Green Man Interview: Art School Girlfriend talks about stripping away commercial music industry expectations

Amelia Jones

Welsh musician, producer, DJ, and lecturer Polly Louise Mackey, performing as Art School Girlfriend, reached a defining turning point when she decided to walk away from releasing music altogether.

The former Deaf Club shoegazer retreated to the studio to strip away all commercial expectations, choosing to fall back in love with the pure, uninhibited process of creation.

That decision to take the pressure off unlocked an intense stream of existential creativity. What began as a quiet experiment in process over outcome quickly transformed into her most liberating body of work yet, resulting in her third full-length album, Lean In.

Speaking with Nation.Cymru at Green Man, Mackey shared how stepping back allowed her to build hypnotic, atmospheric electronic soundscapes anchored by raw, personal lyricism.

For anyone who walked into your show by accident, what vibe would they be stepping into?

It’s really tricky to kind of nail down your own music, but I guess it’s quite like shoegaze-influenced electronica.

I’m a producer-songwriter, so it’s very much like a lot of the sound design is very detailed. But also when we play live, we do it as a three-piece, so it’s a little bit more elevated than the record as well.

There’s very chill moments, and then there’s a couple of slightly more techno- influenced moments as well.

How did you come up with the name Art School Girlfriend? 

So I was making these demos and sending them to people, and every single time I’d send them to them.

I had a different SoundCloud name because I’d like come up with a name. Then I realise it had been taken or it had been used before.

Then my girlfriend at the time had just graduated from art school and was going to do a DJ duo called the Art School Girls, and they didn’t end up doing it. So I stole it and had a girlfriend because I was the girlfriend.

Who are you biggest influences and have they changed from when you first started making music?

I mean, it’s that thing where your influences kind of mostly hit you when you were a teenager.

So when I was 16, my favourite three bands were PJ Harvey, Radiohead, and LCD Soundsystem.

I don’t know if any of that comes through in my music, but they were the ones that I would just get that feeling that they’re just so cut straight through to your DNA at that point.

When did you first think, this is what I want to do?

Literally from the age of nine when I got my first drum kit. I was so obsessed with music, just constantly. It was like nothing I ever decided, it was just what I was born wanting to do, for sure.

You’ve talked about deliberately trying not to make music anymore- why was that a decision you made?

Yeah, I think the pure approach to music when you’re a teenager or a kid is like, you’re not thinking about a career or anything like that.

Before making my third record, I’d been doing Art School Girlfriend for eight years or so. Before that I’d been in bands, so I’d been basically playing my first gig since I was 16.

So it was like almost 20 years of being a musician. And it was a thing of the industry and the cycle of basically all the bullshit around putting music out that I was really falling out of love of.

So I was like, maybe I just don’t want to be an artist anymore. Maybe I need to get back to the idea of just sitting in my room and making music for the love of that.

I think just even having that mental shift just allowed me to make music in a very pure way.

I think deciding not to put it out made me make an album that I just ended up loving so much that I was like, well, I must put it out now.

So I did like the full circle. I think it really shows the power in just like perception of what your reality is and purpose and intention.

Now I’ve managed to come to terms with what I want to be as an artist and just be a little bit more intentional with that.

As a music production lecturer do you find it hard to turn off your mind and just let mistakes happen?

For me, it’s like they go hand in hand. So I do some of my best songwriting being inspired by the sounds that I’m making.

I’m very much in my practice all about harnessing mistakes.

So I just don’t do a lot of refining. I make sure everything is kind of played in instead of programmed.

It’s all about it feeling very human despite being mostly electronic music.

Sometimes I will just sit at guitar or piano and just write a song. But for me, I feel like I capture a mood or emotion a bit more when I start with soundscapes.

I’ve learned now to make them a good combination instead of making the production overpower the songwriting. Which I think is easy to fall into that trap when you’re a producer.

You can then get distracted by picking a really good snare rather than actually finishing a good song. So, yeah, I think that’s a muscle I’ve learned for sure.

You’ve been a Green Man regular, how does it feel to introduce your new music to this audience?

Yeah, I sat on stage last night because I was playing at half nine and it was dark. B

The first time I played here, it was midday at the Walled Garden, then it was four at the Walled Garden.

Now it’s like 9.30. So I feel like I’ve kind of graduated through.

So I think it’s that thing where it’s just like I feel so attached to this festival.

From a personal point of view, I can go through kind of life milestones of times I’ve been here.

Now that ‘Lean In’ is out, how are you going to protect that ‘no pressure mindset in your next project?

Yeah, I think it was. I think it was a turning point. I don’t think it was like an instance.

I think it was like a reevaluation of what I wanted to do and the type of musician I wanted to be.

To just realise that you can have autonomy and authority over your creative practice, despite all a lot of the industry stuff coming in.

I think also making sure that those around you working on the record are aligned with that.

I think you get so pushed and pulled in so many directions as an artist. This is what you have to do, and this is what you have to do.

I actually realised that you don’t. Like, I have a day job. I lecture in music production. I don’t earn money from Art School Girlfriend. It’s very much a passion project.

So I might as well enjoy it. I might as well do it on my own terms.

You can listen to her here. 

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