Born in Vancouver and now based in Denver, Poni started producing music about five and a half years ago, then slowly started DJing after that.
"I only just started playing shows this year due to visa issues though," Poni says. "I would say I’m a better producer than DJ for sure, but it’s definitely an area I want to practice more and build my confidence in. Basically since I started going to shows around 10 years ago, I was fascinated with edm and the whole community and knew I wanted to learn to produce one day. I have horrible self discipline when it comes to teaching myself, so it wasn’t until about five years in, after I started dating my boyfriend (who’s also a producer), that he sat me down and started teaching me. From there, I branched off and crafted my own sound and have been making sure to carve out my own space in the industry. I’m forever grateful to him for kicking my butt into gear and giving me the push I needed to get started. Building the Poni project has been a really fun experience and as a creative, I love that I have this whole project that’s my own and I can do absolutely anything with and have this outlet to express myself. I feel really proud of what I’ve accomplished with it and I can’t wait to see where I take it."
Poni describes her sound as dark, heavy, and distorted.
"Usually the three words that come to mind when I think of my music and what I wanna make when I sit down to start a song," she says with a laugh. "I knew from the beginning that I never wanted to stick to just one genre, so I kind of just make whatever I want to make. I find it more fun and keeps things interesting. You never know what you’re going to get with me."
Her latest release is the Hellscape EP.
"I initially never imagined these three songs on an EP together, but I did picture them all on Hypnovizion, so when they responded within a day saying they wanted to sign all three as an EP, I was thrilled but also a bit panicked as I had about a week to come up with a concept for the EP and figure out how to tie the songs together," she says. "While brainstorming, I noticed that all three songs told a story about an unfortunate circumstance. So I came up with the idea that there’s this demon, Apep - the demon of darkness and destruction (my re-imagination), who’s the cause of all these horrible situations playing out and is the link between all three stories. You’ll see in the visuals, that I play the demon and am in this crazy outfit and makeup. The visual aspect of my project means a lot to me and I care a lot about how it looks, so I always put a ton of time, energy and resources into each project I do. I’m super happy with how everything turned out and am very grateful to the whole team who was a part of putting it all together!"
As for gear: "Ableton for production. A few of my favourite and most used plugins being serum, the fab filter lineup, thermal and portal, rift, pigments, omnisphere and kontakt. And then for DJing, just the standard CDJs."
Looking ahead, Poni has plenty planned for 2025.
"I’m planning to have my biggest year yet for music and shows," she says. "It’s been a bit of a challenge for me to consistently release music (something you really need to do in the current music climate, particularly for a growing artist like myself), between working a demanding full time day job, life and just generally being a bit slow at making music. It’s a lot to balance it all. But I really want to try my hardest for 2025 and give it everything I have to really see where Poni can go."
Photo credit: Seradopa
