Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
This week, Pony Gold is the New Music Monday highlight!
Pony Gold is the modern-Americana project of local Victoria artist Theresa Bromley, who has been gaining recognition on Vancouver Island and across Canada since the release of her debut EP, Take Me Somewhere, in 2023.
Bromley and her band have since been busy writing and gearing up for her first full-length album release. In that time, she has also had the opportunity to play several of Vancouver Island’s biggest stages, including SunFest, Filberg and Rifflandia.
Pony Gold officially released High Road Reverie on October 3rd, and says that having her debut album out feels great, while also a bit surreal.
“It takes so long, like it’s essentially been almost a year since we started recording it and everything,” Bromley told Victoria Buzz.
“It’s such a long process, like, we started doing demos last March. So in a way you kind of feel like you’ve climbed this one last hurdle with putting it out, but now I have to make sure it gets heard.”
Bromley added that releasing this record feels so personal, because of the content of the songs she wrote, their ties to her story and the struggles she’s faced through the years, such as getting sober and losing loved ones.
“In a way, I think that during the process of releasing the music and getting to sort of talk about the stories behind the songs, it’s almost tied into my recovery in a way.”
She says that lots of this album covers themes of personal reflection and “surrendering to the feelings” of loneliness and apathy.
“A lot of the songs are about the trauma that I’ve lived through—my dad going to jail, just a lot of that stuff, sad songs,” she laughed.
Sonically, she says that High Road Reverie features a much more organic sound than her previous EP because it was all recorded live off the floor, rather than meticulously tracking the album.
“The EP was recorded bit by bit, instrument by instrument, whereas this album was recorded by getting the band into a room and playing songs together as if it was performed live,” Bromley explained.
“I just really wanted to capture that organic sound.”
As a feature song off the record, Bromley says that the track “Stuck in Blue” is her favourite at the moment.
“That one is a deeply personal song, not that they’re not all deeply personal, but it’s really about the struggle with ongoing sadness and mental health,” she said.
Bromley says she wrote this song after getting sober through a recovery program and putting in massive amounts of work to check in with herself and her mental health.
Though she feels as if she has taken all the right steps, she can’t help but feel a lingering sadness, which can sometimes creep up on her when she least expects it.
“I wonder, like, is it ever going to go away, am I always going to be stuck in blue no matter what I do,” she explained.
“Its an important conversation to be had. I think that when you’re in recovery, or you have a mental health disorder, you do all the things, and you are kind of expected to be better, but most of the time—yes you’re better—but you’re never fully better, if that makes sense.”
She noted that she wrote “Stuck in Blue” for herself, first and foremost, but when it came time to put the album together, she and her team thought the song fit the themes of the record well.
“I just want it there for people who struggle with those same feelings,” Bromley continued.
“There’s no shame in feeling depressed, even if you feel like you should not feel depressed from doing all the work that you’ve done.”
Check out Pony Gold’s song “Stuck in Blue” off her first full length album High Road Reverie below:
To listen to the rest of High Road Reverie, check out Pony Gold on Bandcamp, Tidal, Apple Music or Spotify.
Now that the album is out, Pony Gold is switching gears and is ready to hit the road playing lots of solo and full-band sets on Vancouver Island and across western Canada.
This weekend, Pony Gold will be playing a full-band set at the Woodstove Festival in Cumberland on November 7th, as well as a duo set with her husband accompanying her on November 9th.
Between her Woodstove sets, Bromley will be flying to Calgary to open for JJ Shiplett, with whom she will be joining on a western Canadian tour from November 20th to 29th.
Bromley will also be taking Pony Gold to Edmonton in late January to play a set at the Winterruption Festival.
Aside from playing lots of gigs, Bromley says she is also keeping busy writing new songs and trying to lay the foundations of her next recording project.
To stay up to date with Pony Gold and all they are up to, follow them on Instagram.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Drama Queen releases debut album on themes of romanticizing life
- New Music Monday: Gabe Elias taps into subconscious on debut album ‘Many Long Goodbyes’
- New Music Monday: Three Sailing Wait creates ode to public servants on sophomore album
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
“Because of CFUV, I’ve been able to say that I’ve made charts and other university radio stations like CFUV have helped too,” said Bromley.
“Just last week I found out I was number 6 on the national roots and blues charts and I’m pretty sure it’s because CFUV plays my music.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Pony Gold in the comments below!
