Poliça have announced details of their new album, When We Stay Alive. You can hear lead track, ‘Driving’, alongside its video, above.
The final roots of the band’s first solo album in three years – having released a collaborative record with classical ensemble s t a r g a z e last year – lie in an accident that left frontwoman Channy Leaneagh with a smashed L1 vertebrae and battered spine that saw her in a brace with limited mobility for months. Half of the album was written before the accident and another half was written after.
A press release explains: "While recovering, Leaneagh’s doctor told her to focus not only on physical healing, but to meditate on the mental act of healing as well – working to erase the anger, regrets, and fear she felt about her fall. To do so, he suggested she rewrite the story she told herself about what happened [when she fell and sustained her injury]."
This process saw Leaneagh look further back into her past. "I felt there were many things I could look at and say, ‘This happened to me but I’m okay now,’" she explains. "’It’s not happening anymore and I got the care I needed for it. Now it’s time to rewrite the story I tell about myself and to myself.’"
Speaking about new track ‘Driving’ specifically, Leaneagh says: "Laying in bed, as I healed from a 10 foot fall of carelessness with my life, I would dream of running in green grass and tears would pour from my eyes. ‘Running in the tall tear grass; imagine wanting life and the want remains.’ That is a feeling to hold onto; that life is worth living even when all the towers are crumbling and this goes beyond my own little accident but the world around me. Following the crone into the sinking ship and having the chance to return without a shadow. Drive on, Drive on. A second chance you won’t forget."
Memphis Industries will release When We Stay Alive on January 31. The band will tour the UK in February of next year.
