REAX INTERVIEWS PONTIAK
CLAN OF THE VAN
PONTIAK
Words: scott harrell • photo: Courtesy of Thrill Jockey Records
FoR A LoT oF Us, ThE idEA oF NoT oNLy spENdiNG moNThs oN ENd CRAmmEd iN A vAN WiTh oUR sibLiNGs, bUT ALso WoRKiNG WiTh ThEm dURiNG mosT oF oUR WAKiNG hoURs WhEN NoT oN ThE RoAd As WELL, is TERRiFyiNG.
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ey, we love our brothers and/or sisters and all, and we’ll gladly set aside some weeks and weekends to get together, catch up and hang out. But … come on. We lived 18 years in forced cohabitation with those people, and argued away a substantial portion of it. They’re great, but they’ve got their own thing going on now, and we’ve got ours, you know? That sentiment probably seems as alien to the three brothers that make up muscular Virginia art-rock act Pontiak as the notion of being emotionally able to hang out with relatives 24/7 does to those of us who remember more screaming matches and Indian rug burns than inspiring conversations about art and culture. “We’ve had a collective 60-plus years of learning how to talk to each other - there really isn’t any bullshit,” says bassist Jennings Carney of the familial relationship. “We’ve learned how to say ‘I like this,’ ‘I don’t like that.’ Maybe it’s just a luxury I’m taking for granted, but maybe with people you’re not related to, you might not be as frank. We’ve known each other for so long, I don’t even think about it, actually. My brothers are also my best friends, that’s just the way it’s always been.” The Carney brothers - Jennings, guitarist Van and drummer Lain
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- grew up on a farm, which may account for their closeness; with plenty to do and without a whole lot of other people to do it with, they undoubtedly spent many of their young years working and hanging together, learning to rely on one another to get the chores done, and to come up with something interesting to do when they were. Their upbringing definitely influenced an appreciation of the wide open spaces - the group often camps out when on tour rather than staying in hotels - as well as an admirable work ethic that’s resulted in three, count ‘em, three releases on the largely unimpeachable Thrill Jockey imprint in little more than a single year. “We’ve just been kind of writing consistently,” says Jennings. “Since we started playing, actually. When we signed to Thrill Jockey, we’d already been writing material, and because we have our own studio, we’re pretty much writing constantly. It’s an ongoing process.” The group’s studio is located back in the sort of country in which they grew up; after originally convening amid the busy, buzzy Baltimore, Maryland indie scene, the brothers decided a return to their roots would be beneficial to their art. And it has. Pontiak’s latest, the brand-new full-length Maker, is a wholly unique animal. These songs are deceptively jammy - despite the fact
that some tracks, like the 13-minute centerpiece title cut, come off wonderfully like the work of an Allman Brothers-inspired county-fair band with better distortion, ideas and drugs, Jennings says every part is thoughtfully crafted - while sacrificing neither heft nor a cohesive, emotionally evocative character that unites elements of prog, psychedelia, math-rock and heavy blues even as it transcends them. Being removed from the biases and social osmosis of any kind of hipster-centric scene has led to both an original sound that delivers heaviness and organic vibe in equal measure, and what must be a comfortable sense of creative freedom in every aspect of the band’s process. “I kind of feel like we’re musical libertarians,” Jennings says. “We intentionally set about to record our own music, and write songs by ourselves. When we first started out in Baltimore, we wanted to play shows and go on tour, so I started doing the booking. And people I talked to about it, they weren’t going to do it the way I wanted to; it took a long time to get to where people would [let us] do it the way I wanted to do it myself. “It’s helpful to learn these things, doing the music and the booking and the press, it really gives a musician a perspective that maybe they otherwise wouldn’t have. People have this idea that they’re going to rely on blog hype, and see 10,000 people unite, and that it’s going to be sustainable, and it’s not. So a lot of the independence is just how we are, but it’s also because, if you’re independent, there’s self-reliance there and it’s more sustainable in the end.” Pontiak in Florida: June 9 - The Engine Room, Tallahassee June 10 - Common Grounds, Gainesville June 11 - New World Brewery, Ybor City June 12 - BackBooth, Orlando myspACE.Com/poNTiAK