Kat Harlton
Vancouver’s Black Pontiac recently released new single, “Island Honey“. Emotionally, it’s a great escape, a summer fling, and a psychedelic shindig all rolled into one. The song comes at an interesting time: as life begins to return to normal (whatever that means) and people around the world begin to celebrate. The song written by the Vancouver band in quarantine was created with the intention of capturing this feeling and reminding everyone how great things are going to be, how there’s still hope out there. Now that the clouds have rolled back and the summer is here, Black Pontiac is more than happy to supply the soundtrack for it.
In a relatively short period of time, Black Pontiac have amassed audience with over 1 million combined listens on Spotify and a growing video fan base on YouTube.
We had the opportunity to chat with Black Pontiac’s Matty McLaren about inspiration behind new single “Island Honey”, his creative process and career highlights.
Kat: Can you talk about the inspiration behind your latest single?
Matty: As a song itself, probably the Cars, we were definitely aiming for a result that was pop-oriented but with a twist. Something that had the storytelling of a band like Peach Pit and maybe even Tame Impala with some of the things we did sonically. We dedicated a decent amount of time to just experimenting with synths and things like that.
Kat: What do you hope fans take from the track?
Matty: There’s a lot of trauma I think many of us will have to unpack somehow coming out of this 18-month fever dream pandemic, but for now we’re really hoping we can be a light in the dark; a little escape so to speak. I’m sure everyone’s thought of a great escape they’d like to make somehow in their own lives, Island Honey is about that desire.
Kat: What do you find is the most challenging part of your creative process?
Matty: Honestly it depends on the day. Being in a band is like being married to 3 other people (if you’re into that kind of thing). When it’s good it’s great and everything clicks for us from the songwriting all the way to the final mix stages. At the same time when it’s not so great we struggle; with finishing ideas, with deciding what to do with certain parts, we can’t agree on anything. At the end of the day, we always know we’re working towards a common goal so it’s always worth it.
Kat: What has been a career highlight for you so far?
Matty: We opened for Peach Pit once at the Kingfisher Bluez Christmas Party Charity Concert back in 2019. That was tight.
Kat: Fans are no doubt excited to see you live in concert, what can they expect from the live show?
Matty: We’ve been taking time to refine our setlist (along with our songwriting) so it’s tighter, louder, and slaps at least 75% harder. Be ready to sweat.
For more on Black Pontiac visit: https://www.blackpontiac.com