matt pond PA

A Collection of Bees, Part 1

 

Free Fall

 

The State of Gold

 

Skeletons and Friends

 

Winter Lives

 

Lebanon, PA

The authorship of this score should really be noted with Chris as an equal. Maybe more than an equal. When I’m tired, he remains tireless. Even though some of the songs last a few seconds, I believe it was an excellent exercise in believing — no matter what cinematography, editing or acting was in front of us, we fully believed in the scenes we were interpreting and tried to convey the underlying emotion as best we could. Download the tracks below, or the full soundtrack here.

 

The Nature of Maps

My way of living (and songwriting) has been to steer to the truth, even when it’s got a fatalistic edge. Within every one of the songs I’ve written, there’s a celebration. Even in the discussion of death, there’s life to be lauded. Back when I read reviews, I recall a writer criticizing The Nature of Maps, claiming it was just another dull album full of love songs. I fully accept that love and the pursuit of love are at the core of a lot of the baloney I concoct. In my mind, there isn’t much more that I really want to follow or find.

 

The Green Fury

The Green Fury was my friend Cory’s car. His dad bestowed it upon him when he was a few seconds past sixteen. Three on the tree and when we cruised on the highway, the increasing speed would lift us up as if we were afloat. It was an unstoppable monster. Four of us fit comfortably in the trunk. The vinyl seating could not be stained, burned or destroyed in any way. The Green Fury met its end on a New Year’s Eve, way back when. With all that weight and power, it was literally unstoppable on the snow and ice. I know this isn’t perfect. It’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a monument to recklessness, purity and devotion.

 

Measure

While I felt like I could write a song or two after Deer Apartments, Measure is where I first started to think about sound. Perhaps not fidelity as much as production. Jim Hostetter had turned out to be such a great (and cranky) collaborator, that I asked to him to properly join the band. Cranky. In music, I actually like a little bit of sand in the vaseline. The ideas and people that don’t settle for second-best. (Now, I’ve never come in first. But I’ve always put everything I’ve got into the baloney I’ve made.) Brian McTear recorded and helped produce. Yet this was my first real baby. Yes.

 

MPPA (With Audible) Tour CD

This compilation was put together in the midst of pulling up stakes in Philadelphia to move to New York. In those days, Philadelphia was far easier to navigate. The winding ways that led from there to here are the crux of all these songs. To look back on all these choices we make is the stuff of head-spins. Thank you for keeping your balance and following along.

 

Deer Apartments

Deer Apartments was the first proper album I ever made. It took about three years to write and record. In the frame of mind I remember from way back when, I was going to make one album and move on with my life. (That was not the case.)

 

The Lowlifes: Still Summer

In late 2015 we released Still Summer Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Fury, a reaction to the scrap and hustle it takes to be musicians in the modern world.