August Ponthier Made Us a Playlist to Get Into the Southern Sapphic Spirit

Welcome to SOUND ADVICE, Interview’s weekly destination for playlists curated by our friends, enemies, and lovers. In recent weeks, we’ve featured playlists from Jonah Abraham, Sunshine Benzi, and Nat & Alex Wolff. This week’s installment comes from Texas-born, New York-based singer August Ponthier. Guided by their southern roots and an affinity for theatrics, the certified queer cowboy can be found traipsing through iconic lesbian bars in embroidered fringe shirts and a staple bolo tie. As they gear up to release their debut album Texas Isn’t Everywhere, a love letter to the Lone Star State, Ponthier made us a playlist to get us into the sapphic southern spirit. Soon after, we sent them our Sound Advice questionnaire, where they shed light on their drag king escapades, their most lesbian trait, and the one thing Texas does best.

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Where do you dance? I love to dance at Nightmoves in Brooklyn on their vintage light-up dancefloor, at my house when I have my earbuds in/socks on, and in my clothes in the hot tub on the last night of Brandi Carlile’s festival Girls Just Wanna. One of my favorite nights on tour last year was a two-day stop in Chicago– me and my band happened upon a cover band and we danced for HOURS. Am I a good dancer? No. Do I love to dance? Hell yeah.

What song on this playlist makes you feel the gayest? “New York” by St. Vincent. It was the first song I ever heard that really felt like it was for queer people by queer people. It was the first gay song I heard after my brain “turned on” after coming out.

Who do you trust most with the aux? My little sister. When she turned fourteen, she randomly had the most incredible music taste of all time and it’s stayed that way since.

Dream collab, dead or alive? I’d die for a Hayley Williams collaboration. I’ve been a big fan of hers since I was fourteen listening to Paramore, my first ever band obsession. I think she’s one of the most brilliant songwriters of all time, and a great example of someone who is a chameleon with a complicated sense of home. I’d also lose my mind at a Kacey Musgraves collab, one day we got to get together and make the gayest song about Texas of all time.

What gay icon would you have read your eulogy? To open, I’d have Anania from GAYDAR read because she leaves me in stitches every time I talk to her, and humor is a great way to warm up the crowd. I’d have Brandi Carlile close because she’s gotten to know me pretty well over the past year, and she puts her heart and soul into everything she does. Also, I’m a ghost in this fantasy and I’d get to listen, so that would be sick.

What song is playing as you enter the gates of heaven? “You’re Dead” by Norma Tanega. Hilarious and so good.

What’s the most Texas thing about you? I like being amongst strangers, because strangers never really are strange. I grew up talking to random passersby in the grocery store or on walks, and then when I came to New York everyone understandably minds their business. But sometimes, I’ll have an innocent moment with a random person in the park or on the subway that reminds me of saying hi to people back home.

What song on your album do you want blasting in Henrietta Hudson? I think the bridge of Handsome: “There’s a new it-boy in town, and she’s a lesbian!” absolutely smashed Henrietta Hudson when I threw my annual Halloween party there. I was in full drag as a character called “Al Bones,” and no one recognized me for the first hour of the party. Can’t get more handsome than a drag king.

Describe Everywhere Isn’t Texas in 3 words? Coming-of-age. Queer. Otherworldly. (Did I cheat?)

What are you wearing for the end of the world? If it’s an end I’ve accepted, I’m putting on my favorites. A nice big suit and tie, cowboy boots, and a belt buckle. If it’s an end where I need to stay and fight, change that to jeans and a bright button-up and bolo. Either way, I’d love to be a cowboy at the end of the world.

What’s a secret you’ve never told anyone? Well, originally that secret was that I’m nonbinary, but the cat is out of the bag. So my second-tier secret is that a few years ago, I randomly remembered that a woman had never walked on the moon before. I cried so hard about it that I got a multi-day headache afterward. I still to this day do not know what was going on there.

What song on your album makes you cry? The reprise of Everywhere Isn’t Texas always makes me choke back tears– “All the outcasts are the Texans” is a sentiment that I keep repeating in song and in conversation. Everyone who feels othered by small-minded politics in my home state is actually a real hero of the people.

Fuck, Marry, Kill Texas Icons: Beyonce, Kacey Musgraves, Janis Joplin Insane question. Marry Beyonce, Kiss Kacey Musgraves, Janis Joplin is allowed to kill me.

What’s a song you wish you wrote? I wish I wrote a lot of songs, but one that’s always on my mind is “Merry Go-Round” by Kacey Musgraves. The chorus is all wordplay on the word “Merry/Mary.” It’s genius.

What historical event would you go back and change? Oh, god. So many? This is maybe too conceptual, but I think people forget that country music started as progressive protest music. Whenever people act like it’s all exclusionary politics made by one type of person, I want to scream. I’d like to change that.

What does Texas do best? Texas makes some of the most resilient, talented people out there. Every time I meet a trans person from Texas who is fighting harmful legislation while making me belly-laugh, I know that Texas creates a fucking special kind of survivalist.

What’s the most lesbian thing you’ve ever done? The most lesbian thing I’ve ever done is yearn. I’m a yearner at my core. I had boyfriends for so long until I realized what was really going on with me and there are small moments between me and a woman in a grocery store over a decade ago that I’ll remember with more clarity than entire relationships I’ve had with men. I’m so sorry to those guys.