For Anna Shields, where Dead Pony are right now is where she always knew they would end up.

Spending the last five years carving out a name for themselves not just on their doorstep in Glasgow but around the whole of the UK and beyond, the music they are making in this very moment speaks to who they have always been more than anything else they have produced to date.

Hard. Heavy. Hedonistic.

That sound is found on their new EP ‘Eat My Dust!’, six songs that pull from the chaos and catharsis of the first decade of the millennium, pulling from the confidence of nu-metal as much as the exuberance of Brit rock. The result is sensationally catchy, savagely constructed and euphorically brash. The sort of songs made to run riot and designed in hopes of allowing everybody who feels like no one gets them to let their true self out that little bit more.

To find out more about this new chapter, Rock Sound caught up with Anna.

Rock Sound: How are you feeling about the place that Dead Pony is in at the moment? How do you feel you ended up here?

Anna: I feel like last year was the first time in about 5 years that we took some time out. The first time we hadn’t been touring and recording relentlessly. It was nice to chill and focus on the really big achievements, like playing Download. Download was also a pivotal moment for us because that’s when we debuted a lot of new songs, and it definitely feels like with those songs being on this new EP, it feels like a new chapter and a new lane we are going down.

RS: It feels like everything has slotted into place perfectly with these songs, as if you’re paying tribute to a sound you grew up with, whilst using the lessons learned and tools gained over the last few years to make it your own. There’s a real freedom to it.

Anna: We have been slowly releasing any preconceptions about who and what we should be. We started as more of a guitar band way back in the day, but the more we have started making the music we are super into and love, the more authentic we can be. Also, when you love the sort of music that you’re making, it makes it all so much more fun. It’s so not fun to play songs that you don’t like very much. But when you’re playing things you genuinely love live, it just makes it so much more enjoyable.

RS: What do you feel the fork in the road for starting to write in this way was? Because there have been glimmers of it in a few of the standalone singles, but it feels like something has allowed you to go full pelt.

Anna: I feel like it was just after the album [2024’s ‘IGNORE THIS’] was released. The album, for us, was still quite experimental, and you could see how we were still trying to forge our own sound. But now, I listen back to it, and it still sounds like Dead Pony, but it is so different from where we are now. If I were to put a place on it, it would be when ‘Everything Burns’ came out, because that was the heaviest thing we had released to date. The first song we had any time of screaming it. The first metal breakdown we had. I was apprehensive about releasing that, just because I thought it was too heavy, even though I loved it. But once we released it, the reception was insane, and we realised that people love it when Dead Pony get heavy. We also had some viral moments with the song, which really helped. I think a lot of people like the juxtaposition of that heaviness, but with such floaty female vocals. I’m happy we decided to take that risk and go down that route.

RS: Something else that comes through is how much of your personality and confidence you have. Being every inch of yourself in front of the world and telling those who think they know you, or have an opinion on you, that they don’t have a clue. What has it been like embodying that side of things more?

Anna: I grew up listening to a lot of early 2000s pop princesses. Gwen Stefani, Nelly Furtado, Christina Agulaira. I loved that style of music and performance. I also love that style of empowerment and the way it shows off female sexuality. Being a powerful woman. It’s something that I have really tried to embody more in my own performance and songwriting. It’s a confidence thing, but I feel like it is also an age thing. Over the last five years, I have grown up so much, and now I don’t give a shit anymore. I don’t care what people think. And it’s interesting because the more you open yourself up to expressing your femininity, it also opens you up to so much criticism. Daily, I receive criticism about my voice and the way that I sing, my body, and the way I look, and it is all from a very particular type of person. But for every comment about how women don’t belong in rock music, 500 comments are saying that this song has changed their lives. It’s a risk that you have to take, but you have to have thick skin to put yourself out there in that way.

RS: You push that bit more because you know that you’re doing something for the people who have never had someone like you to look up to. Doing it for the version of you searching for a female figure in rock music, especially in the UK, to aspire to be, growing up. You want to show them that this is your place, and you can do it properly.

Anna: There’s such a thing in rock music where things have been trivialised. There’s been a TikTokification of early 00s styles and the music that went with them. One thing that often lacks is authenticity, and I see a lot of bands creating music because it’s cool and popular. For me, I grew up listening to Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, and Bring Me the Horizon. I loved alternative music as a child and a teenager, and at that time, it wasn’t cool to like any of this. I got bullied at school for being a goth, and a lot of our fans can relate to that because they are going through similar things. And if I ever doubt anything that I’m doing, I think to myself, ‘What would 14-year-old Anna think of this?’ It makes me want to cry when I think of what they would think of me now. It’s such an empowering thing to be able to take the thing that made me such an outcast and turn it into something so powerful and meaningful to other kids. I want this band to be a safe place for people, but also inspiring for the next generation. Not just musicians, but all people.

RS: It really feels like you embodied that with ‘Freak Like Me’, especially with the music video. Creating this space for so many people, including yourselves, to express whatever feelings this music inspires. How did it feel to pull off something like that?

Anna: That video really opened my eyes to the community in Glasgow. The young music community. We were definitely part of the Glasgow scene years ago, but I feel like it has fizzled out. A lot of grassroots venues have closed down, and the pub we used to hang out in has closed down. For me, I didn’t feel so connected to it, but when we got these young bands in for ‘Freak Like Me’, it showed that it was still thriving. It showed me that there are kids out there, and they are just, if not more, enthusiastic about it than it was five or ten years ago.

When we first started casting for it, I felt like we needed to get a bunch of actors and pay them, but Blair was like, ‘No, we don’t, we have to get real young people.’ People who want to be in it because it’s a laugh and because it’s a scene they know and love. He was so right, but I was just so nervous that nobody was going to want to be involved. We messaged 15 bands, and everyone was so enthusiastic about it. They were thanking us for the opportunity, but we were thanking them more. It was a real eye-opening experience.

I feel like everything we have done over the past five years, and even longer with the other bands we were in, has been about laying the foundations for what we are doing now. But that’s the same with the experiences that we had as children and as teenagers, too. Things that have paved the way for who we are going to be as people.  When we wrote ‘Freak Like Me’, I wanted it to have that vibe of being for the underdog and for the fucking weirdos out there, because that’s who we are as well. Something that saddens me is that the hubs where people can be themselves are closing down. Where do you expect the kids to create a scene when there is nowhere for them to go?

RS: What would you say is the thing that this creative experience has shown you that you know is going to be a part of everything that Dead Pony do from now on?

Anna: One thing we really realised after this year is how we used to function as a band that said yes to everything. You can only do that up to a certain point before you end up completely drained. We used to take every opportunity we could, and I’m so glad we did because it laid the foundation for what is to come. But one thing I have learned is that it’s okay to take a step back and evaluate where you are. You can pass and focus on something else. Picking and prioritising our physical and mental health when it comes to the band has been huge.

But another thing, I am so grateful for our fans. I know everyone says that, but they have literally changed our lives. Without them, we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing. One thing I want to keep in mind is that everything that we do, everything we write, is for them. When you’re authentic, your fans appreciate it. They love it because it’s you. Every time I write, I’m conscious of them, but I know that they trust us enough that whatever we make, they will love it.