6 Questions with country-folk favorites Wild Ponies
We caught up with country-folk favorites Wild Ponies for this latest edition of ‘6 Questions With’ on their way to Montreal to showcase at the Folk Alliance conference.
Doug and Telisha Williams are partners in love and music. They’ve spent the last 20 years building their careers as the Nashville-based Wild Ponies and recently release their 5th album Dreamers.
Doug and Telisha Williams aka The Wild Ponies [Laura Schneider Photo]
6 Questions with country-folk favorites Wild Ponies
Q1: Late last year you released your latest album Dreamers. What is the genesis of the title and how does it manifest in the songs and album?
We were in Berlin several years ago and after a show we had a fan ask the question “Where are your dreams now?” I don’t know if it was a language thing or an intentional way to ask the question, but either way, It was such a beautiful way to think about our dreams – it really stuck. WHERE are your dreams – what physical or spiritual space do they occupy? It really got to us, and looking around now we see them everywhere. Our kids, our house, each other, our community and folks who come to our shows. Our dreams surround us! It’s another way to live in gratitude.
Early in the pandemic we had a fun little creativity prompt with our Patreon community – we invited everyone to make SOMEthing with the prompt “Dreamers”. Some folks wrote poems, some made up a cocktail, we had a scarf dance… all kinds of stuff. It was really cool! Our contribution was the song that eventually became the title track of this record. But, before that, it was the name of something beautiful we did with our partner Laura – a little mobile community center called “Dreamers Food Truck”.
Q2: It’s the first that you’ve worked so extensively on with an outside producer. How did it feel to share control?
We have worked with other producers before – including the great Ray Kennedy. But, for this one, yeah, we totally let go. We talked to brandy (brandy ZDAN) a lot before we went into the studio and came up with a common vision. We were all really excited about it and we just decided to bring her the songs and then get out of the way and let her produce. We put all our trust in her so we could just focus on playing and singing and connecting and we didn’t even have to THINK about the rest of it. And, let me just say, I LOVE producing. I love that part of it so much. But, to be able to turn it off and just let the songs and the players breathe together while brandy guided us… it was amazing. She’s the best. In a strange way, by us getting out of the way and letting brandy make those production decisions, I think it really let us shine through as artists with a little more truth maybe. It all has to do with how much trust we had in brandy.
Q3: The results are stunning and beautifully explore themes that are both very traditional like love and nuclear family and at the same time less so, like finding those things in LGBTQIA+ spaces and an extended chosen family. How has the response been so far?
Thank you – that is really kind. We are proud of it. And yeah, we’re just your everyday average queer polyamorous triad trying to get our kids ready for school and out the door on time. Making dinner and taking out the trash. Trying to find a few minutes to sit down and connect with each other. I’m sure we’ve lost a few fans with how open we’ve been, but I think we’ve gained a LOT more. What we’ve gained emotionally through this choice to live openly is immeasurable. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. At every single show we have queer folks and poly folks coming up to thank us for representation and normalization.
Q4: Tell us about the work you do around music and mental health.
Mental Health has always been present in our music. T was a mental health therapist before we quit to pursue music as a full-time career. Her work then focused mainly on child victims of abuse and neglect. That work and her own history as a survivor of sexual abuse have weaved their way through our art from the get-go. More recently, we’ve had the opportunity to combine these passions in an intentional, community-building way. We have a couple of presentations, one on Trauma and Songwriting and one on Music with a Mission, and T is currently teaching “Mental Health in the Music Industry” as part of MTSU’s Recording Industry Music Program. These opportunities to mindfully address mental health through our art feel whole-heartedly aligned for where we are with our family and career goals.
Q5: When you’re on the road do you have routines, habits, or “must-have” items in the dressing room?
There aren’t really any “must haves” on the rider – it’s nice to have a local beer, or a little whiskey, but we’re pretty easy. We do have a little routine- we don’t always do it though. We save it for when we really need it. We travel with a box of sparklers. We’ll go outside somewhere and hide and light them and pass them around in a circle if we have a band with us, and we’ll do jumping jacks and say positive affirmations. I’m totally not kidding. This is a real thing. Telisha even has a tattoo of a burning sparkler on her arm to represent this little ritual.
Q6: Tell us something that your fans might be surprised to know about you.
Well, that’s tricky – we’re pretty damn open about our lives these day. Some might say too open. It’s right for us, and that’s what matters. Let’s see… maybe that we’re both motorcycle coaches? Or maybe that we were drum major and majorette in high school. There’s video footage of us performing together with our amazing high school marching band when D was a senior and T was a sophomore. RIP Mr. Butler and Mr. Mac, two of the most amazing band directors ever!
Find all Wild Ponies tour dates and follow them on Bandsintown. Photos by Laura Schneider.
Bruce Houghton
