Love Frequency: Singer-Songwriters Anya Marina + Matt Pond 

If you’ve enjoyed some of the heartfelt songs featured in Twilight: New Moon, Gossip Girl, Grey’s Anatomy, Vacation, The Vow, and The O.C., then you may already have experienced the refined melodic and lyrical craftsmanship of Anya Marina and Matt Pond.

For the latest installment of our ongoing Love Frequency series, we get to know this super-talented husband-and-wife team of singer-songwriters, the latest buzzworthy musicians to make their home and creative base in the Hudson Valley.

I first came to know Anya not through her music but through her role as the ever-cheerful sidekick on the COVID-19-era podcast of her very good friend, superstar stand-up Nikki Glaser. Since the release of her 2005 debut album, Miss Halfway, Marina has produced a rich discography of ten albums and EPs, works that have earned raves from Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, and New York Magazine’s Vulture, among others. Anya has also built a dedicated following the old-school way, through aggressive touring alongside stars like Jason Mraz, Spoon, Chris Isaak, The Dandy Warhols, and, for a handful of years, as an opener for Glaser.

Matt Pond’s very name evokes the natural world where his songs are often set, with their evocative lyrics about love’s jagged edges, the pros and cons of connection, and the agony and ecstasy of memory. His performing moniker, Matt Pond PA, reflects his Pennsylvania upbringing, a name he has ascribed to this long-running band, which includes Hudson Valley-based guitarist and co-producer Chris Hansen and cellist Hilary James. His mature lyricism and sophisticated chamber-pop sound have been showcased across 13 albums that have earned raves from arbiters such as NPR Music, Paste, PopMatters, and many others. Pond and Marina began their romantic and creative partnership in the late 2000s and formalized it by marrying in June 2023.

One of this winter’s warmest moments came with the January release of Anya and Matt’s latest single as a duo, “The Dog Told Me.” The tune previews their forthcoming debut long-player as a duo, Telepathy, a heartfelt song cycle exploring communication, connection, and relationships. The accompanying video features the couple and their dog, Willa, frolicking on snow-covered country roads and on the streets of downtown Kingston. On March 13, Anya and Matt will unveil yet another soulful single, “Distant Trains,” a slice of jangly, sunshine pop that name-checks the mighty Hudson in lyrics that ponder the inevitability of aging. Visit their websites for dates on their upcoming national tour.

Read on to hear more about this couple and their fascinating union of life and music.

LOVE FREQUENCY

Where It All Began

Matt Pond: We met at a restaurant in Brooklyn. A mutual friend had introduced us online, and Anya had a few questions about my management. Things blossomed the second we met in person, and we had an amazing, ridiculous night together. That said, I was leaning pretty hard into drinking at the time and couldn’t provide much of a foundation for a real relationship. For about five years, we cycled in and out of each other’s lives. Then one day, I realized I actually had a semi-solid foundation. I texted her to see if she wanted to go camping. (That whole arc lives in the song I wrote, “A Scene That Will Never Die,” beautifully interpreted in a video by the local Joy Buran and Noelle Melody.)

Anya Marina: I used to play Matt Pond PA when I was a radio DJ in San Diego. It was years later that a mutual friend mentioned that I should meet Matt Pond — I think he implied that we were like-minded, and I said, “Wait. Is that Matt Pond from the band Matt Pond PA? I love his music.” We ended up meeting a few months later and I pretty much immediately thought he was so strange and funny and familiar. I’m answering these questions separately from Matt, but I’m going to go ahead and say I think we both had an instant attraction, although, since I’m a romantic, I think I had a strong feeling pretty soon after meeting him that he was my person / my “soulmate,” if I can say that without anyone cringing too much.

It took a few years for the timing to be right for us to become a couple, but I just want to go on the record as saying my hunch was correct.

Inside the Partnership

Matt Pond: There are incredible moments — when we discover and build something together. There’s no magic like songwriting magic. At the same time, everything is less filtered on the inside. I love our life, but there’s an inner friction to songwriting that isn’t always easy to share with another person. In a strange way, our best and hardest moments often come from the same place.

Anya Marina: I think we’re both sensitive and we have similar temperaments. We probably write in similar ways — although Matt writes more frequently than I do and has a different attitude about writing. We both kind of float in and out of daily tasks and back into creative mode without hard-and-fast rules or schedules. This might be a problem, but it seems to be working. We’re always working on some aspect of music, though often it will look like business work rather than writing and recording a song, per se. Though there is always that, too.

What Still Inspires

Matt Pond: Anya makes me laugh. And she makes me laugh at myself. I’m prone to cynicism. She helps me get out of those loops and has introduced me to the concept of gratitude. It’s wild.

Anya Marina: Matt really loves writing — it is something that equalizes him and helps him understand himself and the world a bit better. He looks forward to it. For me, it’s something I know I will end up loving and enjoying after the initial hour of forcing myself into sitting down and beginning to write.

I’m always grateful and surprised that Matt is the engine, keeping the music coming. He was the one who encouraged me to record my last full-length album… If it wasn’t for him, I would have ten years between albums, probably.

Where Creativity Crosses

Matt Pond: I learned to be a better performer by watching Anya. She’s loose, but she knows exactly what she’s doing… I love what I’m doing, and I’m lucky to play my songs in front of people.

Anya Marina: We have similar tastes in melody… There definitely has to be some ancestral sadness overlap between us. But I think we influence each other — often I am encouraging him to embrace the messiness of a recording… and he is pushing me forward into action, planning, doing.

Grounded in the Hudson Valley

Matt Pond: The Hudson Valley reminds me of northern New Hampshire, where I grew up. I love hiking and being able to walk into the forest and get a little lost… Anya brings more connection into our world.

Anya Marina: I left my beloved apartment in Chelsea to live here with Matt… I think I have been able to make the best music of my life here and that’s probably because of the stillness, the time, and the routine of my daily life — walking the dog, having my quiet office… making tea, playing guitar.

The Art of Space and Togetherness

Matt Pond: The house is small, so it’s not always easy. She has the guest room, and I have the basement… It’s not always perfect, but it’s honest — and that seems to count for something.

Anya Marina: Since we got together later in life, our identities and career habits are pretty well-formed… We have toured together a couple of times… Thankfully, our music and our shows complement each other.

The Sacred Everyday

Matt Pond: We eat dinner together every night and talk. Then we work on puzzles or watch something together… I love her perspective — even when we argue.

Anya Marina: We fell into this routine of doing yoga together in the evenings and then having dinner… This week of being snowed in, we got a puzzle, so things are getting pretty rock n roll over here.

A Perfect Day in the Valley

Matt Pond: Spring, summer, or fall — we drive over to Clermont… Then we head to Fortunes for ice cream… and watch the sunset.

Anya Marina: When things are nicer, I love going to Chleo together… having friends up from The City, making a fire, hanging out at home… ending up at Fortune’s in Tivoli for ice cream.

The Love Frequency Speed Round

INSIDE+OUT: Sweet or savory?

Matt Pond: Savory (but maybe sweet because I’ve been shown the way of sugar by Anya).

Anya Marina: I have a sweet tooth, so this is easy. Those black sesame cookies from Sweet Maresa’s.

Hugs or kisses?

Matt Pond: Kisses.

Anya Marina:  Do I have to choose?

Early mornings or late nights?

Matt Pond: Late nights.

Anya Marina: Late.

Summer or winter in the Hudson Valley?

Both: Summer.

Your forever food?

Matt Pond: Salad. I know it’s strange. But I really love salad.

Anya Marina: English Breakfast tea and toast with butter and jam.

A smell that feels like home?

Matt Pond: Fresh cut grass.

Anya Marina: Coffee, even though I don’t drink it.

A song on repeat?

Matt Pond: “Black Cow” or “Deacon Blues.”

Anya Marina: Paul Simon’s “Let Me Live In Your City (Work in Progress).”

One small thing that means everything?

Matt Pond: She’s great at folding.

Anya Marina: He walks the dog in the morning in the wintertime, so I can stay in bed a little longer.

Photos courtesy of Jesse Dufault + Ben Eisendrath

Follow/Connect with Anya Marina via Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify

Follow/Connect with Matt Pond via Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify

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Contributing writer Sal Cataldi is a musician, writer and former publicist living in Hudson Valley NY.