Photo Credit: Tom Green
Three years after their album Nova, Polar return with their brand new album Everywhere, Everything – released last month via Arising Empire. Pushing their boundaries and exploring new territory, the band teamed up with long-time collaborator Ellie Price for their single Rush, creating a song like no other in the Polar discography. We caught up with vocalist Adam Woodford to discuss the writing process, themes, the music video and more.
Can you give us your quick elevator pitch on this track? Why does this one standout for you?
For me it would have to be Rush. We wanted to explore musically the soundscape/shoegaze vibe with a very melodic vocal performance over it. It is a completely different style of song to anything that we have ever done.
How did you tackle the writing process for the song? Was there anything unique about this track compared to your usual/previous approach?
During the album writing process we had the music for this song, but we were very unsure as it wasn’t a natural sound for us. For a while, it wasn’t even contended to make the cut, until the lyrics, vocals and especially the chorus were written. That was when we knew we had something special on our hands. We brought in Ellie Price who is a long-time collaborator with Polar and, between us all, we worked super hard to make sure that song would be the best it possibly could be.
Can you tell us how the song’s theme came about?
During the pandemic and all the hard times through all the lockdowns, it really made me realise that I have a lot of caring people around me. Although the pandemic has created a divide and disconnection, as soon as you are back in the company of the ones you love it’s like you have never been apart.
Tell us about the video, do the themes of the single transfer to the video?
With Rush being a very colourful track, we wanted to complement the song with a very colourful and vibrant video. Noah See, our drummer, came up with the idea of using a kaleidoscope as the constant change of shape and colour could really work with the vibe of the song. We realised that may not be a big enough concept for a whole video, so we came up with the idea of using myself and Ellie as a duet and having the kaleidoscope idea running alongside it. We took the idea to Shaun at Loki Films who expanded it, and he made the idea come to life even more than we could have ever dreamed of. We love how abstract it is to a lot of previous ideas, it’s one of my personal favourites for sure.
Do you have any behind the scenes stories from the video shoot?
Unfortunately not, because we filmed the duets ourselves and then Shaun edited the video remotely. But a fun fact is that it was the fastest video we have ever shot. I think it took two hours to get the raw footage.
Anything else you’d like to add for our readers?
Thank you to everyone who checks out the song and the band. We really hope you enjoy our new record Everywhere, Everything.
Polar‘s new album Everywhere, Everything is out now via Arising Empire, available to stream or purchase HERE.
