Polly Money: “It’s ok to be like, yeah, I have my own place, and I deserve to be there”

After a stint with The 1975 on their recent touring extravaganza, it’s time to see POLLY MONEY at her very best.

Words: Martyn Young.

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Two years ago, Polly Money was one of thousands of supremely talented and extremely hard-working musicians putting in the hard yards as a session musician while working on songs in the background. A fortuitous call to join The 1975 on their now legendary At Their Very Best world tour changed everything. No longer just a working musician, Polly Money was now a cult star. After an 18-month trek in which she emerged as the breakout sensation of one of the biggest bands in the world’s celebratory global jaunt, Polly is now returning to her own music with the release of a stunning slice of indie-pop joy in ‘Anything’ with the promise of more to come. There’s a very good reason why The 1975 and their devoted fans fell in love with her, and now the rest of the world will get to see Polly Money blossom.

“It’s felt like a rebirth for my music,” smiles Polly as she reflects on a whirlwind 18 months. “When I came off tour in March, it was full go-time for getting ready for the first single. I had released a bunch of music before, but this is the first time I’ve done it with a bigger team behind me. It feels different. It feels like I’ve got a bigger platform and a few more fans behind me with this Polly Money thing. It’s been amazing to come off the tour, which I adored, and then to go back into my solo stuff. It’s really exciting.”

Playing music live is the lifeblood of Polly Money. “I love touring,” she says. “It’s a big thing for me. Whether it’s on my own or with somebody else, I just really enjoy it.” When the run of shows with The 1975 began, Polly was just another small cog in The 1975 juggernaut as they employed a bigger band to fill out the sound in support of their fifth album, ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’. “I kind of knew a few of the guys in the band from friends of friends,” she explains. “I had hung out a little bit with the guys, mostly the session musicians. When they were putting together the show for the latest album, they wanted a couple more multi-instrumentalists, and my name got put forward, which was really cool. I got a call, and we went from there.”

As the tour progressed from festival headlining shows to performances at the O2 Arena and Madison Square Garden, Polly’s role in the band – and most importantly, the show – grew until, by the end of the run, she had her own acoustic spot singing The 1975’s ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’ in the intermission while Matty Healy did whatever madness Matty Healy does, as well as turning beloved favourite ‘A Change Of Heart’ into a back-and-forth duet between Polly and Matty. “For the fans, it was something new,” she says. “Matty is such an amazing frontman, and every night is slightly different. He’ll do something, and you’ll just go with it, and it works, and it sticks.”

One thing that was the same every night, though, was Polly’s role in the set’s standout moment as the band performed the stunning ballad ‘About You’. “I’m not sure ‘About You’ was ever supposed to be so big for them, but it was a viral moment,” remembers Polly. “They put that in the show, and they obviously needed the female verse to be sung, so that was immediately put to me as I was the only other person who sang, and it just built from there. It was a really cool moment as it just so happened that I was singing for them in a viral moment. All eyes were on that verse, which was like, this is weird but great.”

While on tour, Polly never lost the impetus to keep on making her own music; instead, she had a new perspective, surrounded by some of the most creative people around, but also a slight twinge of apprehension at the same time. “It was a massively inspiring time,” she reflects. “When you’re singing those songs every night, you get more attached because you’re a part of it all. It was really inspiring but also quite daunting because I’d go back to my hotel room and be like, well, this song isn’t as good as ‘The Sound’. I was coming to terms with the fact that that doesn’t matter, and I’m just going to write music because I love it. It was so cool to be around the boys.”

That slight second-guessing of herself fed into the theme of her first single of this new era for Polly Money on ‘Anything’. “That song was about feeling imposter syndrome,” she admits. “At the start of being asked to play with The 1975, I was like, surely there are lots of people who could do this better? I was so welcomed into their crew and band, and it never felt like I wasn’t good enough, but just for myself, I would get back into my hotel room and think, any minute now, I’m going to be replaced. It was about playing for The 1975 but also general life and the opportunities I’ve been given – do I deserve them? Have I been worthy of them? The song starts like that, and the ending is realising that it’s all good, and yes, you do, and telling yourself that you deserve it. It’s mega cheesy, but it’s a feeling that I’m sure everyone has. It’s ok to be like, yeah, I have my own place, and I deserve to be there, and just own it a bit.”

“I’d go back to my hotel room and be like, well, this song isn’t as good as ‘The Sound’”

Once those feelings of doubt subsided, Polly came off tour ready to throw herself into her solo work, working with close friends and collaborators Connor James and rising producer Chloe Kraemer as she built up a collection of new songs that combined her love of guitar music and performing live with R&B and soul influences. “When I was growing up and getting into playing guitar, I grew up in Cornwall, so it was a big time for people like Newton Faulkner. If I’m thinking guitar-wise, he was one of the first gigs I saw, and I was just like, I want to play like that,” she says. “I was big into country music – the Dixie Chicks and Alison Krauss – I was so mesmerised by her voice. When I grew up a bit, I got massively into Frank Ocean. In my teenage years, it was Usher, Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake. I would fall asleep every night to Craig David’s ‘Born To Do It’.”

Polly released music under her own name earlier this decade and has songs written right back to when she was a teenager, but her music now in 2024 comes from a different place. “I’ve grown up a lot,” she says. “That seems very basic, but when I started music, I wasn’t out. My songs were a lot different, and my experiences were a lot different because they were a bit more confused. I was writing a lot of stories and other people’s experiences rather than my own. When I got into my twenties, I thought, oh well, it’s probably better I come out now. It led to a lot of coming-of-age experiences that fed into my writing and me as a person.”

Polly’s songs now are imbued with joy, freedom, and a wiseness of someone truly at peace with who they are and eager to seize every new opportunity. “We’re really enjoying the indie-pop vibe of everything right now. At my core, it’s always been pop with a little bit of R&B in there, but this new stuff is a little bit more indie,” she smiles as she describes her forthcoming music as 2024 winds on, with a headline show in London on the way and plans to get back on the road. “There are some songs related to me coming out and having those experiences. For people who are struggling a little bit, hopefully, that can help any young Polly 16-year-olds who are a little lost. We’re really enjoying songs that just feel really good and just like getting hugged by a really big duvet. I just love when stuff sounds warm and like jumping into a big bed.”

Taken from the October 2024 issue of Dork.