13th December 2024
On a gloomy Tuesday afternoon in early December, I sit down with a cup of coffee and chat over Zoom with indie-pop artist and acclaimed session musician, Polly Money. If you’re a fan of The 1975, you may recognise Polly from joining them on stage on their global tours, doing backing vocals and playing guitar for one of the biggest bands to come out of the UK in the last couple of decades. Something you might not yet know is that, when she’s not facilitating the live shows of others, Polly is busy writing and releasing music of her own.
When I first heard her single ‘Anything‘ released back in July of this year, I instantly fell in love with just how good the track felt, from the production choices to her silky vocals, so I leapt at the chance to talk with Polly about her latest single, ‘i’m not proud‘.
‘i’m not proud’ has Polly’s addictive signature sound – warm guitars that cocoon you; bouncy, fun production; and her unique voice that blends everything into an undeniably rich and catchy pop song.
I chat to Polly about her new music, her touring essentials, and what’s to come next year.
Olivia: What was the inspiration behind writing ‘i’m not proud’?
Polly: That’s a really good question! So for me, it’s kind of about a period of time of figuring out monogamous and polyamorous relationships, and just understanding the different partners you’re with and what they want and what you want, and figuring out what’s best for you. It’s kind of the idea of, when you’re not in an open relationship, and you just have a little bit of a crush and figuring that out and, you know, is it time to tell your partner? It’s just come from a few different experiences and basically just having a naughty little crush [laughs].
O: I love that. So, it’s kind of like the predicament of being in a monogamous relationship, but having feelings for other people?
P: Yeah, one hundred percent, and kind of trying to not be too hard on yourself but just fancying people! There are lots of very beautiful people in the world and for me it’s a song that’s like, it’s not that deep, it’s just basically fancying somebody within a relationship where maybe that’s kind of not totally cool…
O: That’s really interesting because I feel like lyrically it is kind of deep, but then with the light hearted instrumental I get that juxtaposition between “it’s not that deep”, but you’re also like… “Shit” [laughs].
P: One hundred percent! I was in Chile at the time and I remember – my producer, Connor, and I – we were sending stuff back and forth. This is while I was on tour a couple of years back and I was really tired, I hadn’t written in a while and it was like, 2am. I sat down and I was like, I’m just going to write something and don’t really care what it is. He’d sent me the guitar for it – the backing track – and it felt really good. It felt quite Fleetwood Mac, so I tried to match it, and the first thing that came to my head was that first line ‘Your face shows up a lot these days’. It ended up being one of our favourites.
O: I love it when that happens – when you don’t think too much about it and it just comes. This actually leads me on really nicely to my next question. I’m a huge fan of Chloe Kramer’s production – you worked with her and Connor James on ‘i’m not proud’ as well as your previous single, ‘Anything’. There’s such a special relationship formed with repeated collaborators, I’d love to know more about the creative process of these songs and how it all came together with the three of you.
P: It’s a really great question because me and Chloe have worked together for years and years! We’ve both been through loads of different jobs and figuring out what we wanted to do musically – we’ve sort of done that together. I met her just before she started working at the Church Studios, which she’s now left, and I remember sitting in my house and she was deciding whether to take the job or not. It was really early days in both of our careers, and so we’ve had this really special relationship – both professionally and just as one of my best mates. So our writing and production has very much matched that.
Sometimes it’s taken us so long to finish a song because we’re just grabbing moments when she’s had free time and when I’ve had free time – it wasn’t like right, we’re going to have a week in the studio and finish a couple of tracks, it’s always been very sporadic. She writes amazing beats and she would send me backing tracks and I would top-line for her, and we did ‘Astrid‘ together, one of my earlier tunes. When we look back at those songs now, it took a little while to write and record them, but we just always had so much fun doing it, and so, for me, Chloe’s somebody I always want involved in some sort of way.
On this latest EP and the latest couple of singles, I was away for a lot of the recording and writing, so it was done mostly remotely between me, Connor, and Chloe, and then we had a couple of days in the studio finishing off stuff.
When I write something, I send it to Chloe and Connor and they’ll put their mark on it and add stuff and add instruments. Chloe, I don’t know if you know, but she’s in a she’s amazing at violin, so suddenly you’ll just get a track sent back with strings on it and it’s really cool! I just love her production and I think she’s so insanely talented so, working with her in any capacity is genuinely a real dream.
O: It’s such a special bond that comes from not only being really good mates with someone, but having that creative bond because you know each other on a deeper level.
P: Yeah, absolutely. It’s funny because [back then] we were discovering artists that we’ve now both worked with. We were like, ‘oh God, imagine ever writing or recording for these guys’, and then suddenly it was happening. So, really, it feels very much like we both knew each other before anything happened, and it’s nice because we’ve both been able to watch each other’s careers flourish.
O: That’s so cool. ‘Anything’ and ‘i’m not proud’ feel very much in a similar vein, like you’re starting to really build a world around this project and who you are as an artist. Are these tracks leading to a bigger body of work?
P: In the short term, these songs are for an EP which is out in March. Then we’re working towards the first album – it’s not a major secret, I think it’s the natural progression. So, these songs are definitely the start of the next phase. It’s a little bit of a progression from my older stuff, maybe a little bit more indie. I never thought that would happen particularly because it’s not what I grew up on. I think I’m probably quite one-track-minded and I just grew up on R&B and country music, and I skipped the indie bands, which is what I definitely connect guitar to. But I think now I’ve gotten way more into bands, which I was never hugely into growing up.
O: I suppose you have to in order to tour with The 1975!
P: Yeah! You get used to that sort of world extremely quickly and, for me, I love playing for them because they’re so diverse in what they write – it’s very genre-spanning. It was a good introduction into that world.
O: You’re no novice when it comes to touring, having been on the road with The 1975 extensively, but you’re heading out on a support tour with Welly next February. For you, how does touring differ when it’s for your own project? Do you approach your performance differently to when you’re playing as a session musician supporting someone else’s project?
P: I definitely approach it differently. When it’s me alone, there’s a lot more pressure, and I would say I’m always very disciplined with warming up and looking after myself, but the pressure is more off when I’m playing for somebody else because I’m in the background. It changed a bit with The 1975, but when I first joined them, I was very much a hired musician and I could chill a lot more and maybe stay out a bit later than I would if it was my own project [laughs]. Whereas, for mine, I’m thinking this is going to be it, I’ve got to be on it – especially vocally. I have to be at the front of the project, so I have to look after myself.
For the tour in February, what’s nice is that, because it’s a support tour, we’ll only be playing for half an hour. You go out, give it your all for that half an hour, and it’s quite a nice amount of time on stage. It’s going to be a lot of fun because it’s the first time me and my new band go on tour, so it’ll be great to bond in that way over those couple of weeks.
O: You do it all the time, but I’m guessing you like the touring life?
P: I absolutely love it. It’s funny because I think some people are built for it and some people aren’t, and a lot of people will say ‘it’s just not for me’. Whereas I honestly think I was built for it – not in any other way than I just really love all the sides of it. The traveling’s tiring, but I had such a great group on tour who wanted to go and get nice coffee and find good spots for food and do sightseeing and all the rest of it. It isn’t for everyone, it’s a lot of time away from home and that that’s the hard bit. I think you can tailor the experience to what’s right for you, like making your hotel room a real haven. I always travel with a little candle and a few nice oils and things like that.
O: Do you have any other staples on tour?
P: Always a candle, and I have a few different oils because my mum is an aromatherapist, so I always grew up loving oils; it kind of takes you back to a good place. Do you know what a staple is now, and it’s probably really boring, but whilst traveling I got really into playing the Switch. I was never a gamer and then I got well into Zelda and Hogwarts Legacy and all these games on long flights – I’d get completely immersed! I’d say those are my three top things – making the room really nice and a little bit of escapism.
O: You’ve played some pretty crazy shows. I’d love to know if you have a bucket list venue to headline, and any dream support tours you’d love to go on?
P: On a smaller scale, I’d love to headline Village Underground. I think it’s about 700 cap, so fingers crossed! My favourite venue ever is the O2 – I love it. There are amazing venues around the world and there are incredible festivals that are aesthetically a lot more beautiful than the O2 obviously, but I just have such a connection with it because I saw so many of my favourite artists there, and when I first played it, it just felt like a real moment. So if I was to ever, ever headline the O2, that would be just…
O: I saw The 1975 earlier this year and you were playing at the O2. Was that your first time performing there?
P: We had done two on the previous UK tour the year before, so all together I think we did six sold out O2 shows on that tour – it really was insane, I was so emotional after the first one. Dream support, I’d love to support MUNA and Frank Ocean – he would be a big one for me.
O: What can we expect to see from you in 2025?
P: We’re aiming to build my live show, so hopefully a couple of Polly Money shows next year are to be expected, which is exciting! And then, honestly for me it’s more music, you know. After the EP, we’re already recording and writing new stuff. So, yeah, it’s just a continuation of the EP and starting to work towards the first album.
‘i’m not proud’ is now available to stream on all platforms.
Words by Olivia Judd (@oliviacjudd / @iamlunar june)
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