Miles Parks, host:
Caroline Polacek’s new album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You begins with a howl.
(Sound bite for the song “Welcome to my island”)
Caroline Polachek: (spoken)
Parks: And a declaration.
(Sound bite for the song “Welcome to my island”)
Polachek: (singing) Welcome to my island. I hope you like it. you’re not leaving Desire, I want to be you
Parks: This is a great pop album that explores some of the most basic human instincts: desire, faith and desire. And the artist behind it, Caroline Polachek, has joined us.
Hello Caroline.
Polachek: Hello, Miles. Thank you for using our service today.
Parks: And thank you. Welcome to My Island, Weekend Edition of NPR.
Polachek: I love it.
Parks: I’d like to start with that opening song. That top section – I keep humming it to myself. Very catchy. It’s really interesting too. And immediately after that is the line “Desire, I want to be you”, which is also the title of the album. Can you tell me what those lyrics and what they say about this record as a whole?
Polacek: Obviously, it contains full comedy. For example, opening the album in full Tarzan mode immediately switches to this ’80s telephone operator-like voice of his. Much of the song’s comedy comes from the chord switching throughout the song. But the lyrics of the chorus, “Desire, I want to be you,” came to my mind without thinking. It wasn’t until a year and a half later that he began to seriously consider what the lyrics meant, and how the phrase incorporated some kind of paradox. The various meanings that can be extracted from that line are like holding an entire album within it.
Parks: Well, you mentioned Tarzan, and I feel like that – when I was writing a note about something I wanted to talk to you about, I…
Polacek: It’s like, don’t mention Tarzan, don’t mention Tarzan.
Parks: (laughs) No, no, no. no no I wrote the word “primitive”. Much of this album…
Polacek: Yes.
Parks: …I feel like I’m going back to basic human instincts. Let’s hear a little more. Back to the first single from the album, “Bunny Is a Rider,” which Pitchfork named Best Songs of 2021 upon its original release. Let’s hear.
(Sound bite from “Bunny is a Rider”)
Polachek: (singing) Bunny is a rider. Her satellite cannot find her. No sympathy. Nothing for free. Bunny is a rider. No sympathy. But I am very impersonal. Sure, I feel like a woman.
Parks: So this song is centered around this central character, this Bunny character. who is she?
Polacek: (laughs) I think the idea of the bunny in this song is just to be found, elusive, play by your own rules, don’t answer the phone. yes. I’m kind of cosplaying a little bit of a much more inaccessible version of myself than I actually am.
Parks: The way you walk the line between pop and experimental music feels very unique on this album. Then I would like to play a bit of the song “Pretty In Possible”.
(sound bite for the song “Pretty In Possible”)
Polacek: (singing) Time’s up, Innit? I feel sorry for the mayfly in the pool at dawn. But deep down, you can’t leave me alone. Cute Eliza is on the court. Possibility is the medicine. they never knew. you haven’t tried. But that’s what it looks like to me, that’s Bey.
Parks: So I kept playing this song on repeat. The more you listen to it, the more catchy it is, like a pop song, but it doesn’t have many traditional refrains. I mean, was that intentional, or did you want to play in a more traditional song structure for this album?
Polachek: You know, I’m a student of classic pop songwriting, and of course I feel like I still have a lot to learn. And you use the words experimental and pop as if they were opposites. But to me, frankly, I think a lot of the music that qualifies as experimental is very traditional, using ideas that have been around since the 1950s and 1960s, and even the same techniques. On the other hand, all these definitions of pop music seem downright silly to me. I think I only make things that excite me, things that I want to hear.
Parks: Let’s listen to “Butterfly Net” for a second.
(sound bite for the song “Butterfly Net”)
Polacek: (singing) There you were with the mirror, illuminating the world around me. I was there…
Parks: Your voice is very useful on this album. I was also curious about how you feel your singing has grown over the course of your career, how you’ve been working on that, and how you’ve been thinking about your voice production on this album. increase. the orchestra itself.
Polachek: The production always, always, always follows the melody. And, as you know, I’m the only one who edits my vocals. This is called comping, where you take your favorite parts from different takes and put them together into a patchwork that will become the final take. And for me, compilations are a big part of singing. I feel like there’s a very instinctive reaction going on in my body when I’m competing. I have a vague idea of what the version in my head is trying to do. And in many cases, the comp is the only version of it that holds together.
But of course there is the big challenge of learning how to sing it live. And then after six months of touring, when you go back and listen to the album version, this is what happens. You’re thinking, oh how I wish I could have recorded it so I could hear it on tour. Because as a vocalist you develop the style of the song very much. Learn how to jump off small corners of things and small ski jumps. One of the most fun things about playing live is developing your style in a very organic way.
(sound bite for the song “Butterfly Net”)
Polacek: (singing) There I was with my butterfly net trying to catch your light.
Parks: But now we’re getting into a bit of audio geek talk. But please allow me a little luxury…
Polacek: I’m sorry.
Parks: …because I’ve always really wondered how personal your take is, and with this album I feel like you’re getting over this. are you listening? What’s going on with the comping mix?
Polar check: comping. yes, that’s what it’s called. yes.
Parks: Right. How does it work in practice?
Polachek: Well, we record each take. I mean, for some songs, I like to record them from start to finish and then go back and check them line by line. And the cool thing is, when you’re halfway through the song, you start noticing patterns. I feel like you’re using take 5 a lot. For example, a song like ‘Butterfly Net’ that I heard earlier, this song has a cronely (ph), ballad-like feel to it, so I wanted to keep it very raw, big, big chunks, whole sections It is. The song has not been edited. For a percussive, rhythmic song like “Bunny Is A Rider,” I want the breath breaks and syllable breaks to be precise. And that doesn’t mean it’s always on the metronome grid. It just has to be right where it feels right. Those songs are really rhythmic and quite subtle, yes.
Parks: So, Caroline, you’ve just started your US tour. Can you talk a little bit more about how the tour shows new sides of these songs? Do you think you will discover something new when you play these songs live, or how will it change you touring and playing these songs live?
Polacek: Some of the songs on the album started touring long before they were actually released, and the live process really shaped the shape of the songs on the album. don’t know. In an era where work is highly crystallized in the studio and then interpreted live, it felt like a kind of archaic way of working. But also, you know, my audience loves to sing, and I feel very lucky to have that. Because not only is it super fun for us, but they sound great. For example, I love the audio aspect of all these voices joining the music. So, please talk to everyone who comes to the live.
Parks: And especially for “Billions”, you can imagine the part…
Polacek: Yes.
Parks: …the last one will probably be a very epic gig.
Polachek: There’s a song called “Billions” and then “Blood And Butter,” which has a big hymn-like chorus. Also, in the chorus, sometimes the voices of the audience are louder than mine, which is a lot of fun.
Parks: Caroline Polachek. Her new album Desire, I Want To Turn Into You is out now and she is touring. Thank you very much for your participation.
Polacek: Thank you. gladly.
(sound bite for the song “Billions”)
Polachek: (singing) I’ve never felt you so close. I’ve never felt you so close. I’ve never felt you so close. I’ve never felt you so close.
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