fandom q+a Ponies at Dawn Q&A

[Batbrony 16,056]

 

It’s time for Poniverse’s next Q&A where things are going to get musical.  It's my pleasure to introduce our next Q&A guest, none other than Ponies at Dawn!

 

The folks over at Ponies at Dawn have been bringing the fandom some of the best compilations of pony music around since 2013! In fact, they’ve released over 200 songs over the course of 7 albums from dozens of different artists from around the fandom! And they’re not stopping anytime soon! In fact they’re in the process of working on their 8th album, Awakening.

 

For the musicians here, be sure to also check out this document for details on how you can be part of their next compilation album, Awakening.  Whether you’re a musician looking for tricks of the trade or just someone who loves to listen to music, this is a great opportunity to learn more about one of the fandom’s premier sources of pony music!

 

So without further ado, let's kick things off with our first question: how did Ponies at Dawn get its start?

[Odyssey 5,717]

Hello there! It's so delightful to have you join a Q&A with us.

 

What is your favourite music genre?

[DwhitetheGamer 867]

Hi there.  Have you worked with other brony musicians before?

[ExplodingPonyToast 21]

Hey guys! I'm super excited to be here to answer questions today

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:01 AM, Batbrony said:

 

So without further ado, let's kick things off with our first question: how did Ponies at Dawn get its start?

 

 

Well initially it started as an idea from my friend TheTimberWolffe and his friend TheSlickOctopus to create a group for Australian brony musicians in late 2012, and to create an album or two to help get people to what was at the time our only pony convention in Australia - PonyCon AU. It started out pretty bare bones, with the first album only having a few people taking part and the quality of the music being relatively low compared to what we release nowadays, as most of us were new to creating music, but over time we've gotten a lot better, and expanded to include artists from all over the world. I was apart of the project almost from day one, but I only became an admin after a few other guys left following our second album Moonlight Vapours. 

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:03 AM, Odyssey said:

Hello there! It's so delightful to have you join a Q&A with us.

 

What is your favourite music genre?

 

My pleasure! And as for my favourite genre, this changes around a lot based on what new music I've been listening to. In general though, I really enjoy a lot of Glitch Hop, including this headliner track from our 5th album by ThatMusicBrony and Pony Music: 

It's so good!

 

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:04 AM, DwhitetheGamer said:

Hi there.  Have you worked with other brony musicians before?

 

Over my time as apart of ponies at dawn I've worked with well over 100 different musicians to help them get the most they can out of the project. It's really pretty amazing to be able to work with people from places as varied as South Korea, Germany, Malaysia and even Kazakhstan!

 

In case you meant in terms of collaboration with others with my own personal music, I'm yet to release a collab with anybody, but I have a track in the works with LutariFan (https://www.youtube.com/user/LutariFan) which may yet see the light of day!

Edited January 20, 2016 by ExplodingPonyToast

[Simon 4,557]

What are the biggest challenges you've had choosing songs for the albums and making the albums?

[Smartmax 8]

When does your new single "Yes" come out?

[ExplodingPonyToast 21]

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:16 AM, Simon said:

What are the biggest challenges you've had choosing songs for the albums and making the albums?

 

In terms of choosing songs, recently we've mainly had issues working out what to leave out! Our first album only had 17 submissions and all of them are available to see on the Hold Your Rainbow album, but our most recent 'main' album Starlit Flames had 120 submissions! Evidently we couldn't even include half of them, as we had to cap it off at 50 tracks, so there were some really good ones that didn't quite make it onto the album. Luckily, the artists are able to release the tracks regardless of what happens with judging, so some of the tracks we've rejected have still managed to go on and do pretty well without us, which is nice to see.

 

The hardest thing with making the albums is probably sticking to the deadlines. Starlit Flames ran pretty smoothly, but for Celestial Planes we didn't have the album artwork finalised until pretty much the day of release! Definitely not letting that happen again. And then with our informal christmas album, I was up until 2am waiting on the final track to be submitted so that I could upload it to bandcamp for the Canterlot Hill people to download in time for the morning broadcast, so that was a bit of a last gasp thing too!

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:17 AM, Smartmax said:

When does your new single "Yes" come out?

 

Firstly, it's actually called 'y e s', and secondly it's probably going to come out on April the 1st, if ever! (Even Ponies at Dawn has in-jokes!).

[Bojo 1,416]

Hey there! First, I want to say that I was introduced to your albums this month and I was blown away by the quality of the music!

 

My question is: How do you come up with the titles of your albums?

 

Oh, and if you're feeling brave enough...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Vinyl or Octavia?

 

[Simon 4,557]

What's your favorite piece of pony fan music?

[ExplodingPonyToast 21]

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:26 AM, Bojo said:

Hey there! First, I want to say that I was introduced to your albums this month and I was blown away by the quality of the music!

 

My question is: How do you come up with the titles of your albums?

 

Oh, and if you're feeling brave enough...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Vinyl or Octavia?

 

 

To be honest, I've been blown away by some of the quality recently too! It just keeps getting better, which I'm really proud of. The first album of ours was honestly quite amateur for the most part but Starlit Flames especially I've heard some people say has been one of the highest quality compilation albums in the fandom! I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm happy to agree!

 

The titles of our albums generally come about through the admin group throwing around ideas for names, themes, ideas and so on until something sticks. Normally we have a general idea of what we want the album to feel like, and we go to a name from there. For example with Awakening, we knew we wanted something green, pink, to do with blossoming, basically the feel of Spring, and from there we had a look at ideas and words that encapsulated that kind of feeling. I'm very happy with the name we chose, and hopefully the music we're sent helps bring the album to life. We've already had some submissions that I'm personally very excited about!

[AnimatronicPony 28]

How do you keep on finding such talented musicians in this fandom to join with you in these albums? 

[Prince Golden Lotus 166]

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:32 AM, ExplodingPonyToast said:

The titles of our albums generally come about through the admin group throwing around ideas for names, themes, ideas and so on until something sticks. Normally we have a general idea of what we want the album to feel like, and we go to a name from there. For example with Awakening, we knew we wanted something green, pink, to do with blossoming, basically the feel of Spring, and from there we had a look at ideas and words that encapsulated that kind of feeling. I'm very happy with the name we chose, and hopefully the music we're sent helps bring the album to life. We've already had some submissions that I'm personally very excited about!

So, it would actually seem as though my original submission idea for Starlit Flames might actually fit this better?  Interesting...

[ExplodingPonyToast 21]

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:27 AM, Simon said:

What's your favorite piece of pony fan music?

 

I'm not sure if I have an exact favourite! It kind of changes around a lot. In the past my favourites have been Archie's 'Spitfire', GaugeN's 'Changeling Bass Eater', and more recently ThatMusicBrony and Pony Music's 'Equestrian Territory' that I linked above. Of the most recent stuff to have been released, I absolutely love the collaboration between DJT and iblank2apples, Ponez:

 

My bandcamp collection would be a nice place to go if you want a bit more of an idea of the kind of stuff I like, though obviously it's only a small portion of the music I have downloaded.  https://bandcamp.com/explodingponytoast

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:35 AM, AnimatronicPony said:

How do you keep on finding such talented musicians in this fandom to join with you in these albums? 

 

Well to begin with we just posted on places my My Little Remix about our albums, but for Celestial Planes I took it upon myself to actually go out and directly ask people through YouTube, email, SoundCloud etc. if they would be interested in taking part. To my surprise, a lot of them agreed to join in! Since then we've gotten bigger, so a lot of people seem to gravitate towards us, plus EqD have started actually posting up when our albums open up for submissions and when they release, which helps a lot. Because we've released so many albums, and the organisation and quality is obviously there at this point, a lot more people seem more willing to get involved. We've even had people like Foozogz express interest recently, so who knows, there might be a few more well known people on future albums. We've always been about quality over popularity though, and the quality of some artists that remain relatively unknown is through the roof! Exiark jumps off the page as somebody who I feel deserves a lot more attention (which he is steadily getting), because he is pretty much the number one EDM sound designer in the fandom at the moment. The soundscapes he creates with his music are insane: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGP_td_P74bAS70Cfkx1iSw

[NeverLastStanding 1]

What's your favorite song from each album?

[Lycan 3]

In your opinion, who wears it correctly??

 

[AnimatronicPony 28]

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:45 AM, Lycan said:

In your opinion, who wears it correctly??

 

Can I answer this one? xD

Edited January 20, 2016 by AnimatronicPony

[Simon 4,557]

Obligatory best pony question x)

[Batbrony 16,056]

Obligatory best pony crossed over with a superhero question (cause I'm me)? 

[Artimis Whooves 1,577]

Hullo guys!

 

A couple of questions:

1: Do you like kingdom hearts?

2: Would you be willing to give critique on my first track?

3: What is your favorite peice brony fanwork? (Like art, music fanfic)

[AnimatronicPony 28]

What do you prefer cupcakes or muffins?

[ExplodingPonyToast 21]

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:45 AM, NeverLastStanding said:

What's your favorite song from each album?

 

Oooh, I like this question! I might cheat and mention multiple for some though haha!

 

From Hold Your Rainbow: Counterwise - Raw Metal is probably my favourite, it sticks out as being pretty well produced, and it doesn't just throw wubs all over the place, it feels pretty well structured for what it is. 

 

From Moonlight Vapours: Replacer - Waltz for the Night (feat. Feather) is definitely one of the big stand outs. Even though I tend towards electronic stuff, Replacer's and Feather's voices are just beautiful, and in a waltzy track like this they really stand out as quite wonderful to listen to. 

 

From Crystal Skies: ThatMusicBrony - Fragments of Insanity is amazing, really one of the best drumstep songs in the fandom in my opinion. The use of Pinkie Pie samples is really ingenious and makes the track something pretty special. At the time of the album release, it was absolutely my jam. Gotta give a big shot to EnsionD - Open Skies (feat. Evdog) as well though, because it really still stands out as an awesome progressive tune with some neat vocals from Ev. 

 

From The Remixes: ExplodingPonyToast - Borderline (Exiark Remix) - Okay so there's a bit of bias, because it's a remix of my track, but once you listen to the remix you'll understand! Exiark took what was honestly a relatively bland track of mine sound design-wise and turned it into an absolute masterpiece. He said this remix was one of his most complex tracks ever at the time and it definitely shows! 

 

From Celestial Planes: ThatMusicBrony & Pony Music - Equestrian Territory is easily my favourite. When we did judging for this album I gave it a perfect score. The vocal hook from ThatMusicBrony going into the drop, including a name drop of the album, is gorgeous to listen to, and then the drop itself is full of some magnificent sound design. These guys put a heap of effort into this track, and it was absolutely worth it. It even got itself a pretty awesome feature on Glitch Hop Community's YouTube channel!

 

From Starlit Flames: Almost impossible to choose a favourite here! Ones that I adored though, include R3ctifier & DJT - Prey (feat. PegasYs), Plum Creek Rhythm Section - Wouldn't You Like to Know, PegasYs - Master Race (feat. Heather Feathersong), Morgsch - Let the Sun Rise (Exiark Remix) and Mantlegen - Diver (which got a feature on the promotion channel HDdubRave3!).

 

Finally from Snowfall: Phonic Boom, Rhyme Flow & Technikel - The Christmas Heist, as well as Metapony - Blizzard.

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:26 AM, Bojo said:

 

 

Oh, and if you're feeling brave enough...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Vinyl or Octavia?

 

 

Forgot to answer this! Vinyl all the way! I'm definitely more into electronic stuff than classical, though there's definitely a place for both of them.

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:45 AM, Lycan said:

In your opinion, who wears it correctly??

 

 

The ultimate question! To be honest, purely going by aesthetics, I feel like Bon Bon looks a bit silly, so Lyra's pants design is my personal preference! However it certainly defeats the point of pants to an extent, so I can understand the arguments to either.

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:51 AM, Simon said:

Obligatory best pony question x)

 

Fluttershy is and always has been the best pony!

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 12:57 AM, Batbrony said:

Obligatory best pony crossed over with a superhero question (cause I'm me)? 

 

Oh wow I have no idea! Maybe try crossing Pinkie Pie with Deadpool, for the maximum chaos.

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 1:01 AM, Artimis Whooves said:

Hullo guys!

 

A couple of questions:

1: Do you like kingdom hearts?

2: Would you be willing to give critique on my first track?

3: What is your favorite peice brony fanwork? (Like art, music fanfic)

 

1. Yes, Kingdom Hearts is pretty cool! Though I must confess I've played very few of the games, possibly only the one on the gameboy advance, but I certainly enjoyed what I did play.

 

2. Of course! I'm happy to help anybody out with music, just send me a soundcloud message or a YT message or add me on skype at alexander.ashenden and I'll do my best to help out. Though I'm not a high quality musician myself, so my help might not be as good as some other people can give. 

 

3. I've already talked about my favourite music, and I must say I don't really feel comfortable giving my favourite art or fanfic because I really don't read much fanfiction, and I don't catalogue the art I see so it's hard to make comparisons between things. Have this amazing digital art of my OC with Typhlosion though XP: http://blackstormclouds.deviantart.com/art/EPT-and-Typhlosion-Keeping-Warm-431958008

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 1:02 AM, AnimatronicPony said:

What do you prefer cupcakes or muffins?

 

Probably muffins! They have a bit more to them. 

[Simon 4,557]

 

 

  On 2016-01-20 at 1:10 AM, ExplodingPonyToast said:

Fluttershy is and always has been the best pony!

<3333

 

What motivates you to keep making pony music?

[ExplodingPonyToast 21]

  On 2016-01-20 at 1:17 AM, Simon said:

<3333

 

What motivates you to keep making pony music?

 

 

I do it as a hobby, rather than a career. But what motivates me to continue is seeing all the awesome stuff all the other people I know are coming up with, and wanting to be apart of that and give my take on things, even if it's not as good as what they do! As for pony music in particular, the show itself has so many different characters and ideas in it, as well as obviously the amazing community that exists around it, that it's hard not to be inspired. One day we might all move on from this, but I don't think anybody is going to forget the fun times we've had. And as for Ponies at Dawn, I don't think we'll be going anywhere any time soon as long as I can help it.

[Lycan 3]

We are currently in a hiatus, what do you see brony musicians doing in the meantime?

[ExplodingPonyToast 21]

  On 2016-01-20 at 1:21 AM, Lycan said:

We are currently in a hiatus, what do you see brony musicians doing in the meantime?

 

To be honest, I feel like the hiatus is an awesome time for brony musicans to go out on a limb and do some crazier and more out of the box things! During the season, often a lot of what you see is 'speed remixes' of show songs getting all the attention. Sure they're technically the most pony that pony music can be, but I feel a lot of the time that they lack any real soul or creativity beyond getting a remix out as soon as possible. With no episodes airing, I feel like brony musicians have time to really get into some more meaty projects like more ambitious remixes, more fleshed out original tracks and collaborations, and perhaps even entries to compilation albums like us. I don't think the hiatus is something that should be worried about, I think it's something that, quite honestly, should be embraced for what it is - a chance for people to strike out with their own ideas without worrying about relevance or a time frame they need to be done by.