Minneapolis American synth-pop band Polica are currently touring the UK and visit Bristol’s Anson Rooms on October 18, playing tracks from their new album, United Crushers.
United Crushers is the bands third album and follows on from 2013’s Give You the Ghost and 2013’s Shulamith. The new release explores political and personal themes, while touching on social injustice, self-doubt and isolation and finding true and honest love in the wake of it all.
Andy Howells recently put questions to Ben Ivascu from the band.
How did you first start out in music?
I started playing drums when I was 12 in 6th grade band. That’s 30 years now. I’m old.
Who or what has inspired you most on your musical journey?
Being able to tour and meet people has probably been the most inspiring part about playing music.
Can you give us some background about your latest release?
We started writing/practicing new material for United Crushers during the winter of 2014. In April of 2015, we toured down to Texas performing the new songs to audiences in order to hone our parts. At the end of the tour we drove to Tornillo, TX (about 40 miles from El Paso) to record at very nice studio named Sonic Ranch. We worked there for 8 days.
You’re touring shortly are you looking forward to that?
Absolutely! I wish I could always be on tour. Performing is my favorite thing to do with my life. Plus, I love to travel. Long flights and drives are always worth it, to me.
What can people expect from your forthcoming Bristol gig?
We’ll be playing songs from all of our releases, but there will probably be an emphasis on the new album and maybe even a couple of songs we haven’t released, yet.
What are you enjoying listening to at the moment?
I really like the band Disappears from Chicago.
What else have you got planned for the rest of the year?
We’re doing a collaboration with a chamber group based out of Berlin called s t a r g a z e. We have a show booked in November at a theater in St. Paul, MN and are hoping to book another show and some recording time, too. It will be all new material specifically written for the performance. After that, our schedule is clear.