Scene Point Blank: What’s one thing you wish everyone knew about Skating Polly?
Kelli: I guess just how versatile we can be. I think it's easier for people to think that we're a loud girl band or something. But one thing that I'm really proud of is our band is really versatile -- there’s lots of sides to us. It's funny. I'll have relatives who you know just go, “It’s not my thing” and I’ll go, “It's okay, Grandma. Have you heard this song?” [Laughs.] And then it’s, “Oh, that’s lovely. Why don’t you sing like that more?” [Laughs.]
Scene Point Blank: Broadly speaking your music is considered to be punk, or at least have a deep punk influence and appreciation. Is there ever a fear that you’re trapped in a box now as far as genre goes? Do you feel pressure to sound a certain way to appease fans?
Kelli: Not really. I think part of labelling ourselves Ugly-Pop was like, you know, when you make up your own genre, it can be whatever you say it is. Ugly-Pop is an oxymoron to me; it covers like all sides of the spectrum a little bit. The idea is every harsh song has a little bit of pretty in it and every pretty song has a little bit of weirdness or harshness or darkness in it. I don't feel too trapped in a box. Sometimes when we’re planning a live show, building a setlist, I feel like we have to do a certain number of the faster, louder ones. Those are also just fun to play. But you know, I think it's weird with Skating Polly fans. A lot of the songs that I am most proud of, that's what people end up latching onto the most as well. There's not been a lot of times where I've written a song and then been like, “Oh man, this one really got overlooked.” I mean, there are songs that are less popular than others. The ones that resonate with me the strongest usually strike a chord with other people as well no matter what genre it is.
Scene Point Blank: You kind of have a song for everyone then?
Kelli: Yeah, it feels like that. With this album, I sent it to a lot of my close friends and other musicians and everyone had different favourites and that's really exciting. So, it’s like they're all really good songs and it's more like what your vibe is.
Scene Point Blank: You’ve talked about Ugly-Pop as this idea of heavy melody mixed with imperfections and blemishes. As you refine your sound and continue to gain experience, is it more difficult to tap into the “ugly” part of Ugly-Pop?
Kelli: No, I feel like that's always very accessible to me. [Laughs.] First of all, as we've become better musicians, we’re pushing ourselves. A lot of the time me, Kurtis and Peyton will write parts that we can't quite play yet. So, there's still room there for errors, you're learning these parts that you're trying to play in the studio. When you aren’t editing yourself with robot perfection, there's always these really cool imperfections. There's always these cool moments, if you just, like, look under the rock and see who’s hanging out. I feel like that’s just part of playing music and putting yourself out there: you will just naturally kind of capture these things, these chatty moments. So no, it's not been hard to tap into that. “Ugly” has evolved in what it means to me. Ugly is a guitar flub we decided to keep in the track or sometimes the content of the song is about a really ugly feeling. Sometimes it's getting vulnerable with my voice in a way that's not the most proper singing but is still just a cool, real moment. To me, it's always been about not editing out humanity. That’s how you keep ugly and Ugly-Pop.
Scene Point Blank: It’s been five years since your last album. Does Chaos County Line feel like a chance to reintroduce yourselves? Or does it feel like you never left?
Kelli: I feel like our first tour after the pandemic was like the chance to reintroduce ourselves. It was the longest Kurtis, Peyton and I had been apart. I was living in LA a bit, I was living in Oregon a bit, so we weren't all together. I do really feel like the record, though, is a continuation of what we've always been doing from the start. But it's evolved and I feel like it's our best work yet. Of course I want to reach new fan --- but I think that people who’ve known about us will also like it. I think this will resonate with them. It's not like we were trying to recapture something we did before, but I really do feel like it was the natural progression of where everything started and kind of like everything's been leading up to this. [Laughs.] Which is like, “Where does the next one go?” which I don’t know. [Laughs.] Yeah, I'm really proud of it. I really do hope it reaches new people. That's another thing that actually happened during the pandemic. A lot of young, cool people found our music randomly. Our audiences have been a lot younger and made up of people who like to make their own clothes. It's like a Skating Polly Ugly-Pop fashion show every night. Like, it's really rad.
Photo by Karen Mason Blair
Scene Point Blank: I've been a fan for a while, and I’ve noticed younger people have recently started getting into your music too.
Kelli: Yeah, it hasn't always been like that. There have been some younger fans and I don’t think young people dislike us, but it's just like we weren't capturing the attention of a lot of young people. We were touring with X and these people that I think -- I don't know -- it's just our audience was a lot of older rockers and that was cool ‘cause it was people who really appreciated music and kind of music snobs, you know, who like Skating Polly. Now we’re catching on with younger people. I feel like the cool kids.
Scene Point Blank: A lot of your past merch has been DIY or handmade and Skating Polly generally carries a do-it-yourself ethos. Does it feel like you, as a band, are reviving a more DIY mindset in comparison to other bands today?
Kelli: I've definitely always been very pro DIY. Just this last tour we ran out of printed T-shirts so we went to Walmart, bought some white t-shirts, bought fabric markers, you know, and went for it. We are on a label -- a small label that’s been really great to us -- but it's funny ‘cause there's just still so much that we take care of. There is so much that we're constantly doing ourselves. It's cool because it would be very un-Ugly-Pop if we had that all streamlined and taken care of. It’s the only way to make sure we’re doing things the most Skating Polly way. I hope it inspires people to just do things themselves. It totally is the same mindset as Ugly-Pop, you know: to just go for it, make it, put it out there, it shouldn't be perfect.
Scene Point Blank: You started making music when you were pretty young. As you’ve aged did it ever feel like there was a point when you had to decide to try and take music on as a career and forgo a more traditional job?
Kelli: I've always known that I wanted this to be my thing. I mean, I'm living back with my parents now. There are times when I’m like, “Oh,” ‘cause I want to move back to LA. [Laughs.] There are times when I want to make more money, but I don't really consider something else as another career. It's just, “What else can I squeeze it so that I can make money while doing this?” There's definitely sacrifices I make so that Skating Polly can be my focus -- same for Peyton and Kurtis. Truly I don't see life without it. This is me and if it never gets to the level where I can just live off of my music then I'll just keep doing it at this level forever. I don't think that'll be the case. I think that things will keep growing and it's not something that I’m going to stop. Peyton and Kurtis feel the same way. We all just want to keep going with it forever. The things that it fulfils in our life couldn't be filled by anything else.
From: https://www.scenepointblank.com/features/interviews/skating-polly/
