polly on their new ep maybe
Boorloo/Perth three-piece Polly have released their highly anticipated EP Maybe. With honest guitar-driven songwriting wrapped up in the nostalgia of growing up, Polly has quickly become one of Australia’s compelling emerging acts particularly in the indie scene.
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TEMPER: Maybe is a really honest body of work, how do you go about writing introspective songs? Is it a difficult thing to do?
POLLY: I think it's actually a little easier to write honestly than it is to try and write something clever. Most of our songs start from a really simple feeling or conversation, and then we just kind of build from there. Sometimes you don't even fully understand what you're trying to say until you've finished the song, so it's almost a way of making sense of things as much as it is writing about them.
T: Do you write songs about something you’re experiencing as it happens or as something you’re reflecting on?
P: Usually it's about a previous moment in my life. A lot of the ideas come from things we're feeling in the moment, but they don't really become songs until we've had a bit of time to sit with them. I think having that little bit of distance can kind of help you understand what you actually want to say instead of just reacting emotionally.
T: What made you choose ‘Tell Your Friends’ and ‘Doubt’ as the introduction to Maybe?
P: We always knew Doubt would be the first single because we recorded it so long ago, but it also really introduced the sound of the EP. It's probably the best snapshot of what we were trying to achieve across the whole record. Tell Your Friends felt like the a really good follow-up because it showed another side of the EP without giving everything away. We wanted each release to kind of build towards the full picture rather than peaking too early.
T: You’ve created a very nostalgic visual world. Was this intentional or just something you naturally gravitated towards? What was the process of visual storytelling?
P:It definitely happened pretty naturally. We kept coming back to ideas of adolescence and growing up. Mia Shaw did an incredible job of helping bring that world to life across the campaign.
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T: You’ve toured with some of Australia’s most loved indie acts, what is one thing you hope those audiences take away from a Polly set?
P: Hopefully they leave remembering the songs. We always want people to have a good time, but when people say they've had a chorus or a lyric stuck in their head after the show that's so awesome. If people walk away wanting to hear the songs again, that's a pretty good outcome.
T: What can these audiences expect from a headline Polly show?
P: It's definitely a different experience to a support set. We get to take people through the full world of the EP, play songs we've been sitting on for ages and create a show that feels like ours from start to finish. It'll still be loud and energetic, but there'll also be moments where we come back a bit. We'll also be playing some of the older stuff, and who knows maybe some new stuff.