The debut album entitled The Snow Ponies’ Holding On consists of ten tracks and was made during a difficult time, the title indicating an idea which is featured in various songs throughout the album. “Holding on” is mentioned in five of the ten songs and thus links together those songs which deal with love, death, nostalgia, the anxieties of middle age, hope and the wish to hold on to something beyond the present. It is an album recording and on it Phil Dean plays all the instruments while shaping each song as he records it.
The fact that it was approached in a solitary manner gives the album Holding On a strong feeling of personal involvement, especially since the songs were experienced throughout the year it took to create them. Recorded between June 2025 and May 2026, it served as a significant creative outlet at a difficult time. According to Dean, the final product is basically himself recorded as an audio file, which shows the direct link between the process of writing the songs, the act of recording and his personal experiences.
Influences the album are Neil Young, Pulp, David Bowie, The Only Ones, Wet Leg, Metric, Suede, The Moody Blues, Fontaines D.C., PJ Harvey, Ultravox, New Model Army, Tom Waits, Lana Del Rey, Björk and Kate Bush; these musical references are combined with the various themes that appear in the ten tracks, enabling Holding On to examine love, loss, memory and perseverance. The album still centres on the songs written during a very demanding year.
Holding On is also Dean’s first album since ten years and marks the beginning of The Snow Ponies’ recording project. Four singles were released before the album came out, giving an insight into the songwriting prior to the album’s launch. Although the album features the recurring idea of holding on, the songs still retain their individuality rather than being reduced to a single theme. Themes of love and death are placed beside those of nostalgia and uncertainty, and hope is there too, in the wish to carry on. The album is one that has been shaped by reflection and by the process of creating during a tough time.
THESNOWPONIES.COM FACEBOOK SPOTIFY BANDCAMP YOUTUBE INSTAGRAM
