After a stint with The 1975 on their recent touring extravaganza, it’s time to see POLLY MONEY at her very best.
Words: Martyn Young.
Two years ago, Polly Money was one of thousands of supremely talented and extremely hard-working musicians putting in the hard yards as a session musician while working on songs in the background. A fortuitous call to join The 1975 on their now legendary At Their Very Best world tour changed everything. No longer just a working musician, Polly Money was now a cult star. After an 18-month trek in which she emerged as the breakout sensation of one of the biggest bands in the world's celebratory global jaunt, Polly is now returning to her own music with the release of a stunning slice of indie-pop joy in 'Anything' with the promise of more to come. There's a very good reason why The 1975 and their devoted fans fell in love with her, and now the rest of the world will get to see Polly Money blossom.
"It's felt like a rebirth for my music," smiles Polly as she reflects on a whirlwind 18 months. "When I came off tour in March, it was full go-time for getting ready for the first single. I had released a bunch of music before, but this is the first time I've done it with a bigger team behind me. It feels different. It feels like I've got a bigger platform and a few more fans behind me with this Polly Money thing. It's been amazing to come off the tour, which I adored, and then to go back into my solo stuff. It's really exciting."
Playing music live is the lifeblood of Polly Money. "I love touring," she says. "It's a big thing for me. Whether it's on my own or with somebody else, I just really enjoy it." When the run of shows with The 1975 began, Polly was just another small cog in The 1975 juggernaut as they employed a bigger band to fill out the sound in support of their fifth album, 'Being Funny In A Foreign Language'. "I kind of knew a few of the guys in the band from friends of friends," she explains. "I had hung out a little bit with the guys, mostly the session musicians. When they were putting together the show for the latest album, they wanted a couple more multi-instrumentalists, and my name got put forward, which was really cool. I got a call, and we went from there."
As the tour progressed from festival headlining shows to performances at the O2 Arena and Madison Square Garden, Polly's role in the band - and most importantly, the show - grew until, by the end of the run, she had her own acoustic spot singing The 1975's 'Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America' in the intermission while Matty Healy did whatever madness Matty Healy does, as well as turning beloved favourite 'A Change Of Heart' into a back-and-forth duet between Polly and Matty. "For the fans, it was something new," she says. "Matty is such an amazing frontman, and every night is slightly different. He'll do something, and you'll just go with it, and it works, and it sticks."
One thing that was the same every night, though, was Polly's role in the set's standout moment as the band performed the stunning ballad 'About You'. "I'm not sure 'About You' was ever supposed to be so big for them, but it was a viral moment," remembers Polly. "They put that in the show, and they obviously needed the female verse to be sung, so that was immediately put to me as I was the only other person who sang, and it just built from there. It was a really cool moment as it just so happened that I was singing for them in a viral moment. All eyes were on that verse, which was like, this is weird but great."
While on tour, Polly never lost the impetus to keep on making her own music; instead, she had a new perspective, surrounded by some of the most creative people around, but also a slight twinge of apprehension at the same time. "It was a massively inspiring time," she reflects. "When you're singing those songs every night, you get more attached because you're a part of it all. It was really inspiring but also quite daunting because I'd go back to my hotel room and be like, well, this song isn't as good as 'The Sound'. I was coming to terms with the fact that that doesn't matter, and I'm just going to write music because I love it. It was so cool to be around the boys."
That slight second-guessing of herself fed into the theme of her first single of this new era for Polly Money on 'Anything'. "That song was about feeling imposter syndrome," she admits. "At the start of being asked to play with The 1975, I was like, surely there are lots of people who could do this better? I was so welcomed into their crew and band, and it never felt like I wasn't good enough, but just for myself, I would get back into my hotel room and think, any minute now, I'm going to be replaced. It was about playing for The 1975 but also general life and the opportunities I've been given - do I deserve them? Have I been worthy of them? The song starts like that, and the ending is realising that it's all good, and yes, you do, and telling yourself that you deserve it. It's mega cheesy, but it's a feeling that I'm sure everyone has. It's ok to be like, yeah, I have my own place, and I deserve to be there, and just own it a bit."
