SKATING POLLY | INTERVIEW
They’ve been playing together since they were kids and now Skating Polly return with their fifth album The Make It All Show. On top of that, the Oklahoma alt-rockers return to south Wales with a show at Newport’s Le Public Space on Tue 11 Sept. Chris Andrews caught up with the band.
Latest album The Make It All Show seems to be a more ‘realised’ album than previous releases, blending pop melodies with abrasive riffs and vocals. What was the recording experience like, compared to previous albums?
Peyton Bighorse: Pretty similar to the other records. The biggest difference was how we felt during the recording. It was full of laughs and a light-heartedness we haven’t had before. Not to say past recordings weren’t fun and goofy at times, but we had the goofiest record producer of all time so it was amplified this time around. For part of the time we stayed right next door to Brad so we got to wake up in the morning and laze our way over to the studio, greeted by loud as hell music we’d never heard before that Brad would put on to get us pumped up for the day. It was tons of fun.
Kelli Mayo: Yeah, for me the songs came from a very vulnerable place – I was going through a lot more than I ever had, internally and externally. The political climate became very disturbing, my anxiety reached heights I’d never felt before, I dealt with heartache and heartbreak pretty regularly. I had to stand up to people that I always felt I didn’t have a voice around and started having a much harder time with my self-esteem. I tried really hard to be less cryptic and more to the point while still using interesting imagery.
One stand-out track on the new album is Little Girl Blue And The Battle Envy. I was particularly taken with the lyrics on that track. Can you shed some light on the sentiment behind it?
KM: On the surface it’s a about a soldier who one day decides she can’t take it and just walks away from her post. In a more personal sense, it’s about this feeling I’ve had so many times where lots of people around talk to me like they know better than me – like I need to listen to their advice or everything’s gonna blow up in my face.
I don’t just get that just from people very close to me: being a young girl in an artistic medium opens you up to having a lot of people constantly trying to give you advice, or a lot of times more like corrections and when there’s so many of those voices going at once it makes my head spin.
You collaborated with Louise Post and Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt for the New Trick EP. How did that come about?
We met Nina and Louise through our publisher. He asked us if we would want to do a songwriting session with them and we were like “of course!” We met them for dinner the night before we went in to write, and we clicked immediately. They were so easy to get along with which made it really easy to write with them. It was surreal working with some of our heroes. They’re the best. We love them so much!
If you had to pick one Skating Polly track that represents what you are all about, which one would you choose?
PB: First off, this is one of the hardest and most interesting questions I’ve ever been asked, so THANK YOU! I think it would have to be Free Will At Ease. I started writing this song while I still loved this horrible person, and finished it after around the time I realised he was toxic and manipulative. It’s a song that grew with me; it’s funny, because hearing the lines I wrote when I thought I was with “the one” is just depressing. It was hard writing those words with my siblings because at the time I felt very isolated from them. I was pushing them away and trying to ‘claim my independence’ so admitting to myself and them that I was wrong was difficult. Ask them. I practically threw a bratty tantrum the day we finalized the lyrics.
KM: For me, musically, Classless Act because we wrote that to be a little taste of everything we do, or more specifically everything to come on The Make It All Show. But lyrically I’d say Louder In Outer Space because I wrote the lyrics for that to be about my relationship with our band and each other and music! Songs keep me up so many nights of the week just pounding in my head, so that line was pretty literal – “Can you hear that harmony? I can hear it in my sleep.”
Having read numerous interviews with you over the years, you seem to have a very wide and varied musical knowledge, something you were exposed to very early in life. Who do you credit for that?
A lot of it comes from our parents and Kurtis [Mayo, Skating Polly’s third member] – I would never want to discredit them for teaching us. They fuelled our interest in music. But we have to take some of the credit too. We’ve always loved learning about music; we read music biographies and histories and interviews. We’re always trying to get recommendations from people we meet on tour or in the studio. Whatever we can get our hands on, really.
What are you currently listening to? What current bands/artists are inspiring you?
PB: Kelli turned me on to my favorite current artist, Alex G. I listen to him on my runs and when I’m driving. I’m even listening to him right now.
KM: I’m obsessed with Mitski’s Be The Cowboy – I have to listen to it everyday to feel complete. I think it’s her best one yet. I’ve also been really into The Black Angels record Passover, Pavement’s Brighten The Corners, and the song Detroit Or Buffalo by Barbara Keith.
You’re back in Wales as part of your UK tour. Having played here previously, what are your memories of Wales and its music fans?
PB: Yes! We LOVE Wales! My all-time favorite Welsh memory is from the last time we played. We were walking down Cowbridge Road East in Cardiff, by the Tesco, and this older man started playing some really strange, beautiful music. We were told he comes out often but it was the first time we heard him. I was mesmerised. It was some of the coolest stuff I’d heard in a long time.
Skating Polly, Le Public Space, Newport, Tue 11 Sept. Tickets: £8. Info: 01633 221477 / www.lepublicspace.co.uk