Rising singer-songwriter Allison Ponthier has a lot going for her right now — including prominent endorsements from superfans like Elton John, who featured her in his recent documentary, and Brandi Carlile. But everything was not coming up roses last summer, when she learned she’d been dropped from her label, Interscope, after several years’ worth of singles and EPs but no full-length album. That was a bitter pill, but she makes something sweet out of the experience with “Karaoke Queen,” her first single as an independent artist, which comes out today.
Ponthier talked Variety through the making of the new single, and how it represented a catharsis for her after what felt like a devastating professional setback. As it turned out, there was something prophetic about the song — or possibly “manifesting,” as she puts it — because she wrote it early on in being with Interscope, coming up with an at-the-time fictional scenario anticipating what it would be like to lose that deal. (Listen to the new track, below.)
“I actually wrote the song after I signed my old record deal,” Ponthier says, “because I didn’t grow up with a lot of music industry knowledge or people who were working in it around me. So when I was in the position of finally having my dream fulfilled of being able to do music full-time and having label support, when that materialized, I was terrified. It was the first time that I was secure financially ever in my life. It was the first time that I had my own health insurance. It was the first time that I had that stability. And so I was so terrified that the rug would be pulled out from under me, the only way that I really know how to process things is by writing about them.” She brought in two co-writers she felt comfortable sharing that anxiety with, Ethan Gruska (who’s written with Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzy McAlpine) and Micah Premnath.
“I pitched the idea of a classic ‘70s-style story song about a girl who gets signed pretty young, gets dropped by her major label, has to move back to her hometown, and is embarrassed and has to process those emotions until she finally finds herself being the queen of the karaoke bar,” she explains. “Everyone in her town makes her feel like the star that she wished that she could have been in one way but is happy to be in another. And yeah, I had this song for forever and loved it fiercely and really felt like a huge part of my songwriting identity was wrapped up in this song, but it didn’t feel like the right time to put it out — the song wasn’t ready to have its time. And now that I’m independent, I can do whatever the heck I want. So when I thought about my first independent release, I thought about this song because it comforted me through that feeling, whether it was just the feeling of maybe getting dropped or the feeling of actually getting dropped. So in a weird way, either I’m psychic or I manifested it, but I am so glad that I wrote it, because it really helped me process that feeling.”
Not everything about the lyrics proved prophetic, because unlike the young singer portrayed in the lyrics, Ponthier isn’t moving back home — which in her case would be from New York City back to Texas. Ponthier previously explored that divide in one of her Interscope singles, “Cowboy,” which touched on the feelings of embracing being from somewhere else in a new urban landscape… even as, back home, she also sometimes felt “other,” having been a queer person in a conservative area.
“I’m very lucky that, so far, I can stay in the city that I moved to,” she says. “But I’ve financially supported myself as an adult ever since I turned 18, and so losing that financial stability was a really scary thing. and a lot of people have to; I know a lot of artists have gotten dropped and have to move back home. So, thankfully for now, I’m staying in New York, but it’s never off the table. And I do love Texas. But you never want to have to move somewhere because of something that happened to you. You want to do it because it feels like the right place to be.”
A different artist, one who’s maybe fooling herself, might have characterized getting dropped by a major as a kind of triumph, in a changing music landscape where many artists thrive once they’re out from the big deal they see as their salvation. But Ponthier has no such pretense about her initial reaction, which didn’t feel liberating in the moment at all.
“I was kicking and screaming with my claws in,” she admits. “I put out my first single, ‘Cowboy,’ with a major label, and since I became a full-time musician, that was all I ever had known. So it was terrifying to be dropped. A few things happened, though, to shift that perspective, because now I know it’s the best thing that could have happened.
“One of the things that shifted my perspective is that I found out before the night I was opening up for the Japanese House” in front of a large crowd in New York. “I found out in rehearsal for this tour that I was just about to go on. I didn’t sleep and just cried all night. And then the next day I had to play Pier 17 for thousands of people, and I had no idea how I was gonna get through the show. And while I was lying on the floor of the green room, trying to hype myself up to be able to perform, I got a text. The text was: ‘Love your songs. Elton John showed me your music. I hope we run into each other.’ And it was from Brandi Carlile, who I’d never spoken to before and is one of my biggest heroes.
“And that was a moment where I got chills and I was so happy and the timing of it could not have been more perfect, because I felt so down on myself and was like, ‘Maybe music is over for me.’ Ever since then, the universe or just chance has confirmed for me that this was the right thing to do. I’ve never been more supported and embraced and seen, or felt more comfortable in my body or more comfortable in my artistry, than being able to take back control and to really express myself on my time frame and in my way as an independent artist. But no,” she reiterates, “I was terrified.”
She adds, “This sounds like I’m playing it up for the camera a bit, but something happened that night where, ever since I’ve played that show, I don’t get nerves like I used to. I just have fun touring. My manager, who is one of the greatest blessings in my life, told me when I found out that I got dropped, ‘You can’t let things stop you. You have to make your own opportunities.’ And I realized that that show was an opportunity, and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever had. And ever since then, I’ve only ever viewed anything as an opportunity. I have more control. And it’s really raised my confidence a lot.”
That Carlile cosign got a turbo boost in January when Ponthier went down to Mexico to perform at the star’s annual Girls Just Wanna Weekend, where her poolside set was one of the hits of the festival. Ponthier exulted in playing for a mostly female and largely lesbian audience. Ponthier has plenty of LGBTQ+ fans who show up for her normal gigs, she says, but her music is not microtargeted at a particular demographic, so never had she felt quite that mirrored, demographically.
After the festival, Carlile told Variety about her excitement at getting to see Ponthier perform up close and in the flesh, saying that she sees her as being something akin to “a queer Sabrina Carpenter.”
Responds Ponthier now, hearing that: “Whatever she said, I’m happy and she can tattoo it on my face.”
She doesn’t feel particularly locked into or even steering toward a certain genre. Although she has paid homage to her Texas roots by sometimes adopting colorful Western wear, country is just a piece of the puzzle. “I feel like something that’s interesting about my project is, even just as an opener, I’ve opened for straight-ahead country projects, I’ve opened for alternative/indie projects, I’ve opened for pop projects. Like, I did Hayley Kiyoko, who had dancers and was really high-energy. What’s exciting about the job I get to do is I don’t have to just be one thing, and I don’t think that we should tell people to just be one thing, to be more palatable. So I’m very happy that I can wear a thousand hats at once, as crazy as it looks.”
Her inspirations range from Hayley Williams to Fiona Apple to John Prine.
“For me, I think the forefront of my songwriting is what I grew up with, which is ‘60s and ‘70s songwriting. Whether it’s country music or something like Carole King or Neil Young, I think that classic songwriting is always the inspiration for anything that I do, with a modern perspective and with a modern sense of humor. I also can’t stop talking about death, loss, home, change, identity. I feel like those are all kind of pillars of what I love to talk about. But for me, I have never gone into a session or gone into writing at home being like, ‘I wanna make this genre of song.’ I think you are everything you listen to, and I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, and if it’s coming out of my throat, it’s gonna sound like me. So I am happily blending pop, rock, country, and it’s fun for me. I think that country music will always be a part of the story element to my songs, and my voice is pretty country just because of where I grew up — and I think that lap steel or acoustic guitar is always gonna be a part of the production world of mine. The spirit of country music is that it is a storytelling genre, and for a long time it was a genre that sparked a lot of change and progress. And so that’s the spirit of country music that I want to keep going and inject into my project, even though it’s not a 100% straight-ahead country music project.”
Ponthier has a distinct sensibility apart from just the music. “As far as my style, I actually was pretty confused about who I wanted to be and who I was in general before I started my project,” she says. “The big gift that my project has given me is clarity on who I am, and thankfully, by the time I released ‘Cowboy,’ basically I looked at what things brought me joy. What brings me joy? Claymation brings me joy. Musicals bring me joy. B-movies from the 1970s and ‘80s bring me joy. …. And now campy visuals are really popular and people love them, and that makes me so happy because at the time, in 2020 when I starting out, I was like, I love all of these things, and a lot of people didn’t get it. Now I think people can really embrace the era that I love, the fashion that I love, the things that bring me joy, and it’s like I have a big community now with people who love the things that I love. But, yes, I’m definitely a girl who knows who she is. And I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving those things, because they’re not just about my project. They’re the things that comforted me when I was a kid and I felt alone.
“Karaoke Queen” is officially the first single fronting a forthcoming full-length album, though that isn’t part of the song’s announcement. “The album will come this year. Other than that, there’s a lot in the air, because I’m an independent girly now. But I’ll have a lot more songs to come, and I’m gonna be touring this year as well, so I’m pretty excited for both.”
And while “Karaoke Queen” isn’t precisely a true story — especially not the giving up on a pro career part — she did have a karaoke experience that fed into it.
“I did have a karaoke moment actually, when I was, I think, 19. I was living in Texas and a girl who I had a crush on — this was before I was out — picked me up and said, ‘I’m taking you somewhere and I’m not telling you where.’ And she took me to a dive karaoke bar, and at the time I was terrified to sing publicly, but I said, ‘Why not? I’ll take a chance. I’ll sing “I Will Survive”.’ And they kept putting on the wrong version of ‘I Will Survive,’ and it looked like I didn’t know what I was doing, and all of the bikers and cowboys that were at the bar were making fun of me and pointing a finger and laughing at me. And I don’t know how I got the nerve, but when I finally sang, everyone cheered and they all ended up being my best friends for the night. It just showed me the power of putting yourself out there. So this song is kind of a combination of that fear of being dropped and that one experience I had at a karaoke bar.”
