CloseUp Promotions Pres.
Polo
Live at The Grace, London
There are a hundred ways to make your name these days, but there are few more meaningful than watching a band grow before you in real time. And, having honed their craft over the past three years, moving from their first single to now as they stand on the cusp of their forthcoming debut album, Polo are a band who’ve earned every success that’s rightfully come to them.
Three friends from college, vocalist Kat McHugh, synth player Luke Lount and drummer Daniel Edgell came together musically as the decade ticked over into its final quarter, releasing debut EP Alice at the tail end of 2017. Since then, the songwriting trio have continued to show that a high-end approach towards production and presentation, and a resolutely self-sufficient DIY spirit can go hand in hand.
Bonding over a shared attitude just as much as their shared musical interests, it’s this spirit of determination and a willingness to break the mould that infiltrates both their ethos and their output as a band. Influenced by strong women, LGBTQ + culture, global cultures and nature, theirs are empathetic songs that beat with a tangible human heart.
Across their releases to date, these ideas have gained the trio a host of support from like-minded people and organisations. Ahead of recording the Alice EP, the band received funding from the PRS Women Make Music Fund, while the following year in 2018, PRS continued their backing, awarding them the Open Fund in order to help with the release of a trio of singles and two UK tours. This year, meanwhile, the band received both the PPL Momentum Music Fund and the Leeds City College Arts Fund in order to help with the creation of their debut album, which is currently in the works.
Having earned critical plaudits from the likes of Noisy, Wonderland and Stereogum, plays on BBC 6Music and BBC Radio 1, and notable festival appearances at Reading and Leeds, The Great Escape, Live at Leeds and more, the validation for Polo’s self-made first steps has been coming from all directions. Exuding a strong, independent, feminist spirit, and surrounding it with technical precision and layered, evocative atmospheres, the trio are heading into their debut in their strongest position yet.