Channy
Leaneagh is one of five members of Minneapolis-based band ‘Polica’ and we spoke
to her ahead of her performing in Leeds next month on the first date of the UK
leg of their tour. Currently working on rehearsals they will also soon be
heading over to Berlin for a date.
Channy
describes the band’s live sound as ‘more alive than their record’. “It usually
has lots of energy. My doctor told me the other day that I’m an athletic performer
so there’s a clue!”
Polica
have come fresh from festivals such as Latitude this summer, a festival Channy
describes as one of her favourites. “It was one of our first [too] so it was
nice to go back. We [also] played at a beautiful castle in Ireland, which was
really cool. [Plus] we went to Slovakia for the first time too!”
Earlier
in the year the band released their album ‘United Crushes’ and we asked her how
it was to record it. “It was pretty good! I was pregnant and gave birth a
couple of months before the record came out, so it was a whirlwind for me. I
had just come out of the fog of motherhood, and I said that I couldn’t believe
we’d made a record in the middle of that. Now it’s good to get back on the road
again and I feel like I’ve got my head in the game. It was fun!”
We
asked if motherhood influenced anything on the album. “It’s an emotional record
and I was feeling things really strongly. There are some love songs like ‘Lately’
and there are lots of feelings on there, but that’s how most of my records are.”
The
album shifted slightly from previous albums in style. “It’s a very rhythm heavy
record,” Channy told us. “The drummers locked me and Ryan up in the sound booth
and took over!” she joked.
In
Polica there are two drummers and we were intrigued as to what effect this
might have on the music. “For me it has a dramatic effect. I’ll write the song
in one way then when the drummers lay down their parts I’ll react to them. When
you have two drummers it’s impossible to not have that being a main influence
on the sound of the band.
“But
at the same time they’ve actually played more electronic drums than they ever
had, so we’ve all played around with that. It has an effect on the cadence of
the singing, the rhythm of the band.”
Channy
picked ‘Fish’ as her favourite track on the recent album. “It’s the most
sincere. But ‘Berlin’ is kind of my baby, and my favourite one to play live.”
Earlier
in the month Channy took part in a procession towards the local Mississippi
river and played a concert on a houseboat on the river, the environmental cause
close to the home for Channy. “We played on the Mississippi river at night
whilst lights and visuals were projected onto this factory in North Minneapolis
which is emitting lots of heavy metals into the river.
“It
was pretty special to be able to be gathered with all these people and play the
music and sing out to the river. It is a gorgeous river which hopefully will
continue to be cleaned up.”
Looking
ahead to the future, I asked what her plans were. “We’re performing and
recording with a group called Stargaze from Berlin. We’ve created a project
with them called ‘Music for the Long Emergency’ and then we’ll be recording a
couple of new Polica songs and recording some tracks here and there throughout
the winter.”
No comments:
Post a Comment