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Allison Ponthier had always fantasized about living in New York City. The singer-songwriter grew up in a conservative Texas suburb where every radio station was either Christian, country, or both. Not yet able or willing to embrace her gay identity, Ponthier thought every problem in her life would magically resolve itself once she landed in Bushwick, the Brooklyn neighborhood that she’s called home since she was 20.
“I had this huge dream that I would find myself in New York and learn to accept myself,” she tells Vogue on a recent Zoom call. “But I learned the hard way that that takes time.”
That’s the essence of “Cowboy,” the now-25-year-old’s debut single out today from Interscope Records. Penned by Ponthier, the country-pop ballad is an ode to her Texan roots, as well as to the life she’s built for herself since leaving her home state. (It wears its country influences proudly; Ponthier was raised on a heavy diet of Shania Twain and Faith Hill.) Crooning “It took New York to make me a cowboy,” the singer-songwriter shows a Swift-ian flair for making her personal anecdotes feel like a shared experience.
“Before ‘Cowboy,’ I had only ever written songs that other people would think were cool. I rarely wrote something that came from my heart,” she says. “I only started writing ‘Cowboy’ because I literally could not process the thought of coming out to people and having them perceive me differently.”
Growing up, Ponthier was, and in many ways still considers herself to be, “painfully shy.” While her classmates spent their weekends partying and socializing at football games—think Friday Night Lights—she found a community of like-minded misfits online. She began posting a hodgepodge of content across her social media channels: half-finished songs, alien makeup tutorials, skits acted out by Henry Selick-ian clay figures. “I just always loved making stuff and telling stories,” she says. “It was how I processed everything I was going through.”
Ponthier didn’t have a single friend in New York when she moved there on a whim—much less any music industry connections. She leaned into her strengths, though, posting more offbeat content that eventually caught the attention of Interscope last year. Ponthier says that the label didn’t hesitate to indulge her vision for “Cowboy,” including the wacky, retro video accompanying it.
“I wanted to create an alternate universe that looked like a Broadway set and outfits that looked like Halloween costumes,” she says. Inspired by the B-movie aesthetics of camp icons like Elvira and Vincent Price, the “Cowboy” video sees Ponthier wander through a Technicolor dreamscape where she encounters, among other curios, a flying saucer, a skeleton on horseback, and a dancing carton of cigarettes. “I love high-contrasting colors. so every detail was designed to have the most visual impact,” she says.
Ponthier made mood boards for every costume, hairstyle, and makeup option. She name-checks Death Becomes Her, The Witches, and Troll 2 as just a few of the “40 or so” films that she pulled visual inspiration from over the years-long process of bringing “Cowboy” to life. The video features Ponthier alternating between her human form—outfitted in a crimson-red rockabilly suit—and her true form, a guitar-strumming alien with seafoam green skin.
“I take a lot of ownership over everything in the video, only because I’m a little micromanage-y about all of the details,” she laughs. The shoot marked her first experience working with a director—Jordan Bahat, who previously helmed Christine and the Queens’ “Girlfriend.” “He really let me take the lead with the creative direction, and wasn’t precious about what he was supposed to bring to the table. I had so many questions, and he wanted to include me in everything,” Ponthier says.
With her first EP due later this year, Ponthier already has her sights set on what comes next. She’s in the process of writing new music steeped in her country roots, as well as songs with more of an electro-pop influence; she idolizes Imogen Heap, and would love to collaborate with Fiona Apple some day.
The process of creating “Cowboy” gave Ponthier a much-needed shift in perspective on those developmental years in Texas, where she felt like an alien in a foreign land.
“I’m in a position now to talk about things that have hurt me or that I wasn’t previously aware of,” she says. “The stories I have to tell now are so much better than the stories I felt comfortable sharing when I was younger. I think everything ended up happening exactly the way it was supposed to.”