Interview Poliça talk ‘United Crushers’: “I saw this record as my last chance”

Proving that things can change massively in the space of just a few years, Poliça are returning later this year with their first new material since their ‘Raw Exit’ EP was released in 2014. Following up 2013’s ‘Shulamith’, their forthcoming new album ‘United Crushers’ also happened to be – in the words of Channy Leaneagh – born in “quite a few different transformative head spaces.”

“The very first song I wrote was ‘Berlin’,” offers up Leaneagh, from the band’s home of Minneapolis, Minnesota, “just home from tour, sleeping at my parents with my 5 year old daughter. By the time I was finished writing the record, I was living in my own place, settled down as fuck after touring non-stop for 2 years and also with a baby inside of me… So there were quite a few different transformative head spaces writing this record as so much can happen in a few years.

“I saw this record as my last chance,” she continues. “I’m not saying it actually is, but that’s where my head was at I wanted it to have a “final paper” feel. I wanted it to be our best work, because who knows what happens next. I wanted to lay myself bare vocally, process vocals in different ways and play around because why not, write lyrics about something besides myself and re-work everything over and over until it was exactly as I wanted.”

Writing lyrics externally from herself seems to have been an integral part of this album’s writing process for Leaneagh: “I made a point to first start outside myself when forming the stories for each song,” she explains, on the album’s lyrical content. “They always bring a handful of my own experiences and angles but I wanted to begin by looking at first this time. Most of the lyrics are observations of the lives going on around me.