New Single: ‘ ANGLE DEATH’ Out 5th May

Images:Vincent Fernandez

Following the release of his English EP “Blue Moon Sketches”, which was well received by the public and the press, POL, a young indie-pop songwriter from Perpignan, is back with an acoustic French single, “Angel Death”.

This guitar-vocals track, recorded with raw, authentic energy, evokes an intimate story of love and grief.

Influenced by artists such as Miossec, Cali and Benjamin Biolay, POL plunges listeners in a captivating emotional journey reminiscent of a snowy Paris in the 60s.

1. For someone That Is Yet To Discover ‘POL’ And Would You Describe Yourself?

I would describe myself as a young artist based in Paris, from the South of France. At 20 years old, I immersed myself in a indie universe, drawing inspiration from various sources such as the Manchester scene of the 1980s, the electric indie vibe of the 2000s, as well as current trends in hip-hop, bedroom lo-fi, and more. My lyrics are the experiences and emotions drawn from my own journal, fuelled by love stories, and the freedom of youth. But beneath the surface, there is something filled with nostalgia, heartache, longing, and uncertainty I think. I listen to too much love songs !!
Every aspect of my music, from inception to completion, is crafted within the confines of my home studio.
So I recorded and mixed every songs of my EP in front of my computer in my bedroom.
With atmospheric saxophone licks, and explosive hybrid drumbeats, all blending with raw bass lines and guitar riffs reminiscent of both the Strokes’ edgy sound and dreamy, atmospheric choruses. And I can’t hide my French accent, so it’s part of the charm I hope !!

2. What Inspired you as an artist?

I believe that like many of my fellow musicians, sadness is one of the most inspiring things …
But I try to contrast this aspect with my energy and I can be a little bit crazy on stage so I don’t want to have only sad and slow songs in my set list. But I have to admit that in this days it is what inspires me the most.

3. What is your process for preparing to perform live? Do you have any Diva demands?

I’m with my friends on stage. They are trully musicians, they are truly my closest friends, I consider them family.
I like to make a lot of music with them, not just my own music.
More than a profession, music is a passion. We always try to give the best performance of our lives, but still we want to have a lot of fun on stage. We want to be proud of what we have just given on stage, like if we were about to die on stage.
We can carefully prepare a show but when we are on stage I must admit that we can easily get carried away by the energy and the emotions because we have confidence in what we have done in rehearsal. .
Diva asks: Oh yes, a lot! but it’s professional secrecy haha!!

4. Where do you feel you fit into the music landscape?

With Paul McCartney in The Fool On The Hill video. it looks like a great landscape 😉

5: What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any You Dislike?

If you listen to my music, you would probably say that I’m an indie boy who listen Arctic Monkeys and Mac Demarco every morning. But in fact, I listen to a lot of genres of music. I listen to a lot of albums now, fewer and fewer playlists.

It depends. I marvel as much on jazz fusion as on a basic pop song or a good old Velvet Undergound one.

There are some styles I have more difficulty with, I don’t want to do any generality. I think we need to stay curious and pay attention to our approach to listen to music if we want to preserve our different tastes and not create a single culture where everyone listens to the best-selling thing.

6. Where id the name come from?

My real first name is Paul. After the high school some of my friends called me “Pol” in their texts. Some years after I kept the idea, everyone validated, so it became POL.

7 What would you say is your greatest strength & weakness as an Artist?

The greatest strength of an artist is also the greatest weakness for me. It’s about emotions, we allow ourselves to feel things. As artists we are all more or less sensitive people.

8: What can fans expect from your new single ‘ Angel Death’.

It’s my first and only French song. For French artists who write in English we always hear « Yes I like it but why don’t you write in French ? » or « have you got French songs ? ». I was very young when I started to write the lyrics so for me, it’s like a text which has gone through all my projects, my bands, and now it’s in my catalogue as POL, it is also very personal and much more intimate than the authors songs of the EP. And secondarily it’s also destined to please the elders.

9:What **music artiest would you say have influenced your work?**

I can’t lie the biggest influence of my first EP was King Krule.

10. Who Would You Most Like To Collaborate With Artistically?

His drummer, is one of the best for me, so I will say Geoffrey Haddock. It’s his name. But in reality if I start to think about it, the list is too long.

11. What Was Your Worst Performance?

I’ve had some experiences with other bands I have played with. You know, When all your gear gets rained out, or when you have to make threats a bit to get paid, … but so far I’ve been lucky in this regard.

Recently the sound engineer of a club where we played was really atypical, let’s say. And I finished the last song in an acoustic voice and guitar with no sound in the sound system. Everything stopped, I don’t know how. But in the end it’s not the worst performance because it’s a good memory, we had a good laugh about it.

12: What Was The Most Difficult Obstacle, You Have Ever Faced And How Did You Overcome It?

Difficulties will come, there are plenty of them right now too. Especially when you make the choice to make a living from your music. But we work for it, we prepare for it, sometimes others difficulties arrive too quickly and we have to improvise, it’s all part of life.
The biggest difficulty is to continue to create difficulties. Then you have to move forward and never give up the way you have chosen.

13: What Is Your Creative Process When Making Music. Do You Work With Others Or Is There Just You?

With time, I’ve tested a lot of ways to create songs. What I have learned for the moment is : if your song sounds good with your voice and your guitar; it will certainly be good if you add other stuff to.

But if I start the process of making samples and loops, If I’m trying to find the biggest sounds of keyboard and I forget the next idea during it, … I get lost in my workflow and it’s super interesting to store bits of ideas on your hard drive but it will never give you the structure of your song.

So I tried to create the next album with this method in my head, I was able to sing only with my guitar the songs before any recordings. During the process others ideas come and I let them enter in my song, but I already know what sound I want to have.

So to answer your question, I composed most of the songs alone in my room. And for my first EP, I wrote, composed, recorded, mixed and performed each instrument alone, track by track. And then my friend Désiré Dago came to add his psychedelic licks on saxophone, and Paola Escorsa, the singer of my teenage
band, came to dub a few choruses. But it was in my head, I just didn’t know how to play the saxophone, and the midi sounds from computers sounded cheap and I couldn’t pitch my voice, it was better to a real feminine touch.

For the next album which I’m working on, I’m doing it differently. I wrote every part, and we recorded real drums in a studio, real strings, real backing vocals and percussion. Even if I have decided every part before the recording, I’m not in the same mindset, I am more opened to propositions.
I think I will push this openness even further by doing my third project in jam mode with friends or writing more or less defined themes but leaving freedom, or I don’t know, but not just me and my stupid ideas ahah.

Everything I want to get out seriously goes through the ears of one of my closest friends. I know we understand each other, so I trust in his advices and critics. It’s thanks to him that the songs from my first came out of my hard drive. It lasted, I’m very undecided, I would like to have no regrets on each piece that I
release. But you know, it’s good to force yourself to take them out too to build better things later.

14: Where do you see your musical career in 10 years?

Being on stage or in the recording studio to defend my umpteenth album. It will prove that it worked enough to be able to buy guitar strings and to feed myself haha ! I hope 🙂