The Oxygen Ponies is the brainchild of Rhode Island transplant Paul Megna, who taught himself guitar after being shot from a 52nd street window on the way to rehearse for an Off-Broadway play. The bullet still resides in his neck, centimeters from the jugular - a constant reminder of how unexpectedly life can change. This world weary view manifests itself in much of the bands material, but has never been more prevalent than in the aptly titled Exit Wounds, a gritty, tempestuous, folk-pop opus regarding those we leave behind and the baggage we carry with us on the road less travelled by.
Written, recorded, produced and engineered by Paul Megna at Ponyland (part of the Saltlands Collective) Exit Wounds is not a sunny pop record recorded in a cavernous studio overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It’s music for the middle children - recorded in a dark, dusty basement, (often by candlelight) in the wee hours of late nights and early mornings as to avoid bleed from noisy bar bands rehearsing across the hall. During the cold winter months there was very little heat except for the warmth emanating from the tubes of Megna's '64 Ampeg Jet. Everything else was borrowed - the old pro-tools rig, microphones, and guitars… and on lucky days, an occasional pre-amp. Sometimes the gear would all be there ready to go and on others it was gone, without a moments notice. That's how the whole thing went down. With that immediacy. Record while you can, cause tomorrow you might not have the gear, or the silence or in Megna’s psyche - the opportunity.
Most exit wounds are external, you can see the scar tissue where the healing begins. But in the case of Paul Megna, those scars never heal. They are internal, emotional… and the driving force behind the Oxygen Ponies latest album Exit Wounds. From the resounding whip-crack snare of 'Hollywood' to the crescendo of electric guitars, horns and strings in 'I Don't Want Yr Love’ to the plaintive acoustic guitar and vocal of ‘Jellybean’, Exit Wounds is the sound of an artist alone with his demons - trying to capture the perfect song to express feelings that cannot be described in ordinary words. It was written and recorded because it had to be. Because at the end of the day when everything else had fallen away, making this record was the only thing left to hold on to.
