Why Does Electronic Music Sound Like Shoegaze? Art School Girlfriend on Lean In, positive nihilism, and making music for fun

What does it mean to lean in? Not to your career, not to the algorithm but to the act of making music itself?

Polly Mackey, the artist, musician, songwriter and producer behind Art School Girlfriend, nearly walked away from releasing music altogether. Instead, she built a studio in East London, completed a Master's thesis on how electronic music can feel human, and made Lean In, her third album, out now on Fiction Records. It might be the most emotionally honest thing she's made.

In this conversation, Polly and Sean talk about why she's drawn to the emotional geography between shoegaze and electronic music, the Ableton water-simulation plugins that shaped the record's sound, and what it felt like to study her own creative process while writing the songs. They also get into the bigger questions: Is the album format in crisis? Who actually benefits when music is "democratised"? And what happens to the music industry when the barrier to entry used to be £350 rent in Dalston?

Plus: Polly's memories of trying to buy a Slayer album at 10 years old, what her three records taste like (one of them tastes like tears), touring as a three-piece with her wife Marika Hackman, and a genuinely lovely answer about what she hopes music looks like in 2050.

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Links
Art School Girlfriend: artschoolgirlfriend.co.uk
Marika Hackman: marikahackman.com
Shy Radicals (film/book): Good Press
Foundation FM: Art School Girlfriend's Radio Show

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Edited by: tell.studio (Phil, Louisa, Owen, Matt)

Chapters

00:00:00 - Introduction and Qobuz playlist

00:02:27 - Meet Polly Mackey

00:03:50 - Soft Landing vs Lean In

00:06:30 - Growing up on nu metal in North Wales

00:09:30 - What music would taste like

00:10:54 - Why electronic music sounds like shoegaze

00:13:50 - The Slink Devices water plugin

00:18:00 - Rewilding electronic music

00:19:15 - The MA thesis: sonic objects of intimacy

00:20:10 - Digital silence and The New Analog

00:24:00 - Positive nihilism

00:27:50 - Emma's newsletter ad

00:28:34 - Is the album format in crisis?

00:33:50 - Self-producing Lean In and mixing with Riley MacIntyre

00:34:10 - Sensory overwhelm and Doing Laps

00:36:00 - Translating the record to the live stage

00:38:57 - Qobuz ad

00:40:13 - Shy Radicals, Arlo Parks and the queer bookshop

00:43:40 - £500 million: geography vs class in the music industry

00:51:30 - How to ethically support artists you love

00:52:38 - What music should look like in 2050

00:54:35 - Outro