Skating Polly on new album ‘Chaos County Line’

Photo by Megan Magdalena

Skating Polly recently released their new album, Chaos County Line, the band’s first new studio recording in five years which is a captivating double album that showcases their most expansive and emotionally powerful work to date. Produced by the acclaimed Brad Wood, known for his work with artists like Liz Phair, Veruca Salt, and Smashing Pumpkins, this album exudes a newfound self-possession that takes their music to a whole new level.

Following their critically acclaimed LP, The Make It All Show from 2018, the songs on this new album traverse various genres, ranging from art-punk to noise-rock and piano-driven power-pop. Each track is a journey in itself, drawing listeners into a world of musical diversity and creativity.

The band has been releasing singles that provide glimpses into the album’s brilliance. The mosh-pit-worthy third single, “Send a Priest,” sets the stage for an intense and energetic experience. Meanwhile, the frenetic lead single, “Hickey King,” accompanied by its official music video, delves fearlessly into the complexities of power dynamics in relationships and intimacy.

The second single, “I’m Sorry For Always Apologizing,” comes with an engaging official music video directed by the award-winning Christian Papierniak, who adds a humorous touch to the deceptively joyous track.

The punk siblings’ fourth single, “Tiger At The Drugstore,” boasts an endearing official music video directed by none other than Kate Nash, adding a unique charm to the band’s artistic expression.

Photo by Travis Trautt

H! We are Skating Polly, a sibling trio from Oklahoma City, but we live in Tacoma, WA, now. My name is Peyton, and I mostly play guitar with a little bass and drums on the side, and I trade off on lead vocals with my step-sister Kelli, who also plays basitar (a three-stringed bass tuned to E, C#, and G#), guitar, and keyboard. Our brother Kurtis plays drums and guitar and has some backing vocals!

We just released our new double album, Chaos County Line, on El Camino Media. You can listen to it wherever you stream music or at one of our live shows!

Tell us about the inspiration behind your new album Chaos County Line.

I drew inspiration from so many things for the new record. As far as music goes, I was listening to a ton of Hop Along. I reintroduced myself to a lot of pop-punk I haven’t listened to since I was about 13 years old, and I was really into Cavetown during a lot of the writing. Most of the inspiration for me, though, came from things that were happening to me or around me. I had some really rough times over the past few years, and then things kind of turned around, and I felt better than I ever have before, and it gave me a ton of writing material to work with.

What was the songwriting and recording process?

The songwriting started with me and Kelli individually. We were living far apart for the first time ever, and so we ended up writing a lot of songs far apart from each other. Once the three of us were back in one place, we made a list of about 30 songs and song bits and took them all out to a cabin in the woods to hammer out some demos for our amazing producer, Brad Wood. As we got the demos tracked, we would send them to Brad. He sent us notes on each song, and we would rework them a little bit from there. We went in with Brad almost as soon as we finished at the cabin, but we were halted for a few days due to some family stuff. We also quickly realized we weren’t quite ready to start laying the songs down, so we headed back to Tacoma. We had a tour lined up and made plans with Brad to get back in with him after the tour. Turns out that was the best decision for us because when we got back, we were tour-tight and ready to record!

What do you hope your fans/listeners take away with them when they listen to your music?

I hope they can just feel as much emotion in whatever way makes sense to them as I did while writing and recording these songs. I feel like I’m putting myself on the line more than on any other song we’ve put out, and I hope that’s evident when people listen to it. These songs mean so much to me, and I am so excited and grateful to finally have them out there for everyone who wants them.

Will you be touring in support of your new music?

Yes!! We are actually on tour right now with two amazing bands, Bugsy and Jacklen Ro. It’s our first tour since the release, and it has been INCREDIBLE. We have such a lovely group of people with us, and we get to spend almost every night with an even larger group of lovely people who have been so kind to us and a lot of people who have been patiently waiting for our new music. And we plan to keep it up too! It’s been so fun playing the new songs, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it.

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