesthetics, you understand, just in the interest of actually being able to ask the duo questions without drooling uncontrollably).
Having already distanced themselves from New Rave, I wondered if NYPC had to describe themselves, what would they say? Are they a rock band who play tunes you can dance to or a dance band who play rock instruments?
“That’s a really hard one,” groans Andy. “We’re not really a dance band and we’re not really a rock band. I can’t answer that. We’re just what we are but we love both those forms.”
“I’d say we’re probably more dance,” opines Ty, “because of the basis of what we’re doing. It’s all about groove and beats, and real songs happen on the top of that.”
So how have hardcore dance fans taken to it?
“We don’t really know who the dance fans are, because we don’t really play clubs: we play gigs,” opines Andy, “But the dance press have been great. Mixmag had us as their album of the month, so obviously that whole scene is really getting into it.”
Mixmag aren’t alone. The entire spectrum of the music press in the UK has been getting into all sorts of a lather about New Young Pony Club recently. Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking that the band exploded onto the scene late last year, but you’d be wrong.
“We don’t really know exactly when it started,” Andy notes. “We started writing together in studio, it wasn’t a case of ‘let’s form a band now’, it just evolved.”
Together for “three or four years” now, NYPC released their debut limited edition 7-inch single ‘The Get Go’ in 2004 on indie label Tirk Recordings, followed closely by ‘Ice Cream’ (re-released recently to tremendous acclaim and airplay). It was then that they came to the attention of Australian label Modular, also the home of Wolfmother, incidentally, and they promptly inked a worldwide deal and began working on their debut album.
The result, Fantastic Playroom, is a winning combination of danceable beats, guitar licks and infectious tunes, like ‘The Bomb’ or the aforementioned ‘Ice Cream’, songs equally at home in the club and the car. It was these two songs in particular that propelled NYPC into public consciousness. Indeed, since this interview took place, Fantastic Playroom has been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.
“It’s been a good trajectory, from being an underground act, putting out seven-inches in a small way, to getting to where we are now,” explains Ty. “It’s not an overnight thing for us: there was press interest in the beginning but they just got more interested.”
As interest in the band heightened, so did demands on their time. They’ve been almost constantly touring for the last six “crazy” months, both playing their own gigs and support tours with CSS and Klaxons.
“That was great fun,” Andy says. “They’re great bands and we’re all really good friends, so it was a proper party, like kids on tour.”
“It was like a school trip,” Ty adds.
More recently, they’ve been stalwarts of the festival circuit, which has been a case of ‘have wellies, will travel’. “This year has been a very muddy festival experience,” Ty agrees ruefully.
But have they got embroiled in a mud-fight yet?
“No, but we saw a proper one at Glastonbury,” Andy grins. “They made a ring, put the mud out, got these people down to their underwear and just went for it.”
I can’t let the interview go by without mentioning our own Pony Club. It transpires that Ty and Andy are well aware of Mark Cullen’s Finglas mob.
“They are the reason for the ‘New Young’ at the beginning of our name,” Andy explains. “We wanted to be Pony Club but they got there first. Ty came up with the name Pony Club and we thought it was a great name, but when we put it into Google, they came up, and we went ‘Damn it’.”
“But they’re different enough that we thought we could still use the name,” Ty grins.
The rest of 2007 is already pretty busy for New Young Pony Club, with a host of dates all over Europe. They’re already planning a return visit to Ireland, with some dates tentatively pencilled in for October. Considering the year they’ve had so far, where would they like to see themselves come 2008?
“A couple of BRIT awards and a Grammy would be nice,” Andy laughs.
“World domination would be fine,” deadpans Ty, before Andy gets serious: “We’d like to make enough money to make another album. That’s all we really want, to keep making albums.”
“Although,” Ty beams, “to be really famous and hang out with all the other pop-stars would be nice.”

Fantastic Playroom is out now on Modular.