Interview: Allison Ponthier

Fans of Kasey Musgraves, Lana Del Ray, Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers need to meet Allison Ponthier. The Texan-born New York-based artist has dropped her debut EP with Interscope Records, Faking My Own Death – a deeply personal and coded collection of self-discovery and otherness accompanied by Ponthier’s zany intergalactic cowboy world.

At 20-years-old, Allison moved to New York City in pursuit of a fresh start and liberation. The early days in the new city were taxing without the close comfort of friends or family, with Allison regularly talking about pushing through that rough period. But what made her stay?

“I ask myself the same question all the time… I’ve always been really, really independent and I’ve, without like divulging too much information, I have been through a lot of really difficult things and I knew that I wanted to be in New York. It’d always been my dream to live in New York and at that point in my life, I was just willing to do whatever I needed to do to make it happen,” she said.

“I have no idea what was going through my head or why I acted this way, but really it was some, I don’t know, like North Star kind of thing, where I was just like, I know that I just need to stick it out and I know that I just need to keep moving forward and something’s going to happen.”

It’s clear Allison is resilient. Her work is born out of this perseverance along with her journey of self-discovery that’s landed her a lifelong group of friends and a record deal. As the pandemic forces us to look inwards and spend time on our own, Allison has words of wisdom in building her self-confidence.

“Honestly I tell a lot of people, if you want to become more confident – I was like painfully shy as a child – you just have to try one thing a day that puts you out of your box. And then in a year you’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve done so many things that I never thought I could do.’ It really is like taking one step a day to, to finish a mile.”

Allison and I caught up to discuss her debut body of work, her new sense of identity and of course, whether she’s Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Watch the full chat BELOW:

Faking My Own Death is OUT NOW.

Image credit: Julian Buchan

This article was originally published by The AU Review.