Matt Pond has returned with “The Ballad of the Natural Lines,” the track is off his forthcoming album, available January 7th 2025. “I wrote “The Ballad of the Natural Lines” after we formed our band of the same name for Bella Union. Releasing an album with Simon Raymonde was a dream, but it was tough reconnecting with people who knew me by my real name. Then it hit me—after all those years of running in circles, maybe the answer was simple. I should just be myself until the end.

I met comedian / writer Sean O’Connor while he was opening and I was tour managing for Nikki Glaser. He’s a brilliant human being, and our conversation often circled around our love of film. With him and his partner Erin Magner in Los Angeles, and me in New York, this bi-coastal dream of a video for “The Ballad of the Natural Lines” was born. On the East Coast, it’s autumn—beautiful but fading. Out West, with Sean’s son, it’s all just beginning.

I still remember the first moment I became aware of myself. I was on a tire swing in Jefferson, NH, looking down at the spring ground as I swung back and forth. A purple flower caught my eye, and I swore I’d never forget it. The line from there to now has been a wild one.

Anya Marina and Erin Rae sang beautiful backups. John Courage and Chris Hansen played brilliant guitars. Hilary James and Dan Ford crushed the bass and drums, respectively.

He has often skewed more dark than light. With “Lost Languages,” there’s a sense of having arrived somewhere new—somewhere to stay.

The song has the quality of an incantation. It’s an airy, rangy love letter to those he holds close, and to himself. How much there is to say, and how simply and powerfully, when you’re in a place of peace. Things are no longer just bearable; they’re beautiful. (The video is an ASL interpretation side by side with a vocal take, giving the impression that the song is a conversation, the translation traveling back and forth.)

Pond has collaborated with a constant stream of musicians—two notable longtime mainstays are Chris Hansen and cellist Hilary James. But he credits the new ease and clarity he’s feeling, which is so present in his latest work, with allowing his recent creative relationships to really flourish.

Order “The Ballad of the Natural Lines” HERE