{"id":166291,"date":"2026-02-16T03:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/166291\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T03:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:32:23","slug":"august-ponthier-on-their-debut-album-everywhere-isnt-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/166291\/","title":{"rendered":"August Ponthier on Their Debut Album, &#8216;Everywhere Isn&#8217;t Texas&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt\u2019s early in 2026, but <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/august-ponthier\/\" id=\"auto-tag_august-ponthier\" data-tag=\"august-ponthier\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August Ponthier<\/a>\u2018s full-length debut album, \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas,\u201d should still be remembered 11 or 12 months from now as one of the year\u2019s best fresh starts. There are a number of ways in which the slightly country-tinged pop album does or doesn\u2019t count as a beginning for Ponthier. It\u2019s a coming-of-age record, but, at 29, Ponthier points out that it\u2019s a queer coming-of-age record, reflecting the kind of experience that may come later for those who take some turns before fully finding themselves, as they did. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe \u201cthey\u201d pronoun, incidentally, is one of several things that are new for Ponthier, who prior to this released three EPs with a \u201cshe\u201d identity and distinctly feminine first name. Only during the mastering part of finishing the album did Ponthier decide to make the leap into coming out as non-binary, partly because of being too proud of the record to release it under a now-dead name that would have compromised the joy of putting out something so satisfyingly self-revelatory. Ponthier already had a lot of notoriety with the previous name \u2014 including a Q&amp;A last year in Variety about a then-new single, \u201cKaraoke Queen,\u201d which reflected their experience of being dropped by Interscope in 2024 after three years. But nothing cements going indie like the independence that comes with dropping some baggage of one\u2019s own, as they did in October with the announcement of these personal changes, to the surprise but not chagrin of fans who already knew Ponthier as a maverick spirit as well as gifted singer-songwriter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPreviously, some had referred to Ponthier as being like \u201ca lesbian Sabrina Carpenter.\u201d Do easy tags like that become any more complicated now that they are out as non-binary? It\u2019s possible, but the songs \u2014 deeply personal, whether or not they were co-written with craftspeople like Amy Allen and Dan Wilson \u2014 should have the boundary-crossing appeal to connect with mainstream pop fans of all stripes. (Or fans of Texas music\u2026 Ponthier\u2019s still at least a little bit country, they insist.) Variety caught up with Ponthier again recently, first at friend <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/brandi-carlile\/\" id=\"auto-tag_brandi-carlile\" data-tag=\"brandi-carlile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brandi Carlile<\/a>\u2018s <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/girls-just-wanna-weekend\/\" id=\"auto-tag_girls-just-wanna-weekend\" data-tag=\"girls-just-wanna-weekend\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Girls Just Wanna Weekend<\/a> festival, then by phone from their native Texas, to discuss \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas,\u201d an album it\u2019s easy to imagine impacting <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhether in the flesh or on video, people have seen you duet with Brandi Carlile a lot. She has been a real champion of yours, and she sang duets with you when she had you open for her at Red Rocks, and last year and this year at her Girls Just Wanna Weekend festival. So it\u2019s not unusual at this point for you to be on stage with Brandi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt is unusual! It\u2019s unusual in how I think back to a year that I was really going through a lot of difficult feelings about who I am or what I can do and what\u2019s limiting or not limiting. And every time I would shower, I would sing \u201cThe Joke,\u201d because it is a song that hits me the hardest when it comes to wanting to encourage myself. I had never met her before, so after a year of singing that song all the time, when she reached out to me after I got dropped by my major label, I remember my partner was like, \u201cYou manifested it by singing the song every day for like a year.\u201d So when I\u2019m up there singing with her, I think about that time. I also think about how when I sing with her, I feel present in a way that I\u2019m not really used to. It is an adrenaline rush to be on stage, but for some reason when I sing with her, I feel completely calm and in my body, and she has that effect on me because I know that she really accepts me. Even though now I know her on more of a personal level, she is a hero, to not just me, but so many people in our community and in in the world. It\u2019s surreal, and it will never get old. I could sing with her a hundred times and I doubt it would ever feel any less crazy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShe learned about you through Elton John, who was already championing you, right?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tYeah, I was playing a show at the Rooftop at P17 (in New York) opening up for the Japanese House, and I had found out the night before that I was getting dropped, which was devastating and my worst fear. I was lying on the floor of the green room being like, \u201cI have no idea how I\u2019m going to do this show.\u201d And I checked my messages and she had messaged me just saying, \u201cHey, Elton showed me your music. It\u2019s special and I hope to meet you in the future.\u201d And even though she had no idea anything about my life or anything about me being dropped at all, it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment. And ever since then, like when I play Red Rocks, I feel the spirit of a community behind me. It\u2019s a huge honor to be recognized by people who not only make me want to be an artist, but made me wanna keep going and wanna keep being alive and wanna keep feeling like there was hope when it felt like there was almost nothing else.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Everywhere-Isnt-Texas-artwork.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tAugust Ponthier \u2018Everywhere Isn\u2019t Texas\u2019 cover art<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe song she keeps singing with you most often is \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas,\u201d which happens to be the title track of the new album that\u2019s coming out. That one in particular really struck a chord with Brandi, as it does with many people who hear it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLast year when I was at Girls Just Wanna for the very first time, I had no idea she was going to come watch my set, but I really wanted her to hear that one, so I was over the moon that she just happened to watch the part of my set that \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas\u201d was in. And she gave me a standing ovation, which made me want to scream, cry and throw up, all combined. But I think the reason that that song connected with her is because she is an artist that makes protest music; her whole last record is protest music. And I also have that thing where if something resonates with me, I need to talk about it through the actual thing that I make.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThat song is about how I grew up in Texas and I felt like I loved it, but it did not love me back. I felt like I was being pushed out, kind of like the way white blood cells will push out an infection, and I didn\u2019t want to feel like I was diseased or wrong or made wrong. And because I can\u2019t stop thinking about home and all the things that happen there, because Texas is a leader in politics, it became the title of the album. It is the most complicated and deep love of my life. And the fact that it resonated with Brandi, and she\u2019s not someone that\u2019s afraid to talk about politics or to stand up for what she believes in, it means a lot that a major artist would be so brave and talk about a state that is really polarizing and sing alongside me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI was opening up for Maren Morris a year and some change ago. We both went to the same college, at different times, but we\u2019re both from a similar area in Texas. And when when I performed the song on her tour for the first time, she was like, \u201cIt takes a lot of guts to sing a song about a state that people love to love and love to hate at the same time.\u201d I weirdly had never even considered that, because I always have just spoken my mind, but it\u2019s not lost on me how grateful I should be and how important it is that other people from Texas or artists that are involved in country music, specifically, can appreciate the song and can discuss things we love in a nuanced way. We can love something and be critical of it at the same time and want better for it. And we are in an era where I think protest music is important, and I hope that a lot more artists would follow suit and make music that doesn\u2019t just allude to the things that they care about, but does specifically talk about the things that keep them up at night and the people that they love.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLet\u2019s talk about your journey and how it did or didn\u2019t coincide with the making of this album. You had previously been very out as lesbian, but in October, you came out as non-binary, with a new first name and identity. How much did that overlap with the final stages of your album?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe music was fully done. The last step was just mastering a few of the songs. So it was all written before I had even really told myself confidently who I was. I mean, this journey started when I was really young, but me being conscious and awake and aware of it, to the point where I was ready to say it out loud or to want to change my name, was this past year. It\u2019s something that, in my mind, I thought I could repress forever, and then all of a sudden I couldn\u2019t do it anymore. It was making me miserable and making me feel so disconnected from myself. I felt like I was aging rapidly in a body and identity that I didn\u2019t understand. And then I just said the truth out loud, and now I feel like there\u2019s a million doors that could open. I feel, like, 20 years younger. Weirdly, I just feel a totally different sense of hope that I didn\u2019t have before. And this album is a series of songs that kind of feel like clues, in order to figure out maybe what was gonna happen with me coming out as non-binary. But also, I\u2019m so proud of these songsthat I couldn\u2019t stand not putting the name that I know now as mine on it. I didn\u2019t want to wake up a year or five years from now and regret not saying that August made that album. So, thankfully, the album was actually a good pressure cooker for being like, \u201cI need to do what is right.\u201d And I\u2019m so glad because now that I\u2019m August, every day is better. Colors are brighter. I am excited when people say my name. I want to introduce myself to people. And that\u2019s just not how I felt before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tYou had experienced a lot of acceptance as a very out lesbian singer, but did it feel bolder to go what may be an extra step for people?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI\u2019d come out as a lesbian and I was like, \u201cOK, amazing. I am a pro at this!\u201d But no, it\u2019s totally different. I think gender is something that\u2019s so deeply personal for people and it just hits a completely different nerve \u2026 So I would say across the board, for queer people and straight people, the reactions have been varied. Gender is a very personal place that hits people in a different part of their heart. And I\u2019m very lucky that I have an amazing support system. I think if I did this like any sooner, I wouldn\u2019t have been ready for it, which is why it happened when it happened. I think a lot of people don\u2019t fully understand how to talk to me, or people have never heard of a non-binary person before, or people think non-binary people have to be super masculine, or there are signs or qualifications. And I\u2019m happy to share my thoughts when I feel comfortable, like I\u2019m doing right now. But no, it\u2019s been difficult \u2014 but 100% worth it. If someone chooses not to see me for who I am, that\u2019s a completely different feeling than if I\u2019m fully repressing myself, because now I can say \u201cWell, you just don\u2019t know me well\u201d or \u201cThere\u2019s something wrong with how you treat people,\u201d instead of me saying that there\u2019s something deeply made wrong within me, which I don\u2019t believe anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSome people might have been surprised just because they assume that non-binary equates with butch or something, and that has not been your imagery at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThere\u2019s like lots of different people who have different genders who realize that non-binary is the right and most true gender for them. I never wanted to feel like I was compensating for being feminine, because there are things about femininity that I appreciate. In the same way, there\u2019s things about masculinity that I really appreciate. There\u2019s no one type of non-binary person. And really, even when people ask me like, \u201cOh, so you\u2019re, like, outside of gender \u2014 you don\u2019t like gender\u201d or something, I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, non-binary is my own thing. It\u2019s my own gender that is mine. I love who I am and just because it\u2019s not replicated somewhere else doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s not real and what I feel is absolutely me.\u201d I will say there was a period, especially last year at Girls Just Wanna, where I was growing my hair out the longest I could ever grow it out, because I thought I would like it and could get used to it. I was wearing a lot of dresses. \u2026 Do I want to cut all my hair off now? No, because the shag is what feels good about me. It\u2019s really about doing what feels right and letting myself be my own North Star, which is a permission that a lot of people are not good at giving themselves. So it has been a personal growth journey in every single area of my life. There\u2019s not one thing it hasn\u2019t touched, because it really just is about believing yourself. It\u2019s very weirdly spiritual in a way that I haven\u2019t exercised in a long time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI did just take new press images because I did want it to reflect how I feel. I still feel like there\u2019s no one look for non-binary people. But I\u2019m happy that I get to put my best foot forward, which just happens to be in a shoe attached to a suit.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/August-Ponthier-Tanner-Abel-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"819\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tAugust Ponthier<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTanner Abel<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHow does it work when you have like a bunch of releases out there under your old name? Are you trying to get those credits changed? And do you object to people using your dead name to refer to your old work?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIf people have my records or T-shirts or things like that, I\u2019m OK with them wearing it around. I\u2019m OK with people having things that have my old name on them, because those are things I\u2019m proud of making. But I don\u2019t like it when people use my old name in conversation. It\u2019s just so important to me that people respect the boundary of like, this is my first name, when they\u2019re talking to me or about me. And then also my pronouns are big for me. So I really appreciate when people make the effort to do that because it\u2019s so early for me that it just shows that they really do see me and understand and care no matter what I look like or no matter if they knew me before. I love my name. My dead name \u2014 my old name, I call it \u201credacted\u201d \u2014 I\u2019m glad that she carried me up until this point, but it\u2019s kind of only for my memories and my family\u2019s memories, not something that I really wanna carry with me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI\u2019m so glad that I got to change my name on pretty much everything. The biggest one for me was the <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/lord-huron\/\" id=\"auto-tag_lord-huron\" data-tag=\"lord-huron\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lord Huron<\/a> song that I\u2019m on (\u201cI Lied\u201d). I didn\u2019t know if it was possible to change my name. And so when I called Ben (Schneider) and I was like, \u201cHi, I\u2019m changing my name, I\u2019m coming out \u2014 what do we think? Is it gonna be really annoying to change this?,\u201d he was so supportive and immediately was like, \u201cI\u2019m on it. I\u2019ll talk to Spotify, Apple Music, everyone, immediately,\u201d and he has been a huge support to me. So that was a dream come true, to know that we could change that. It\u2019s interesting to be a public figure already by the time that I wanted to make those changes. I looked it up, and not a lot of people have made the first-name change mid-career. It was a lot of \u201cLet\u2019s see what we can even do and what\u2019s even possible.\u201d There\u2019s still some platforms and some things that the name hasn\u2019t switched over yet, but honestly, the price of just having people call me by the new name is 100% worth it. But it was kind of uncharted territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThere\u2019s just so many links to my past already that I don\u2019t want to say that it never happened, because that was my name for a long time. But I think just for public consciousness, it\u2019s important to me that people don\u2019t view me as August-with-an-asterisk. I would say to anybody who\u2019s thinking about it, it is worth it. At the end of the day, people change their names all the time, whether it\u2019s a stage name or a new group or for whatever reason. And there is nothing better than not only being called August, but feeling like August. That not only comes with time, but people saying it a lot and really seeing me. \u00a0I used to think, \u201cOh, well, if 90% of the time people are referring to me incorrectly or don\u2019t understand my whole deal, it\u2019ll never be worth it for that 10%,\u201d but I was completely wrong. The 10% of being affirmed or the 10% people completely getting it up, it is 100% worth it, because it accesses a part of my brain and accesses a part of my joy that I have genuinely never felt before. It\u2019s overwhelming, and it\u2019s just a sense of brightness that I never got to experience socially with anybody.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDo you feel like this album is primarily for the queer community? A lot of the songs are more universal. And probably the dirty secret of most people who are hardcore music fans is that they feel like outsiders, which would make some of these songs speak to them, even if they\u2019re not outsiders in the same way you have been.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAbsolutely. Obviously, the queer community is like my heartbeat, but I think a lot of people can relate. I feel like people who are like just simply neurodivergent or feel like they\u2019re wired differently can relate. People who just grew up in a way where it took time and understanding for them to be a part of their own advocacy, standing up for what they want and being their own cheerleader, I think that\u2019s kind of my community. So I really appreciate a fan who it took work for them to stand up and say, \u201cHi, this is who I am.\u201d I think that through line between all the people I care about is that even though it was hard to get there, they\u2019re so proud and can\u2019t help but be themselves. And that\u2019s the type of person that I want to speak to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe cowboy and alien imagery has been part of all the projects you\u2019ve put out, not just the new album.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe cowboy side is my Texan side, my side that loves comfort and sameness and community and feeling at home. Then the alien side is me feeling like I didn\u2019t get the rule book that everyone got where everyone kind of understands how things are supposed to be. It\u2019s also the side of me that feels like I crave something else out there that is bigger than what\u2019s around me. Those two sides have always been at war with each other. They\u2019ve also held hands at times, and helped me make a record like this. So it felt right to bring them back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tYou deal with an interesting range of subject matter, from family issues to dealing with the desire for fame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt is a coming-of-age album. I\u2019m obviously not a teenager, but it\u2019s a a queer coming-of-age, which happens later in life. And it\u2019s also me examining how I feel about where I grew up. I want it to be something that can be really fun, and I want it to be something that can be really devastating. I want it to feel like something that\u2019s kind of steeped in the tradition of country music or folk music, but I also want it to feel like something that can be fresh and looking forward.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/August-Ponthier-Tanner-Abel-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"819\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tAugust Ponthier<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTanner Abel<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tGenre-wise, people may think country, because of the cowboy gear, and you\u2019re unabashed in your love for the Chicks and things like that. But it\u2019s not a country album. It\u2019s a pretty pop album.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt\u2019s not a full, straight-ahead country album, but I think the storytelling of country music, the instrumentation of country music, and even the singing quality of country music is present on it. I don\u2019t think it would be a fully me debut album if it wasn\u2019t a combination of things. But one day I would love to make a true, straight-ahead country album. But for this, it is that cowboy and alien dichotomy. It is country music and pop music; it\u2019s country and rock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn the songs \u201cAngry Man\u201d and \u201cBloodline,\u201d which are probably sequenced back-to-back on the album for a reason, you appear to be alluding to some rough family stuff that you\u2019re wondering whether you have to take forward with you in your life. That\u2019s not the stuff everybody in the world writes about. Was that hard for you to get into that territory?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tYes, I\u2019m very private about my childhood. I\u2019m very private about the struggles that I faced growing up, because it\u2019s from such a deep and painful place that it feels sacred in a way. I also never wanted to feel like I was ungrateful or that it was a betrayal for me to talk about my truth. But, all in all, this has been an album of me telling the truth, even if the truths are complicated and nuanced. And I don\u2019t think I could tell an accurate picture of what it was like growing up in Texas without talking about those things. I\u2019m very aware that the ingredients of who I am as a person make someone that struggles with mental health, and make someone who struggles to feel stable and secure and loved. It\u2019s something I think about all the time, and I pour so much energy into trying to find a new normal. For me to not write about that would be really disingenuous to how much space that\u2019s taken up in my brain over so many years. But yeah, I\u2019m terrified. Those two songs are the scariest things I\u2019ve ever released. And I\u2019m still scared. I mean, even talking about it now, it\u2019s just hard to tell the truth about things, people, places that you really, really love.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn the lighter side, you have the song \u201cHandsome,\u201d which points \u2014 humorously \u2014 toward your non-binary identity, even though you weren\u2019t there yet when you wrote it. You sing, \u201cHandsome, handsome boy, the world loves you \/ Don\u2019t know if I wanna be with you or be you.\u201d One verse says, \u201cHow are you human? \/ Painted nails on gentle males \/ A winning combination \/ It\u2019s painful and it\u2019s shameful \/ I\u2019m a poor imitation.\u201d But you\u2019ve said some people misunderstood the song, when you first released it a while ago or were playing it live\u2026 they saw it as you possibly really crushing on guys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tYeah, the people that get it get it, I guess. I think that \u201cHandsome\u201d was me kind of dipping my toe into the water of: Can anyone believe that I have something more complex going on than what they assume or what they see? And when the answer was kind of mixed \u2014 a lot of people thought that the song was about something that it wasn\u2019t \u2014 I think that it really just illustrated for me that I need to be explicit about my truth and my identity\u2026 Songs can change your life, but the way that \u201cHandsome\u201d changed my life was, it put a lot of pieces together for me. And I think that that is more important than approval from other people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn the spoken bridge, you put some celebrity names in there: \u201cTimoth\u00e9e Chalamet, Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac\u2026 There\u2019s a new \u2018It-Boy\u2019 in town, and she\u2019s a lesbian!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI tried a few different ones in different cities. Basically what happened is, I went on tour with an artist named Niki at the end of 2024, and that was when I started performing \u201cHandsome\u201d for the first time. There was a bit of an instrumental section in the song and, live, it was kind of a bit of dead space. So I would just make jokes on stage, and then it turned into this thing where I would just list It-Boys \u2014 specifically, It-Boys who partake in pretty feminine fashion\u2026 And it just turned into something that I said at every show, and then it turned into something I had to put on the record, because I loved it so much and I thought it was so fun. There\u2019s some serious tear-jerk stuff on the album, but I also think the highs are really high as well. And I wanted a bit of my sense of humor to also be present on the album, because that\u2019s how I got through all of the hard stuff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLet\u2019s go back to the song \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas.\u201d I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re speaking to yourself or actually literally speaking to an audience when you sing, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to to stay in Texas.\u201d But at the end it feels like you have a heart for people who are not able to move to New York like you did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI was definitely speaking to myself when I wrote the song. As time has gone on, I think as artists we have to have some kind of responsibility for putting out songs that advise people what to do or or offer other pathways. My fear with the song was that people would think that I thought that leaving is the one solution that fixes every problem, and that\u2019s not how I feel at all. I think that leaving is something that only a few people can do. I think also leaving is something that has its own pros and cons. Leaving didn\u2019t fix every problem for me. At the time, it was what was right because opportunity arose. And I felt like I needed to distance myself from home for a lot of reasons that didn\u2019t even just have to do with politics or identity. But I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s really important that I put the reprise on the album, because \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas\u201d is the first thing that I wrote for this album, and the reprise is the last thing that I wrote. The reprise is about the people that stay and the people that survive, and what makes Texans true Texans. To me, that\u2019s the people that fight through adversity and make it a more diverse and interesting place. I wanted to have both on the album, because I think it would\u2019ve been irresponsible to just say, \u201cIf something is hard, leave.\u201d But I think for some people, namely the parents of trans children who can leave, or people who have experienced violence that have the opportunity to leave, I do think that\u2019s a message that they shouldn\u2019t feel ashamed for taking. We all have to make choices about our own safety, and for some people that is appropriate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tI will say this: I\u2019m in Texas right now. I\u2019ve gone back to Texas and I\u2019ve been more involved in Texas than I have ever been able to, and that\u2019s not a coincidence\u2026 I have worked for the last two-ish years with an organization called TENT (Transgender Education Network of\u00a0Texas), and they\u2019re constantly at the capitol\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhen I\u2019m telling people, \u201cLeave, if that\u2019s what feels safe. And if you stay, I still wanna make it a better place,\u201d I really believe that. Texas is not something that\u2019s in my rear view. It\u2019s actually all I think about, and it\u2019s why the album is about it. It\u2019s why I keep returning and it\u2019s why I keep speaking out politically, even though, to many people, that may not be advantageous to their careers. I care about it really deeply, and I think the album is about holding nuance \u2014 two truths \u2014 loving something and criticizing it at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s early in 2026, but August Ponthier\u2018s full-length debut album, \u201cEverywhere Isn\u2019t Texas,\u201d should still be remembered 11&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14971,67545,67546,67547,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-166291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-august-ponthier","9":"tag-brandi-carlile","10":"tag-girls-just-wanna-weekend","11":"tag-lord-huron","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}