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From The Desk Of matt pond PA: Grandaddy’s “Sumday”

The 11th matt pond PA full-length, Winter Lives, features artwork that evokes Windham Hill’s catalog. Winter Lives arrives 11 years after Pond’s nearly all covers EP, Winter Songs. Pond, a New Hampshire native, understands the season that inspired Winter Lives, but he needed to write winter songs in the spring, so the album would arrive in context. Given his background, Pond didn’t scratch down too far to find inspiration. “It’s just visceral,” he says of winter. “There’s this coldness and shut-down emotional temperament to people in northern places, but when you get through that, there’s so much depth and reality to northern people.” Pond will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com over the next two winter weeks. Read our new feature on him.

Pond: Grandaddy’s Sumday helped me up through my shaky transition from Philadelphia to New York: I was a robot. I didn’t know anyone. I kept to myself. I ran. I took Hydroxycut so that I could see my ribs. I wanted to be perfect. I tried not to eat anything except lettuce. I didn’t know how to fix myself. I did pushups all night. I cleaned constantly. I was a robot. I would half-heartedly listen to music while I ran. Sumday caught my ears, my mind. Listening to Sumday, I realized how crazy I was acting. (It’s always been important for me to realize what was really what and escape an episode. I mean, otherwise I’d be stuck on the wrong television series about a life I shouldn’t be living, playing a part that no one could understand.)

Video after the jump.

https://vimeo.com/49043782