is the New Music Monday highlight!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPony Gold is the modern-Americana project of local Victoria artist Theresa Bromley, who has been gaining recognition on Vancouver Island and across Canada since the release of her debut EP, Take Me Somewhere, in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\nBromley and her band have since been busy writing and gearing up for her first full-length album release. In that time, she has also had the opportunity to play several of Vancouver Island\u2019s biggest stages, including SunFest, Filberg and Rifflandia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPony Gold officially released <\/span>High Road Reverie<\/span><\/i> on October 3rd, and says that having her debut album out feels great, while also a bit surreal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt takes so long, like it\u2019s essentially been almost a year since we started recording it and everything,\u201d Bromley told Victoria Buzz.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s such a long process, like, we started doing demos last March. So in a way you kind of feel like you\u2019ve climbed this one last hurdle with putting it out, but now I have to make sure it gets heard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBromley added that releasing this record feels so personal, because of the content of the songs she wrote, their ties to her story and the struggles she\u2019s faced through the years, such as getting sober and losing loved ones.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIn a way, I think that during the process of releasing the music and getting to sort of talk about the stories behind the songs, it\u2019s almost tied into my recovery in a way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nShe says that lots of this album covers themes of personal reflection and \u201csurrendering to the feelings\u201d of loneliness and apathy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cA lot of the songs are about the trauma that I\u2019ve lived through\u2014my dad going to jail, just a lot of that stuff, sad songs,\u201d she laughed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSonically, she says that <\/span>High Road Reverie <\/span><\/i>features a much more organic sound than her previous EP because it was all recorded live off the floor, rather than meticulously tracking the album.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe EP was recorded bit by bit, instrument by instrument, whereas this album was recorded by getting the band into a room and playing songs together as if it was performed live,\u201d Bromley explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI just really wanted to capture that organic sound.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAs a feature song off the record, Bromley says that the track \u201cStuck in Blue\u201d is her favourite at the moment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThat one is a deeply personal song, not that they\u2019re not all deeply personal, but it\u2019s really about the struggle with ongoing sadness and mental health,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBromley says she wrote this song after getting sober through a recovery program and putting in massive amounts of work to check in with herself and her mental health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThough she feels as if she has taken all the right steps, she can\u2019t help but feel a lingering sadness, which can sometimes creep up on her when she least expects it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI wonder, like, is it ever going to go away, am I always going to be stuck in blue no matter what I do,\u201d she explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIts an important conversation to be had. I think that when you\u2019re in recovery, or you have a mental health disorder, you do all the things, and you are kind of expected to be better, but most of the time\u2014yes you\u2019re better\u2014but you\u2019re never fully better, if that makes sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nShe noted that she wrote \u201cStuck in Blue\u201d for herself, first and foremost, but when it came time to put the album together, she and her team thought the song fit the themes of the record well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI just want it there for people who struggle with those same feelings,\u201d Bromley continued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s no shame in feeling depressed, even if you feel like you should not feel depressed from doing all the work that you\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nCheck out Pony Gold\u2019s song \u201cStuck in Blue\u201d off her first full length album <\/span>High Road Reverie <\/span><\/i>below:<\/span><\/p>\n