Bidborough’s Pollena talks to us about freestyle synth, little pools of rain and being Lauren Laverne’s Track of the Day

Infectious with optimism and awash with warmth, Pollena has been cultivating earworm tracks since 2019.

The Bidborough native caught her break during the pandemic lockdowns, when her lifelong hobby of writing songs received the focus to allow a flurry of releases, culminating in last year’s EP Rising being hailed well beyond the borders of Kent.

Having honed her vocal talents during a tour with neo-soul outfit Girlhood, Pollena’s own project is well and truly in take-off mode.

With 50,000 plays on Spotify alone, single Stand Up has been backed on New Music Friday UK and BBC R1 and was Lauren’s Laverne’s Track of the Day on 6 Music.

Pollena’s music is as rich in psychological depth as it is wide-ranging in style, from the spacey synths of Black Holes in which the artist is “searching for a way out of the darkness, trying to hold on to a glimpse of light through connection”, to the UK garage-inspired Diamonds, of which Pollena says: “I’m sick of society pressuring us into lives we don’t want. We blindly follow the paths set out for us and do what’s expected - we simply don’t have to”.

Funny and accommodating, Pollena allowed us to disturb her Masters studies to become a voice tutor for a quick chat to find out more…

Hey Pollena, firstly for people that don’t know your music, how would you describe your style?

Oh, goodness, well. I want to say it really well. It’s so hard, I used to describe myself as like leftfield electronic, but now I feel like it’s gotten more soulful, I’d say it’s kind of like neo soul electronic music. I mean, that doesn’t sound great. Slightly soulful, slightly poppy. I will let you describe it. Because each track is so different.

That’s fair enough! Have you always wanted to be in music?

I’ve written since I was, like, seven years old. So it’s always been like a passion. But I’d never had the guts to release anything.

A few years ago I went touring with Girlhood, who are a neo soul band who have done really well - they’ve got millions of plays on Spotify - and we went to Iceland and did a festival there. And we played Latitude and all this really fun stuff and I absolutely loved it.

What was the next step to becoming a recording artist?

I was doing some vocals for them and while I was doing that a producer in the audience asked to work with me. So I made a song with him - this was back in 2018 - but it was on the back-burner because I had my day job.

It was in the pandemic where I was, like, “Oh, I can just put it out there and see what happens now”. And that was this one track I have with him called The Pool. So I released that and then Lauren Laverne played it on BBC Radio 6 Music. I was, like, ‘What the f*ck?’.

After that, it just got me way more opportunities.

We saw that! You’ve been featured on quite a lot of shows and playlists already...

I know. I don’t even know how that happened. Because usually you have to have labels and stuff like that. But my most recent track got onto New Music Friday on Spotify and all these crazy things.

So you aren’t signed at the moment?

From my second single onwards I started working with people who had worked with Girlhood. They’re called Team Talk Records.

It’s funny, I mean, I’m not signed with them. I can go off and do whatever I want. So I’m like an independent artist, but they do help me out.

Yeah! So, your EP Rising came out last year, tell us a bit about the lead-up to that..

I met different producers along the way that I liked, for my first four singles. And then I wanted to create an EP that can showcase what I can do and reveal my taste and just have a bit more ownership of. Rising came out in December and I did that with a guy called Footshooter, who I did my third single Stand Up with. It was such an amazing process. I got it crowdfunded as well. It was crowdfunded within 12 hours or something crazy. Which was really, really great.

Was that your ‘Wow’ moment as an artist?

There’s been so many, it’s been so weird, honestly, it’s so funny I just feel like you never think that these things would happen to you.

I think, most recently, making the New Music Friday playlist on Spotify was pretty big. When I found that out, I was screaming from the rooftops and so happy because it’s just so competitive to get on playlists like that.

Being on Radio 1 was really surreal. I was, like, ‘What? I’m seeing my name with that logo!’.

I think also just singing live has been really amazing.

I think we saw a video of you performing live a few weeks back on your Insta page…

I sang recently in Brighton - me and Max Wheeler, who released Away - one of my recent singles on French label Kitsune Musique. We freestyled all night long.

I was on the mic and making it echo and he had this kit with him and these big suitcases full of wires and all these crazy synths. We just made all of these songs on the spot and people were coming in to watch. And I was writing about them on the spot - that was like the best.

So, some sort of impromptu jazz-sesh-type synth thing?

Yeah, it was. It was like the best night ever. It was funny when I said that to my husband - he was, like, ‘Not our wedding?’. I was, like, ‘Oh, oops!’.

Does that impromptu style bleed into your writing process?

When it’s a collaboration as opposed to me releasing it on my own - with Max, for instance, he sends me like a backing track that doesn’t have too much movement. And then I’ll write a verse, bridge or chorus.

And then he’ll edit it based on what I’ve done. And then I’ll give my feedback and they’ll give my feedback to me. And it’ll just be this collaborative thing until the thing is created.

That’s my favourite way of working. When it’s a collaborative process, you want them to get as much out of it as you get out of it. And you want them to be, you know, as good as they can possibly be.

So collaboration is key?

What I’ve kind of realised over the past few years is that while it is really nice to get those really cool things yourself, what’s nice is the creating. That moment of making something with someone else and chatting to them about it afterwards - that’s kind of amazing. And you meet amazing people as well.

In the past few years I’ve had photographers and videographers get in touch from hearing my music and saying ‘Oh, let me take some pictures for this or help you out with that’. And it’s just been such a collaborative community. All of that is so much more meaningful.

You’re studying at Central at the moment - do you get back to Kent much?

I love Kent so much. Can I shout out to some places that I like? So there’s Gusta in Tunbridge Wells. They’re all Italian and it’s a really sweet family-run business. And they have the most delicious food and amazing coffee. And everyone needs to know about it.

Is that sort of place where you’ll go and hang out when you’re here?

I will hang there, yeah. I like Penshurst Place as well. It’s cool to walk around. I wrote some of the songs from the EP walking around there.

Black Holes started there because I remember walking around on my own and I had the beat, dun, dun, dun. I must have been inspired because on the walks they have lots of, like, holy bits and little pools of rain and stuff.

Surely it would have been better to write The Pool there, right?

I actually wrote The Pool in a pool.

Of course. Have they still got the maze there?

I think they do, but I didn’t go inside that bit. I’m not that boujee, because I think you have to pay for that - I just went round the free bit.