Bedlam Theatre

Anders Ponders is the stage name for Anders Mattson, a Minneapolis musician who is very insistent about his commonly mispronounced name. Similar to Andrew Bird and Final Fantasy, Anders writes songs on viola (not violin) with the aid of a loop pedal and embellished by sequencers, samples, guitar, and vocals. Whimsical lyrics, juvenile melodies, and driving percussion express a desire to return to innocence and magic.

His new CD is titled Nodes of Overtones.”It’s the purity of his songwriting, the strict beauty of his melodies, and the heart rending lyrics he applies that make his craft so breathtaking… Rarely does so tender and simple a song [The Discus Incident] involve so much movement, so much loving orchestration, and its chorus, which doesn’t arise until the final minutes, is as uplifting and heartbreaking as anything in Gimme Noise’s recent memory.” -City Pages Gimme Noise

“The child-like emperor of Minneapolis… Anders Ponders.. creates wind-blowingly light, full of whimsy and wonder arrangements aligned with the likes of Sufjan Stevens or the lineage of indie pop, twee and freak folk artists from the past fifteen or so years, but really, the sound is all his own. Reminiscent? Sure. Derivative? Not so much that it gets in its own, vibrant way. Fun? Totally. The orchestrations are built with beauty and hope and the lyrics (choruses especially) are gleeful. It’s the sort of thing that will make you smile and maybe well up in tears depending on subject matter, though sometimes, you’ll do both.” -The Culture of Me