Hey Pony. Hey Pony

Sometimes a new album just falls on my door mat, uninvited but on principle welcome. Very rare exceptions aside, a rapper or something, I will always give such an album a chance. A few weeks ago I found Hey Pony on the doormat, accompanied by the question to give the album a chance. I have, multiple times, as I truly like what I'm hearing.

Hey Pony is a duo from the "Bollenstreek", or there where the tourists go in droves in spring to watch the tulips and more in bloom. Now, in the 90s I recall a funk band called Red Hot Tulpen Bollen, I practised with a band in Voorhout for a few weeks circA 1997 and practised with another band for a year in a bulb shed in Voorhout in 2012, from which my current band rose from the ashes. Except for Howrah, a resurrected band now three albums into its new career, that is where my knowledge of things rock stops from the Bollenstreek.

Enter Hey Pony. It is a collaboration, as they call it, between Naomi van der Ven en Mark van Rijnberk. Both have a thirty year career in music and recorded two records in 2005 and 2010 together. I may have seen Van Rijnbeek play in The Avonden and certainly heard him on record, as I have a few albums by that band.

Put Hey Pony in your cd player and this pleasant sounding indie (rock) starts to come out of your speakers. This duo knows how to make songs that please. Alternative enough to be credible, but they also have a pop feel that makes it so easy to connect with the music.

Take 'Connect The Dots' as an example. The way a piano meanders through the song makes it so attractive. And here's a guitar guy lauding a piano part! It is what makes the song stand out. In the following song, 'I Am Not Alone' it is the surprise of the harmony vocals and again the rich arrangement that follows in the outro. This duo did not go over one night of ice and kept working on its songs to make them richer and better. In that influences from the 70s shine through and not just indie rock from the 90s. As such Hey Pony presents the best of several worlds. I won't call some parts symphonic rock but certain elements from bands like Led Zeppelin and Yes can be found in the swirling sound of a keyboard.

It is these surprises that make Hey Pony such an attractive album to listen to, To think the two just started out writing a few songs together, recorded them as demos before the songs started to take on a life of their own, demanding more effort and time. In 2026 we know why this time and effort was all worth it.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Hey Pony here:

https://heypony.bandcamp.com/album/hey-pony