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Polly Money is making a name for herself. After gaining countless fans from touring with the 1975 as part of their expanded tour band, she’s releasing more of her own work with her latest EP, T-shirt Nothing Else. Polly Money chatted with us from her home studio on an unusually sunny London day to chat about putting together the new project, imposter syndrome, and the approaching festival season.

OnestoWatch: I love when projects are titled with a lyric versus a song title. What led you to name the EP T-shirt Nothing Else? 

Polly Money: It’s the first line of one of the tracks, “T-Shirt”, on it and I just like, for me it’s kind of really descriptive of like a feeling you get with somebody when you’re not fully clothed. It’s quite intimate and sort of like if you get to that stage with somebody, I think it’s quite special, so I quite like the imagery of it. 

Awesome! Speaking of imagery, I’m dying to know what kind of t-shirt you’re wearing in “T-Shirt” 

I think in this context, well the t-shirt I’m wearing right now it’s just a white t-shirt, but it’s sort of an oversized, baggy type t-shirt you’d wear in the morning. 

That’s perfect. I want to talk a little bit about the tracklisting, because I think “30 Minutes” follows “i’m not proud” perfectly, because it feels like the second part of that story. What was it like choosing the order for the songs on the EP, and are there any songs that didn’t make it, but we might hear in the future? 

When I was listening to the songs that I’d chosen for the EP, I hadn’t really realized that they sort of spell out a bit of a story. Sometimes when you haven’t quite separated yourself from the process, you realize that actually all the songs you write in that moment kind of create something bigger. That’s kind of what happened with this EP. I was just kind of listening to it and “i’m not proud” has a little bit of a, it’s quite cheeky, it’s sort of fancying someone when maybe you shouldn’t, and then “30 Minutes” is the realization that actually those kind of feelings, those quite sort of juvenile, excited feelings actually become very real.

It’s kind of the guilt of leaving something else behind, starting something new and how that feels. I think at first it can be really exciting to dive into something new, but it’s also, it’s scary and stuff comes to the surface when you’re not realizing it, when it should be a moment of euphoria when you meet somebody new. When I was thinking of the tracklisting, it was very much, it follows a certain feeling of the love story basically. 

Did you have to cut a bunch of stuff? Or did you basically have the songs you knew you wanted?

We actually decided to do an EP after I’d written all these songs. We were going to do something else and then, I’m releasing this EP through a new label which is really exciting, and we were discussing what to do and what kind of project we want to do next and we decided on an EP. And I had all these songs already so it was just puzzling it all together. 

That’s so cool! The track “Milk & Honey” opens the EP and it’s a very fun, dancey instrumentation, but then on my second or third listen I was like “Wait a minute, this song is kind of sad.” So what’s the process of deciding to give this kind of sad song, this upbeat dancey feel to it? 

I love songs that are kind of sad in lyrics but are really hopeful and happy in the music of it. With this it started on the guitar and it was always to me going to be a pop song, but I hadn’t quite realized what the production might turn into. It definitely started maybe a little bit more sad and Connor [James] who has produced a lot of the EP, and another friend of mine called Chloe [Kraemer], who has done some production on the EP as well, they brought that popness to life. I always get drawn to songs that have a sad meaning but they sound euphoric and happy. 

We’re going to move a little bit away from the EP and talk about The 1975. For those that don’t know you started touring with them as part of an expanded band. I was wondering if that gave you any insight for when you tour in the future, how to go about building an expanded tour band? 

I learnt so much from that tour. The four boys that make up The 1975 have been doing this for so long and stepping into their world was really, really eye opening because they’re all so close and have created something that I genuinely think is so inspiring. It’s a fanbase that keeps coming back. The tour we did was 18 months long and there were people who kept coming back and back. To be in that world I learnt so much about what it takes to actually create that. It’s made me think more about how I present myself, what songs I want to write, how I write them, and basically now the bar is really high, which can be quite scary but I’m trying to see it as a real motivation. It needs to be really good and it needs to make people want to come back again and again. I don’t think I yet know what that secret ingredient is but I was around it a lot and the [1975] guys have it. If anything it was really inspiring. Touring takes it out of you but I absolutely love it, I built a lot of stamina on the tour. 

Absolutely, 18 months is crazy. 

Yeah it was a long, long time. Honestly, I loved every minute but it taught me you need to get prepped, and almost train to do a tour like that, if you want every night to be really great and perform to the best of your ability, and not get too burnt out because that can be really easy when you’re traveling a lot. They taught me a lot about how to do it properly.

Did you get to visit a lot of places you hadn’t been before, did you see a lot of sights? 

I visited so many places I hadn’t been before. I’d never been to Japan, the Philippines, or New Zealand. It was really cool. Lots of South America which I’d never done before. It was super cool, the travel is definitely a big, big perk. 

I also want to talk about “Anything” which you wrote about feeling imposter syndrome while touring with the 1975, but I noticed that the song has a little bit of a 1975 feel to it. Was that intentional since that’s where it came about? 

It wasn't intentional but at the time I think I was quite influenced by them because I was around them a lot. Connor, who started the production on this, and Chloe came in halfway through the process, I know Connor’s a fan of the band, so in terms of what we were listening to it was quite The 1975 focused. I think it just bled its way into my music, but it wasn’t super intentional. But hey it’s quite hard not to be inspired by the music you’re around. 

Did you gain any insight or advice to deal with imposter syndrome? 

I haven’t had a huge amount of advice other than what I tell myself. I think a really important thing is that you’re always there for a reason. You’ve made your own path and you deserve to be there, which is what I just kept telling myself. It’s a good thing, and it’s scary being amongst so many talented people but at the same time you can use it to your advantage. Not in a way of stealing but use it as good fuel rather than constant comparison. What I’ve definitely learned about being amongst music in general and being amongst the band is that comparison will literally just destroy you. I’ve learnt that as a rule, use their talent as an inspiration rather than constantly being like “Well that song’s not good enough.” My stuff’s different and I can use that to inspire my music. 

You just have to say it a couple times a day and then eventually it sinks in. 

Yeah! And I think in music, in general, or any job, it’s so easy to compare yourself because there’s so much good stuff that you can’t be too hard on yourself. 

You’re playing a couple festivals this summer, what’s the process prepping for that versus one of your own shows.

Festivals are always, well for me at the moment because of the time slots I have, it will be shorter sets. It’s basically picking the highest streamed songs that's what I think is a good basis for creating a short set, where it’s like ok these are the most listened to so I think these are the things people like the most so we’re just going to give them what they want. Then for like a headline show, for me it’s a lot more curated. I’m wanting to create more peaks and troughs rather than just constant trajectory up. I had a headline show last year and we’ve got some plans for one soon. It's really fun prepping for it because I think it’s quite different. Festivals you just go in, play the songs, it’s really fun, you’re out, whereas for headline I want to really put some thought into it. I’ve already thought about how we’re going to start the show and what songs are going to lead into others and that’s really exciting for me. 

That’s awesome! When you’re done with your set at a festival do you like to walk around and see other people? 

Yeah, I like to. I always like to have a little wind down. It’ll be nice this summer to be able to walk around a bit, all of my sets are fairly early so it’ll be nice to have a beer, go see some music, and chill out a bit. 

Do you have a dream festival to play? 

It’s probably going to have to be Glastonbury. That would be a dream. I’ve done it before because I played Glastonbury on the BBC Introducing stage, which is really fun, but I was like 18 and I was a little wee one so it would be really nice to go back there now. There’s a couple of American festivals I’d love to get to but all in good time. 

Who are your OnesToWatch? 

Ooo, who are my OnesToWatch? I’ve been telling everyone at the minute about ML Buch. She’s really great. That would actually be a real Ones to Watch. It’s super dreamy guitar, her vocals are amazing. She’s my One to Watch.