Photo by Alex Lyon
Written by Megan Langley
New Jersey-based band Pollyanna released their sophomore EP, “Sugar Coat,” in late 2020. Just about a year after its initial release, the band followed it up with a deluxe reissue. We had the chance to talk with the band about the release and the newer songs and remixes found on it.
Megan Langley: Last year, you released your EP “Sugar Coat,” and more recently, you released a deluxe reissue of it. What has the release cycle for the EP been like & what has the reaction been like so far to newer songs on the deluxe edition?
Pollyanna: The original release cycle of the EP was a bit scattered because we didn’t even know if the songs we were recording were going to be put collectively on an EP until way later. We just were recording song by song every 6 months or so and until around February 2020, the idea of "Sugar Coat" formed.
We released "I Promise, I’m Lying" on November 19th and then released "Sugar Coat" in December 2020 so it took some time! It’s really nice to see a whole new wave of people listening to the deluxe version after a year of the EP being out.
A lot has changed in a year for us and it’s really cool to see the different reactions to our "Side B" of the EP.
ML: On the deluxe reissue, there are reimagined versions of “Don’t Stay, Don’t Go” and “IDKY.” What inspired you to make reimagined versions of those tracks, and will there be more of those in the future?
P: Surprisingly, most of these songs were originally written as stripped down acoustic guitar and vocals type songs and we’ve also played a few acoustic sets as a band before and thought it’d be really fun to actually put those versions out online. With the reimagined version of "IDKY", that song came to mind when thinking about indie bands such as Snail Mail with a very stripped back vibe to it.
There will definitely be more in the future for our unreleased music!
ML: In addition, you also created a hyperpop remix of “I promise, I’m lying”, how did that remix come to be? Will there be any more remixes of songs?
P: One time, I made the playback speed on the video for “I Promise, I’m Lying” to sounding super fast and it almost sounded like hyperpop music. We decided we just HAD to make a hyperpop version of that song and release it.
Aidan Fengya, who is a good friend of ours, made the entire remix and we were very positive it needed to be released after hearing it. Possibly some remixes but the next one might be even more unhinged.
ML: Did you feel inspired by doing reimagined versions and remixes to maybe incorporate these styles into more of your material going forward?
P: Though we will always have our soft side of writing acoustic songs or making simplified and stripped-down versions of songs, our new music is quite the opposite of all of that.
ML: There are also a couple of extra b-sides, “Monster” and “Friend.” What were the writing processes for those tracks and how would you compare those to the writing processes for the other songs on the EP?
P: I actually wrote a bunch of sad acoustic-type songs over quarantine and Fall 2020 and these were two of them that stood out to us. It was very different because instead of playing these live with the band immediately, I demoed them in my room since it was when we couldn’t see each other much. But the songs came together pretty fast.
ML: Anything else you'd like to add?
P: Y'all not ready for LP-One. The sound is almost completely different.
“Sugar Coat (Deluxe)” is available on all streaming platforms. To support Pollyanna, you can pre-order the EP on vinyl here and purchase other merchandise here!
Make sure to keep up with the band on Twitter @pollyannanj! While you're there, let us know who you want to see us interview next by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw.