Joey Pollari - I’ll Be Romance
Interview by C. Rusen
Sonical density and emotionalism are the defining traits that describe Joey Pollari’s music best, and his upcoming album, 'I'll Be Romance', is no exception. An obvious multi-hyphenate - a musician, actor, and director - Joey infuses magic into everything he touches. Having started as an actor in the Disney Channel Original Movies in Minnesota, Joey tells us that music has always been an integral part of his professional trajectory.
‘I’ll Be Romance’, featuring 10 tracks, was written amidst a formative relationship with an ex-boyfriend and encapsulates the bliss, confusion, and introspection characteristic of such intense romantic entanglements. Joey’s commitment to storytelling extends beyond the lyrical content of his album; it is also reflected in his directorial work, as evident in the music video for the track, ‘Efforts Of Love’, released today. Through Joey’s lens, the video oscillates between ideas of reality and fantasy by capturing the journey of a pole dancer. In many ways, the video is a testament to Joey’s artistic vision, conveying the complexities of relationships through the power of visual storytelling. Through our conversation, it became clear that Joey’s dedication to his craft shines through in every aspect of his work. Make sure to read the conversion below.
CR: Hi Joey, Congratulations on your upcoming album, ‘I’ll Be Romance’! Can you tell us more about the general themes in the album?
Joey Pollari: It's about the attempt in your early 20s to maintain and navigate a relationship that perhaps brings up things in your past that you aren't quite done dealing with yet. The title ‘I'll be Romance’ is an acknowledgement of the attempt at Romance. If I can't have it, if I can't be in it. I will instead inhabit it, I will be it. This happened to me in my personal relationship with an ex-boyfriend. While it was a wonderful relationship, it ended, and this album was written in the midst of it and after it. With the lack of romance in my life at that time, I made a declaration: I will be Romance and try to inhabit it as best as possible.
Is that perhaps what ties into the song, ‘So Close’, the first song you released last month?
JP: Yes, it is very much. ‘So Close’ as a song happened after. Gosh, maybe after or before. I had been in a relationship with this person. The first line of that song is, ‘Your name was the lover’s in the book I read’. and It's true. He had this book I was reading the lover’s name was my ex-lover’s name. So it came to mind. In the video, I conceived it as this: What happens when you go out looking for connection and all you find is maybe yourself looking or the past. Again, you're unable to really move on from the past. And so I thought, 'oh, let's make this really fun cruising video that is taking place free of location and instead, in the unconscious out of shadows, people coming through. And sometimes these cruising spaces really do call upon our unconscious as much as our conscious membrane.
That’s very interesting! Cruising for me signals a leisurely activity, I think. But, the emotions in the music video oppose this. Intriguing!
JP: Yes, I think that going cruising is so much about someone's anonymity. What does anonymity bring up especially if you're trying to escape a previous relationship, or forget your ex-lover, and then this anonymity, instead of giving you freedom, only reminds you of it. So, that for me is the emotional aspect that cruising could present.
I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Fred Neil, who is a folk singer from the 80s. Vocally, you remind me of him a lot!
JP: I think I know who Fred Neil is. Yes, the song 'Little Bit of Rain’ was on my breakup playlist for the record to cope with the loss of this relationship. Dead on, my friend, dead on! ( laughs)
© Jacob Bixenman
What a coincidence! Could you tell me more about your musical influences?
JP: Well, yeah, musically. You can pick your influences, but they choose you, in a way. Like, I would love to make a certain type of music that I listened to when I was a teenager, but I just don't, or it seems to me, some early influences like John Grant, who was big to me when I was first coming out. I'm a big fan of Lou Reed. God, who else? Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy were huge influences to me, lyrically, especially some songs by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy's record, ‘I See a Darkness’ were true influences for me about what a song could do, especially because he is an actor and musician. His approach to songwriting in terms of personas was extremely influential to me — not at the time, but definitely in hindsight.
What about Elliot Smith? I've been told that you recorded ‘So Close’ on the guitar that was once owned by him, is that correct?
JP: Yes, my producer and engineer, Theo Karen, has a friend who owns this guitar that was once owned by Elliott Smith. And it has these wonderful little sequins along the edges. So it's strange for a record that is so concerned with phantoms. I made a lyric in the record you know, ‘riddance is a natural feeling, it's a healing with our phantoms’. And here was this phantom of Elliott Smith's guitar with us. Elliot Smith is an influence, but not when I think about it directly. Though I love his music, and of course, here in Los Angeles, we are indebted to him forever.
Yes, he’s such an amazing artist! Can we talk about the song, ‘Efforts Of Love’, which seems to capture moments of introspection and reflection. What do these themes mean to you, and how do they connect to the album’s narrative?
JP: It's early on in the record, so it's after the pre-existing conflict has been established in the song, ‘A Porch Made of Me’. And finally, the singer me has met someone to embark on a relationship. And as soon as I chose to embark on this relationship with my ex, I started to realize that it was going to take a lot of effort. If you're going to agree to do this thing together, what grace will you give me, what grace will I give myself? What stumbling blocks are we going to encounter? Not only is it that you're going to see me but I'm going to see my own mirror as well. And that's a different voice that wants to come through. Once you're in love, a new person wants to show up with new aspects and wants to present themselves. So, I wrote ‘Efforts of Love’ to honour the work of love, and to show that it takes effort and work.
I particularly enjoyed the music video, which you’ve also directed. The transition from VHS to digital was really cool! Can you tell us more about the filming process, and the ideas behind it?
© Jacob Bixenman
JP: I think a large aspect of the record is about the interjection of fantasy into reality, or the way that love, especially when you're first in it, especially when you're in your early 20s is about fantasy. So the video represents that aspect. How does love, and how does the dancing in the video invite fantasy into reality? I think that's what love does, early on. It invites this something in. The discrepancy between gritty VHS and digital is about that thing between effort and love. If the effort is the graininess, then love is a high-definition, lurid Technicolor fantasy.
Yes, that ties in beautifully with the overall theme of your record!
JP: It's like, we need fantasy so badly. Early on, in love. We need some calls to our inner spark our imagination of something. But that's also not the reality of love. It's work, it's effort. So, in the video, I wanted to reflect both the beauty of low grain and then the illusory, fantasy of Technicolor.
I can definitely see references to Derek Jarman in ‘Efforts of Love’ What inspires you in your work as a director?
JP: Well, yeah, Jarman is a huge influence on me. I would say the mood board for this record would be ‘Edward II’ by Jarman, one of my favourite films. Again, another director who is concerned I think, with social realities that need the imagination to transcend them — inviting fantasy into social realities, we need that. Lucrecia Martel is also one of my favourite filmmakers. Her words about directing and sound as a 3D object - the only 3D object when we're watching a movie - I am extremely interested in that as a musician and a sound artist. Other people come to mind, such as Jonathan Glazer, Mia Hansen-Løve, and another British filmmaker, Joanna Hogg. All these people have, for me, a unifying theme of this social reality, the social fabric that we are investigating, but it's subtextual, like interjecting imaginative elements into the narrative. Same with ‘Efforts Of Love’: the interjection of fantasy into reality by starting with this harsh social reality and replacing it with roses at the end.
You also started out as an actor, joining the Disney Channel Original Movies in Minnesota. Has acting always been at the forefront of what you do, or was it music?
JP: When I was a three-year-old looking at a TV screen, I knew that I wanted to do acting. And the person that I chose was Judy Garland in ‘Wizard of Oz’. So, in a way, I went towards acting first, but Judy was singing, so it's always been there in the background. I would perform in theatre as a kid. The Ordway and the Guthrie Theater these theaters in Minnesota, and I’d sing there. It was always a thing, but I never thought about writing a song. Then when I wrote a song for an acting class, the first-day exercise of this acting class was to do something that terrified you, or you most feared doing publicly, or dreamed most of doing publicly. And mine was to write a song and perform it - a thing I feared most publicly. This is how it all started, and in a way, music and acting were always intertwined.
I’ve been told that you’ll be starring in an upcoming queer rom-com soon. Can you tell us more about your upcoming projects?
JP: Yes, I’ve got two projects coming up. One is the gay rom-com ‘Things Like This’, which takes place in New York. It is about two guys who meet who have the same name and feel this pull towards each other and don't really know why, of course, synchronicity comes into play and chance, as they end up loving each other. And then, the other project I’ve got going is this show called ‘Sugar’ on Apple TV with Colin Farrell, and that is the complete opposite, I play an absolutely feral person in that, in body and language, working for the other side.
Finally, what do you think our magazine’s title SID stands for?
JP: Sensual Iridescence Desired?
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