For a while when I was a kid I wanted to be a forest ranger," says Matt Pond. "But my older brother mocked me so much about it that I gave up on the idea. When I was in high school I loved being able to take a break and go hide out in the forest. I still do. But for me, it's not as much about being a nature lover as it is about being an escape artist."
Somewhat surprising, to hear from a singer-songwriter whose back-to-the-land themes and aesthetic would seem to paint him as the modern-day Henry David Thoreau. It's complicated, Pond's relationship with the flora, the fauna, and the changing of the seasons. For Pond (real name), the nature references that weave their way through his 10 albums and assorted EPs (song titles: "Green Grass," "A Part of the Woods," "The Trees and the Wild") aren't simply a bundle of naturalist love letters—although, sure, there are some of those in there, too—to be taken at surface value. Beneath the bark live layers to, well, ponder. "I try not to read a lot of reviews of my records; it always feels weird to me," says Pond. "But there was one I saw recently that mentioned 'Street Squirrels' [from this year's Still Summer]. The writer was putting it down, saying that I shouldn't be writing songs about squirrels. To me, at least, that song [lyric: 'Street squirrels don't think twice / Between the lines and tires of death'] is clearly about people, not squirrels. When I read that part of the review I was, like, 'Man, do you know what a metaphor is?'"
Pond grew up in Northwestern New Hampshire as the son of a therapist/homemaker single mother; his father was a humanitarian who helped place Cambodian war orphans with American families, one of which was Pond's. "We had several of them living with us at different times," he recalls. "I learned to swear and sing songs in Cambodian." Before he started writing and signing his own songs, he tried his hand at learning piano, trumpet, and French horn, giving them all up by the time he was 12. "I wasn't one of those people who grew up loving music in a musical family," he admits, although he does have fond memories of his father mock-conducting to classical records. "It wasn't until later, when I was around people who were more supportive of the idea of me playing music, that it started to feel right. This was in the '80s, so I kind of came in on the cusp of punk and new wave, but I was also listening to Neil Young and the Beatles and a lot of country rock. I read about Joni Mitchell and the way she used different tunings, and that got me more interested in playing guitar. I'd steal some beers and go practice in our basement, which always seemed to be flooded."
Pond's lifelong affinity for literature has also shaped the rustic-symbolist tack of his tunes. "I loved Walker Percy, Annie Dillard," he says. "I just read [Milan Kundera's] The Unbearable Lightness of Being for, like, the 20th time. It's fun being nostalgic about certain writers or movies when they bring you back to a certain period of your life." Pond attended Bard College, focusing not on literature but on history and general studies. "At the time, I wanted to be like one of those professors out of Salinger [The Catcher in the Rye]—you know, smoke a pipe and just be an academic."
Pond's professorial aspirations were fleeting, though. In 1998, after three years at Bard, he threw together "a few grab bags of clothes and a guitar" and relocated to Philadelphia. "There really was no city quite like Philly back then," recalls the singer, who was lured there by native friends, a thriving arts scene, and comparatively cheap rent. "It was definitely a rough place to live, very dangerous, but there was a lot going on [artistically]." With some friends he started a short-lived band called Mel's Rockpile (a reference to a recurring "SCTV" skit), which he describes as a "dumb, self-protective cocoon. But playing in that band helped me get where I am because it made me want to write music that meant something, instead of what I was doing with them."
Serious about having a vehicle for the reflective, lyrically illustrative, folk-based songs he'd been writing, Pond assembled the first lineup of the changeable backing band he dubbed Matt Pond PA, the "PA" a nod to the project's Pennsylvania birthplace. From inception, a crucial component of the project's sound has been its use of strings, mainly cello but also occasionally violin, which have seen the act described as chamber pop. "I've always loved ELO and a lot of classical music," he explains. "I wanted to find a way to have strings but not make them incidental. Even though I can't write music or charts, just humming the parts to the players and having them try to approximate that has worked pretty well."
Matt Pond PA debuted with 1998's Deer Apartments, which snagged the top prize in a contest of unsigned bands sponsored by online music outlet CDNOW. The outfit began working the road and followed with 2000's Measure and 2001's EP I Thought You Were Sleeping, before signing to Illinois indie Polyvinyl Record Company for 2002's The Green Fury and The Nature of Maps. A gig writing background music for the Oxygen Network helped Pond cover the costs of touring a five- or six-piece band, but with critics connecting strongly to the group's autumnal sound and his poetically personal wordplay it was becoming clear that a leap to a bigger, er, pond was in order.
In 2003, the tunesmith relocated to Brooklyn, put together a new lineup, and recorded the following year's Emblems for new label Altitude. Crystallizing the strengths of the previous efforts, Emblems became Pond's breakthrough, its addictive melodies and wistful words set in grand, sweeping production. Support slots for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Keane were followed by the 2005 EP Winter Songs, whose opener, the charming "Snow Day," made it into a Starbucks commercial, and the same year's Several Arrows Later, which is regarded by many fans as Pond's peak. Upping the epic factor of Emblems, the latter disc distantly recalls the Baroque touches of '60s acts like Love and the Beach Boys and such '90s indie paragons as la Pavement and American Music Club. The double meanings in its "Brooklyn Stars" and the seasonal/romantic allegories in "So Much Trouble" ("I don't wanna think about it / how the fall is coming down / The light is leaving and it's hard to breathe / buried in a pile of leaves") are pure Pond. So was 2003-2005 Pond's purple patch? "I guess so, but I didn't see it at the time," he says. "I was doing well, selling records, and playing a lot. But I wasn't paying attention in that way then—I was too busy touring [as a headliner and with Liz Phair and Guster] and writing more songs in hotel bathrooms."
Some of those songs ended up on another EP, 2007's If You Want Blood, and the same year's edgier full-length Last Light, which was recorded at Bearsville Studios. His taste for woodsy environs reawakened by the Last Light sessions, Pond went full Basement Tapes with newly added guitarist and producer Chris Hansen for 2010's The Dark Leaves, recording the intimate opus in a Bearsville cabin. Sold on the solitude and central touring location of the area, he left the big city for the Hudson Valley that year, renting an apartment in Hudson, which at that point recalled Brooklyn before the boom. "A big part of why I like it here so much is because it's like a more temperate version of where I grew up," muses Pond. The year 2013 brought a deal with BMG for The Lives Inside the Lines in Your Hand and, for that album only, the dropping of the "PA" from behind the singer's name. "The label asked for that," he admits. "I guess they thought it would be less confusing for people. I was okay with trying it. But if they'd tried to get me to change my songs or wear different clothes or something like that I wouldn't have done it."
Generally more uplifting and pop rock-leaning than its predecessors, The Lives Inside... brought continued acclaim, but its sales still didn't make Pond's name a household one. By 2015, the songwriter had reinstated his familiar suffix and was back among the indies for the Doghouse label's The State of Gold. He'd also put down firm local roots, buying a house in Kingston's historic Uptown district. "I'm really happy to be in Kingston," he says. "I definitely feel like I got a place here at just the right time." For 2016's Winter Lives, Pond launched his own label, 131 Records, whose releases have been financed via the crowd-funding website Patreon. "The great thing about Patreon, as opposed to Kickstarter or PledgeMusic, is that the campaign doesn't stop when you've reached your goal," Pond says. "That extra money can go toward other expenses. With labels dropping off, this is the way music will be funded from now on."
Patreon worked well once again for the making of Still Summer, which appeared in August (naturally). Tracked mainly at Pond's Kingston home studio, the 14-song album brings, among other motifs, still more allegorical wildlife- and season-referencing compositions ("Rabbit," "Legends Before [and After] the Fall," the title track), and even a tellingly named ambient recording simply called "The Backyard." Several guest performers were present for the taping, including vocalists Laura Burhenn of the Mynabirds and local Laura Stevenson.
"Matt has a knack for writing a really good hook that works in any type of song," says Stevenson, who currently lives in Rosendale with her husband, bassist and Chronogram contributor Mike Campbell, and sings on Pond's bespoke "The Ballad of Laura and Mike." "Of course, for us it was so, so sweet that he wrote that song," Stevenson says. "Another great thing I love about Matt's style is the simplicity. He knows he doesn't have to gild the lily by trying to see how many different parts he can fit into a song."
Following last month's release of the EP More Winter Lives, Pond made the dramatic decision to stop recording under his own name altogether as he looks toward starting a new project. "I called the band Matt Pond PA because I wanted to have veto power over the music, but I always found it strange being in a band that was named after me," he says. "Now I want to do something that's more collaborative and not have to be the leader all the time. I'll always write songs, though. I'm happiest when I'm writing music."
Matt Pond PA will perform at BSP Kingston on December 16. JK Vanderbilt and Wild Pink will open. Still Summer is out on 131 Records.