Upcoming Releases

On February 7, Matt Pond PA will release A Collection of Bees Part 1. You can check out the lyric video for "Lily Three," directed by Chloe Johnson, from the forthcoming release below. A Collection Of Bees Part 1 is full to the brim with early demos and archived tracks spanning from the turn of the century ‘til now - that have each been given a new life through remixes, remastering and in one case rerecording to bring fans a new musical experience. “It’s the closest thing to controlling mortality” jokes font man, Matt Pond.

When the lights go down and the tours cease, when the band disbands and the wheel stops turning, there are walls of hard-drives still full of unreleased music that aches for ears to hear it. We have all heard posthumous releases of our favorite artists – mixed and mastered by other hands – but what if the artist could do it themselves while they were still alive? Matt Pond says the idea for Bees came as a result of slowing down and reflecting: “whether it’s nostalgia or second guessing – I realized that there was still a lot of material [from the Matt Pond PA era] which should be allowed to breathe, have space, and be heard – without the pressure of touring and putting out music quickly, you can think more clearly.”

To find the right tracks for this record, Pond sifted through their back catalog carefully but made a choice not to be chronological or scientific. The choices needed to flow musically, to adhere to no specific theme, and most importantly they needed to have a human connection. Some tracks, like "Starlet Country" (Acoustic) even had the benefit of a re-recording and a guest artist (Anya Marina) to bring the music to life. “[Revisiting old songs] is interesting, because your natural phrasings have changed over the years, and things that you were so desperate to write about, and that were hard to perform – now become inspiring and interesting in a totally different way without dragging you down.”

Although Matt Pond PA may no longer be together, they are committed to releasing as many records as they can with archived material over the coming years as a way to reabsorb and revisit music that means so much to them, and to connect and share with audiences old and new… and who knows, perhaps revisiting this legacy is the catalyst for the band to find its own new life.

Track listing:

1. Starlet (Acoustic with Anya Marina)
2. Stopping
3. Blue Fawn (First Light Demo)
4. Love To Get Used (Acoustic)
5. Wild Heart (Fleetwood Mac Cover 2019)
6. First Fawn (Brooklyn Fawn Demo)
7. Lilly Three (Acoustic)
8. Remember Me
9. Round and Round
10. The Colour Out of Space
11. Closer (Demo)  
12. The Wrong Man