Psych/blues rock group Lead Pony released their debut EP, Eclipse, followed in 2018 by a double-single, "Two Love Songs." The band toured and landed a song on the TV show Shameless.
Summer 2022 saw the addition of bassist Seancarlo Ohlin and the beginning of work on an album of songs about ‘70s New York City. They worked on the album with producer Trevor Spencer (Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, Beach House), eventually deciding to call it Vultures.
The album dropped in July 2023, preceded by a single and video for the title track "Vultures." According to guitarist Jesse Hofstee, "Vultures is a story about someone leaving their hometown to go to the city and 'make it big.' It’s about change, taking risks and finding yourself, but also a cautionary tale about the vultures that will take advantage of people that are finding themselves, and send them in the wrong direction. It was one of the first songs we wrote for the record that started to lay the groundwork for the sound and idea of this being a record about the city."
A video was also produced for the track "Sincerely." “'Sincerely is a sister track to the album’s title-track,” notes Hofstee. "It's sung from the perspective of the person that was left behind when the character in ‘Vultures’ moves to the big city. It's a farewell and an encouragement to always see the beauty in everything and hear the ‘symphony' of the city, in this case. We did some field recording in downtown Seattle to try to create the 'city symphony' that play through the outro of the song."
(Photo by Dana Trippe, provided by The Syndicate)