Five things with Jarred Young From Bad Pony

I think I must have got my desire to hit things from him. My earliest musical memory is from when I was about three; I used to stand in this particular spot every time a Boyz II Men tune came on and sing into the window. Every time. I don’t know what it was about the spot but I was adamant about being in it and singing my little toddler heart out.

2. Inspirations

Growing up, I loved Michael Jackson. I still do, he was amazing. ‘Dirty Diana’ gets me every time. I always change my mind about favourite albums/songs but I do remember the first time I heard Rick James when I was 15. I couldn’t figure out how something could be so funny and lame yet so totally excellent and badass at the same time.

3. Your Band

Sam, Mark and I used to play in a bluesy rock band together (I played drums), and whenever we used to drink at parties, I would muster up the courage to sing a few ditties. Through the drunken foggy memories Sam remembered something he liked the sound of and kept encouraging me. Sam and I ended up writing and recording some tunes, put them up on the interwebs and we were asked to do a tour. We then recruited Isaac, Cron and Mark so we could play all the parts live. Now we are a five-piece with no drummer, but lots of drums (figure that one out).

4. The Music You Make

I would call us an indie rock or indie pop band. Honestly, it just depends on the song. We’re pretty all over the place and try not to pigeonhole ourselves. It’s great because it lets us write freely. We take influences from lots of places but have been compared to Two Door Cinema Club, Foals, Kings Of Leon and Bombay Bicycle Club, to name a few. We self-produced our EP Limbo with a little help from Malcolm Besley (Northeast Party House), who mixed ‘Down To You’. Our live show is a lot of fun. We all sing, and four out of five of us play some sort of percussion. There’s chanting. There’s fast bits and slow bits. There’s hard things and soft things. We love it. There’s lots of smiling involved.

5. Music, Right Here, Right Now

The quality of music in Australia is super high. I’m loving it. The best thing about the music scene is the awesome people you meet. I think the biggest obstacle for musos is being able to balance money and time. Music takes up a lot of both. The best local acts on my list are Swim Season, Ngaiire, Harts, All Our Exes Live In Texas and Halcyon Drive.

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