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. Visit https://drownedinsound.org/playlists/ to discover new music in rich Hi-Res lossless quality and start your 30-day free trial of Qobuz at https://qobuz.com/dis. 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 Join the DiS community: http://community.drownedinsound.com Subscribe to the DiS newsletter: http://drownedinsound.org 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