Poliça have announced their rousing, defiant new single ‘Forget Me Now’, which is the second from the band’s forthcoming new album ‘When We Stay Alive’, out on 31st January via Memphis Industries. Not only that but Poliça are set to tour the UK in February and will play a special release show at St John’s Church, Kingston on 6th February in association with Banquet Records, and a few days later will be appearing at the popular Concorde 2 in Brighton on Wednesday 12th February.
“‘Forget Me Now’ is letting off some steam. It’s about recognising a pattern of choosing people who can’t love you how you wish to be loved. It’s still remaining very grateful, counting blessings day and night; but don’t confuse being at peace with being a pushover”, says singer Channy Leaneagh. “I think I wrote these words while angry-shovelling this winter. How does it go? ‘Choose a liar once and that’s the liar’s fault; choose a liar three times and it seems maybe I likes liars?’ All the songs are about me and none of them are; this isn’t an excerpt from my diary but it has been many times”.
The ‘Forget Me Now’ video was directed by friend and long-term collaborator Isaac Gale and gives an insight into Poliça’s upcoming 2020 performances. Watch the video HERE and purchase/steam the tune HERE.
‘Forget Me Now’ follows brooding and propulsive first single ‘Driving’; released as a double-single featuring non-album track B-side ‘Trash In Bed’ co-produced by Boys Noize, the track caught the attention of Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The FADER, Brooklyn Vegan, and Paste, among others. Produced by Poliça co-founder and producer Ryan Olson and mixed by Jim Eno (Spoon), ‘When We Stay Alive’ is now available for pre-order – click HERE.
Poliça—who headlined two sold out hometown Minneapolis shows two weeks ago—will head out an extensive tour throughout North America, the UK, and Europe next year, beginning in early February. Tickets are on sale now.
When Leaneagh fell off her roof while clearing ice in early 2018, she smashed her L1 vertebrae and battered her spine, leaving her in a brace with limited mobility for months. Yet ‘When We Stay Alive’, is not about one debilitating accident. It’s about the redemptive power of rewriting your story in order to heal, and reclaiming your identity as a result.
In the still silence of healing, she found that a multitude of feelings were becoming very loud. Leaneagh realised her self-identity had become attached to her experiences of physical and mental trauma, and she began to consider what it would be like to live without the past as a burden. “I felt there were many things I could look at and say, ‘This happened to me but I’m okay now. It’s not happening anymore and I got the care I needed for it. Now it’s time to rewrite the story I tell about myself and to myself”, she explains.
‘When We Stay Alive’ possesses a new confidence in its sound, reflected in its fierce, determined songs and anchored by the heavy synths and punctuating beats of Olson. Over the last several years Olson and Leaneagh have widely collaborated with musicians from all over the world: both with Bon Iver, and Leaneagh individually with Boys Noize, Lane 8, Sasha, Leftfield, and Daniel Wohl; Olson with Swamp Dogg in addition to countless musicians from the 37d03d collective. As a result, ‘When We Stay Alive’ features one of the largest musical casts of any Poliça record to date.
On Poliça’s first three albums, Leaneagh focused on restructuring the world and her relationships within it. On ‘When We Stay Alive’, she realises the power in restructuring her inner self. The album’s title references the idea of moving forward through life—our experiences, both good and bad—and what happens next with the strength we find.
See Poliça live:
6th Feb – London – Banquet Records outstore, St John’s Church, Kingston (Tickets)
7th Feb – Bristol – Thekla
8th Feb – Manchester – Gorilla
10th Feb – Glasgow – St. Lukes
11th Feb – London – Village Underground
12th Feb – Brighton – Concorde 2
Click HERE to find tour tickets or try your usual ticket supplier.
Further information on the band can be found here – www.thisispolica.com
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