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Polly Paulusma

Polly Paulusma

recording artist, songwriter, producer, label founder, researcher

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Posted on September 17, 2010September 17, 2019 by admin

Protected: Press release: The Birth of an Album in Real Time

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I had such a good time playing songs at the Cambri I had such a good time playing songs at the Cambridge Folk Club last night. A roomful of people joining in on a chorus feels more special than normal right now. And a great set from Anna Hester, supporting in every sense. Thank you to everyone who came. More, please! #livemusic #live #acoustic #folk #songwriting #songs #singalong #cambridgefolkclub #cambridge #folksong #angelacarter
Frosty run with Mick and Charlie 🐾 this morning Frosty run with Mick and Charlie 🐾 this morning down Stourbridge Common. Stopped to help two different cyclists who had wiped out in front of us. Blood and tears all over the place. And frosty beauty.
I'm doing an Autumn Tour of live dates to celebrat I'm doing an Autumn Tour of live dates to celebrate the September release of my fifth album, 'The Pivot On Which The World Turns'. ⠀ ⠀ My last album of self-penned songs, 'Leaves from the Family Tree', was released ten years ago in 2012; since then 'Pivot' has felt like an accretion, a slow growth, a bit like a personal stalagtite of songs.⠀ ⠀ I do hope you'll join me as I come out on the road to find you and share these new songs and play some old ones. I've REALLY MISSED you, and missed doing gigs. It will be fantastic to be out again and doing what I love most.⠀ ⠀ More at my website link in bio.⠀ See you there!⠀ ⠀ #livemusic #tour #acoustic #folk #indiefolk #songwriting #songwriter #song #guitar #martin
Happy New Year! We jumped in a strangely warm sea Happy New Year! We jumped in a strangely warm sea at Brancaster yesterday evening and afterwards ate mussels. This morning a beautiful sunny walk around Mill Road Cemetery. Start how you mean to continue… #happynewyear #littlethings #coldswim #beach
Happy Christmas to you x Happy Christmas to you x
DEAL #15 - last day of my crazy Christmas Calendar DEAL #15 - last day of my crazy Christmas Calendar sale - and today’s offer is a gift-wrapped 4-CD bundle for an insane £20 available for one day only! Send the gift of music to a loved one. Only 10 available. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio) Here we go then, a sort of greatest hits, or story so far. With ‘Pivot’ coming out next year the story, with luck, continues. But it’s a good moment for me to pause and say Thank You: to the universe for all these blessings and opportunities, to Derek and all at the One Little Independent label that support so many incredible artists. And to you, dear reader, for your interest and care this year and always, for the support you lend in whichever way you do, whether that’s reading or sharing this post, or coming to a gig, or buying a CD or two, perhaps spinning my songs on the radio or to your friends, or throwing some pennies in my Patreon hat once a month (patreon.com/pollypaulusma). All these things help the next songs get written. But the most important way you support me is by feeling a connection to a song, When that happens, it makes everything worthwhile. So thank you for the connections. Love and Christmassy joy to you all. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio)
DEAL #14 I’ve gone mad today — someone’s fil DEAL #14 I’ve gone mad today — someone’s filled me with festive spirit (is that distilled?!) because I’m offering you a crazy #vinyl deal today — the regular LP of ‘Fingers & Thumbs’, usually £15, for JUST £7.50 — TODAY ONLY! I’ll sign if you ask, as ever. Just tell me a name to write it to. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio) Owning an album on vinyl is always a slightly different proposition to digital or even CD: for some reason (maybe the danger of scratching it) you feel a great responsibility, a debt to give it your full attention. In return, it gives you the music to pay attention to, a ritual that creates a ring-fence of time, and massive artwork to read and enjoy. I think that’s a fair exchange. The cover photo was taken by the exceptionally talented John Sault when I was 39 weeks' pregnant. He captured the residual drops of what owning your own life looks like. This is the beautiful vinyl version of my 2007 album ‘Fingers & Thumbs’, recorded in Liverpool’s Parr Street Studio with the legend Ken Nelson. In preparation for the life pinnacle experience of working with me, Ken cut his teeth on producing albums for some smaller acts: Coldplay (the good ones at the beginning), Badly Drawn Boy and Kings of Convenience, among others. It was a dream come true for me to work with Ken and his brilliant team. My whole sound palette had shifted one day on tour in Portugal when, as we were leaving Lisbon, Neil Young’s ‘Down By The River’ had come on the radio. I was hearing what the inside of my chest felt like, and how I wanted the songs I was writing, mostly about my repeated miscarriages and all the dead babies on my mind, to sound like. With Rastko (drums) and Ale Maranca (bass) and Ken, that dream was realised. It is a raw and uncomfortable and true album. And it sounds really good on vinyl. Hope you get to enjoy it, or give it to someone who will. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio)
DEAL #13 - Today’s bargain in my Advent calendar DEAL #13 - Today’s bargain in my Advent calendar of deals 1-15 December is the digital download of 'Fights & Numbers' ONLY £3.50 TODAY ONLY! The sister album of alto-versions/demos to 'Fingers & Thumbs’, I particularly love this shed demo of 'Back to the Start'. Cult classic. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio) Some of these tracks were recorded in the dining room of my parents' old house at Croxton that I only afterwards discovered was called rather grandly 'the music room'. Explains why it sounded so gorgeous, the acoustics always made me want to weep. I wanted to record versions of these songs that were closest to the ways in which they had been written, having been carried off in a gorgeous wave of electricity in the hands of Ken Nelson at Parr Street for the ‘real’ record. So I rented a load of lovely gear and set up, heavily pregnant, at my parents’ house for a week to record these. It’s beautiful now to have both versions. #christmas #gift #treat #acoustic #songwriting #songwriter #process #song #guitar #selfproducing #indiefolk #folk #secretsanta #givemusic #helpmusicians
DEAL #12 -Today’s offering is the CD or digital DEAL #12 -Today’s offering is the CD or digital download of my 2012 album ‘Leaves from the Family Tree’ (2012), which burst out of me when the kids were very tiny, and which was possible to make thanks to the arrival (just in time) of our beloved au pairs Sona and Marta. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio) The weird and wonderful cover photo by Rory Lindsay @rory.lindsay.photo contains all kinds of hints and clues pointing towards my family members, and the inner artwork by Rima Staines @tilsamka who made ‘The Woods’ video presents a beautiful surreal family scene. 

 The strings were provided by the amazing composer Michael Price @michael__price who created the arrangements and then recorded them at the end of another session he was doing at Pinewood Studios for himself. I was able to pop in and listen, and I will never forget the feeling of being there. Avenues of concrete and plywood and then you walk into a studio and the magic of what’s going on inside just hits you. 

 So - grab yourself another Christmas bargain! We only have 3 more days of these deals left. HALF PRICE TODAY ONLY! CD £5 or download £3.50! pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com #christmas #gifts #givemusic #secretsanta #giftideas #acoustic #songwriter
DEAL #11 Today's jaw-droppingly gorgeous treat is DEAL #11 Today's jaw-droppingly gorgeous treat is 'Clear Lake' (2011), the feel-good indie movie directed by @mickpaulusma (no relation (joke - he’s my husband)) and starring the mountainous talent of #roddypiper, for which I did the bluegrassy soundtrack. DVD £5, and digtal music soundtrack £3.50 - both HALF PRICE TODAY ONLY! pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio) ‘Clear Lake’ tells the story of Jimmy, a boy who misses getting up close to the snow goose migration when his mother is killed in a car crash. Years later, caring for his disabled, domineering father (Piper), he gets another chance. It’s a really beautiful film, very gentle, heartwarming, and it circles around ideas of growing up without hurting each other. Mick wrote, produced and directed the movie; we rented out our house and couch-surfed with a toddler and a bun in the oven in order to do it. I loved making the soundtrack. You know those images of decimated white coral reefs on nature documentaries? Well, that was what my musical brain felt like after having two babies under three. Bleached, scorched. This film project was like a coral transplant. It gave me a project for which I didn’t have to generate the original emotion, but just respond: a creative transplant. I”m not saying it wasn’t stressful. It was incredibly stressful, and it took years and years of concentrated effort to pull off. But I am so proud of us for doing this film, against the odds, with masses of support from friends and family who responded to crowdfunding pleas (oh yes, more of those) and then gave us places to stay, dinners, caravans, and pep talks when we were running out of steam. I honestly can still feel all that communal love in it. The DVD comes with the stunning artwork designed by Pete Manley @madefourcreative who has done all my album artwork since forever. Mick and I will sign any DVD copies purchased today if requested. The soundtrack has always been available as a digital download, so we can't sign it, but we'll be thrilled if you buy it. Get yours today! pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com
Deal #10: my Christmas Calendar Countdown hits dou Deal #10: my Christmas Calendar Countdown hits double digits with the digital download of ‘Cosmic Rosy Spine Kites’ ONLY £3.50 TODAY! ⠀ ⠀ https://buff.ly/3oHtfu5⠀ ⠀ ��‘Cosmic Rosy Spine Kites’ (2005) was the sibling album to ‘Scissors In My Pocket’ which had been released the year before. Take a look at the cover and you’ll see the nearly-anagram it makes. My mum drew that picture as well as the cover for ‘Scissors…’. I wanted to release a sister-album to the main event, the same songs but different versions. I was very lucky in 2004 to support Jamie Cullum on one of his UK tours for ‘Twentysomething’, and I recorded the set when we played Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. So seven of the songs are that show. The other four I created string quartet arrangements for, and recorded in a small studio in Tooting.⠀ ⠀ A little story: I was heavily pregnant in 2006 when my cousin was dancing in a schools competition at London’s Sadler’s Wells theatre. We watched lots of very talented young dancers, and my cousin was spectacular. As the judges deliberated, a rising star - a 16 year old American dancer - was to perform a routine. As the music began, I turned to Mick… I really recognised it but it took me a moment to figure it out. It was the '...Spine Kites' version of 'I Was Made to Love You', and she did the most beautiful dance to it. I was absolutely thrilled ad bowled over to see someone take something I’d made and take it to a new place. It was a very special moment.
Deal #9: My Christmas Advent Calendar Sale continu Deal #9: My Christmas Advent Calendar Sale continues today with the last of the ‘Give It Back’ singles in a white sleeve. Available TODAY ONLY for a crazy £2.50! pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio) Today’s deal is definitely for the #vinyl lovers out there. Earlier this week I found a box of 7” vinyl I didn’t even realise I had. These white sleeve singles were hiding amongst the test presses I keep safe. ‘Give It Back’ will always have a special place in my heart for two reasons. Firstly, it was a favourite song of a manager I was working with in 2002, Tony Meilandt, who helped me in so many ways. Secondly, my husband Mick Paulusma directed the video for the single’s release and we had a freakishly hot sunny April day shooting at Birling Gap on the south coast, dodging the naturists and pretending we were in Greece. Check it out on Youtube (search 'Polly Paulusma Give It Back'). The B-side ‘Two Stars’, with its forest of glockenspiels, owes a huge sonic debt to my friendship with and musical admiration for Adem, whose amazing album ‘Homesongs’ came out around the same time as ‘Scissors…’ They always felt like aural twins. So - grab this little bit of vinyl history. £2.50 TODAY ONLY! Snap up a Christmas bargain. Visit pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com (link in bio).
DEAL #8 of my Christmas Calendar Countdown is a pr DEAL #8 of my Christmas Calendar Countdown is a proper steal — my debut album ‘Scissors In My Pocket’ (2004) on CD or digital download, for a crazy £5, today only! Visit my bandcamp page - pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch ‘Scissors…’ was a labour of love. I taught myself how to record using a DAW (back then it was Cubase) and I set up on a big old hulky mac in a corner of our garden shed in London. I was literally wedged in between the flower pots and the lawn mower, heated in the winter months by a very dodgy gas heater that would sputter out suspiciously. It’s a wonder any of us made it. I had the computer, the DAW, a little nanocompressor, and one microphone. Some parts were recorded in a studio: the piano songs were done at other times, and the upright bass (Oli Hayhurst) and drums (Rastko Rasic)were recorded in one very long day by sound engineer Jon Wilkinson, and the string quartet (Elysian Quartet) on a subsequent half-day a few months later, at the same place: a rat-infested swimming pool studio heaving with spiders — I know, that’s a whole 'nother story… But aside from these tracks, which required people playing together, I recorded everything you can hear using that one little microphone or plugging in directly into the computer in the shed: guitars, vocals, the trumpet, the dulcimer, everything. The bulk of the recording took place through that heatwave summer that was 2003: the sun came out in March and went away in October, just as I signed a record deal with One Little Independent and discovered that they were going to release my album just the way it was. Uncut •••• ‘the finest young British female singer-songwriter to emerge over the last 12 months’ MOJO **** ‘complete pure and personal’
Telegraph ‘outstanding’
AllMusic.com ‘a spectacular debut’
Rolling Stone ‘an enchanting debut of understated, intelligent folk pop’ Nic Harcourt, KCRW ‘the best album to come out of the UK this year’

 #christmas #stockingfiller #givemusic #gift #musicians #helpmusicians #secretsanta pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch A new deal tomorrow... check back!
DEAL #7 of my Advent Calendar Christmas Giveaway i DEAL #7 of my Advent Calendar Christmas Giveaway is the very last of the black t-shirts from my album ‘Fingers & Thumbs’. https://pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch/black-ladies-t-shirt-fingers-thumbs Only six t-shirts remain in my shed stash, 3 mediums and 3 smalls, so this could be the very last chance to grab one. They have a lovely retro feel about them. By 'ladies' I just mean the style (stretchy elasticy rather than baggy and flappy). Here's a very handsome man wearing one and he looks great. I hate the gendering of clothes, it's a nonsense. #christmas #stockingfillers #secretsanta #gift #giftideas
DEAL #6 of this mini advent calendar giveaway is a DEAL #6 of this mini advent calendar giveaway is a jewel in the crown - this year’s release ‘Invisible Music: Folk Songs That Influenced Angela Carter’, offered just for today for the insane prices of £6. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch This album partly explains my radio silence since 2012’s ‘Leaves from the Family Tree’. I began doing some ad hoc teaching at Cambridge for the English Faculty, and with encouragement from some colleagues, in 2014 I enrolled to do my Masters with a cool research idea: I had recently discovered that Angela Carter had sung folk songs during the 1960s, and I wanted to explore how being a singer might affect the way a writer writes. I was accepted at Kings College London to do my MA: I went there because Carter’s biographer Edmund Gordon was teaching there. The MA rolled into a PhD at UEA with Stephen Benson, the Carter and literary music expert. It felt natural to me to demonstrate through singing myself what I was writing about, and the result was this record, in which I sang the songs and put readings from Carter’s novels and short stories side by side. Kathryn Williams and Kirsty Logan helped me with the readings, adding their dulcet tones to the final recording. I finished my PhD at the height of lockdown in December 2020, and I am honoured to say that Bloomsbury Academic will be publishing it as an academic book next year. pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch
DEAL #5 of my extraordinary shed merch corner deep DEAL #5 of my extraordinary shed merch corner deep dive is the CD or digital download of ‘The Small Feat of My Reverie’ (2014), sister album to ‘Leaves from the Family Tree’ (2012), available today for a steal at only £5! I'll sign any CDs as requested - tell me a name. Visit: pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch 'Small Feat' contains 16 tracks - 12 alternative versions of the album songs on 'Leaves...', demo versions and things like that - and then - unusually for a sister album of mine - 4 entirely new songs, never released anywhere else. I think it was because these were what I considered the B-sides for this record, and it seemed a good place to get them out. The painting on the front is a detail from a big portrait my mum painted of me between 2006 and 2008. In the picture I am reading a book, and it's 'The Count of Monte Cristo'; anyone who is the child of a portrait painter will know the tyranny of having to sit; this time I insisted she let me read something. I picked something long and gripping; I was not disappointed. What a novel. My 'sister' albums have become something of a tradition since I released 'Cosmic Rosy Spine Kites' as a sister album to 'Scissors In My Pocket' in 2005. The names are always anagrams or near-anagrams, in case you were wondering why they are so weird. 'Fingers & Thumbs' had the digital-only 'Fights & Numbers', and 'Small Feat' was the equivalent for 'Leaves'. I will be making 'Cosmic' and 'Fights' available later in this sale (10 Dec for 'Cosmic' and 13 Dec for 'Fights' if you want to collect them, although they are digital only). There's a wonderful review by Helen Gregory for Folk Radio of 'The Small Feat of My Reverie' if you want to read more about it before you buy. Just google 'the small feat of my reverie folk' and it comes up. #christmas #givemusic #stockingfillers #secretsanta #giftidea #helpmusicians #gift #gifts #christmascountdown #sale #folk #indiemusic #indie #indiefolk #acoustic
Red chilli jam time. 🌶 🌶 🌶 Red chilli jam time. 🌶 🌶 🌶
DEAL #4 - Here’s today’s Christmas Calender Co DEAL #4 - Here’s today’s Christmas Calender Countdown offer - a super-soft rare yellow t-shirt from ‘Scissors’ for S ladies or kids aged 10-12, a handful left, TODAY ONLY £5! pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch/yellow-ladies-t-shirt-scissors-in-my-pocket There’s a really beautiful balloon detail on the reverse of these t-shirts which always catches me in the throat in a good way. It’s taken from the album artwork drawing for the song ‘One Day’ which has a middle verse about getting in a hot air balloon. The whole song is about trying to escape from a set of difficult emotions and never really being able to get the distance required to analyse calmly. In the third verse I resort to a rocket, but even that doesn’t work. My wonderful artist mum drew all the illustrations for ‘Scissors In My Pocket’ - she’s an amazing portrait painter - do check out her work at louiseriley-smith.co.uk. I digress. This t-shirt offer is the fourth offering of my Christmas Calendar Countdown, running from 1-15 December where I make one item in my shop HALF PRICE for one day only! Keep an eye out and nab yourself some interesting, non-generic, one of a kind gifts for you and your loved ones. And help a musician at the same time. Win win. #stockingfillers #secretsanta #giftideas pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com/merch/yellow-ladies-t-shirt-scissors-in-my-pocket
DEAL #3 - Today’s iteration of my crazy Christma DEAL #3 - Today’s iteration of my crazy Christmas Calendar Countdown is the CD or digital download of my second album ‘Fingers & Thumbs’, released in 2007, signed as requested, ONLY £5 TODAY ONLY. Christmas Calendar Countdown, running from 1-15 December, involves me offering you crazy HALF PRICE gift deals! The offer lasts for 24 hours only - a different item each day. Today’s item, ‘Fingers & Thumbs’ (2007), reflects the agony I was going through at the time as my partner and I tried to conceive a baby and I kept having miscarriages. It explores themes of loss and violence; trigger warnings abound. And because of the subject matter I was drawn to a palette of harder instruments: electric guitars, reverbs, feedbacks, organs with more bite. I was lucky enough to work at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios with Ken Nelson, the kindest and most patient man and acclaimed producer of the early (best) records by Coldplay, alongside Kings of Convenience, Badly Drawn Boy, and a host of other heroes of mine, who just made the whole album hum with a glorious ambience that gave hope to the material. It was a difficult record to write, but an easy one to make, an uncomfortable but truly authentic response to that time in my life, and I am insanely proud of it. Check in daily for a new special offer. #stockingfillers #secretsanta #giftidea #gift pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com
Christmas Calendar Countdown... DEAL #2 - I have Christmas Calendar Countdown... DEAL #2 - I have found 4 copies of the original Dark Side CD single and they are today’s half price offer for you - just £2.50 today only - signed on request. Half price sale 1-15 December, a new item each day. Check tomorrow for new #stockingfillers #secretsanta #giftideas pollypaulusma.bandcamp.com
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