Poliça

Poliça
Place of origin	Minneapolis
Genres	indie rock

For other uses, see Polica.

Poliça
Poliça in 2012
Background information
Origin	Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Genres	Synth-pop indietronica R&B trip hop alternative rock
Years active	2011–present
Labels	Totally Gross National Product Memphis Industries Inertia Mom + Pop Music Transgressive
Members	Channy Leaneagh Chris Bierden Ben Ivascu Drew Christopherson Ryan Olson
Website	thisispolica.com

Poliça (often stylised in all caps) is an American pop band from Minneapolis, Minnesota, formed in 2011. The band consists of Channy Leaneagh (vocals, synth), Chris Bierden (bass), Drew Christopherson (drums) and Ben Ivascu (drums), with Ryan Olson joining the band in a studio context as its producer.

To date, the band has released six studio albums, Give You the Ghost (2012), Shulamith (2013), and United Crushers (2016) through Mom + Pop Music; Music For the Long Emergency (2018) through Transgressive; When We Stay Alive (2020) and Madness (2022) through Memphis Industries. They also tour internationally.

Naming

According to Channy Leaneagh, Poliça is Polish for "policy", and she sees it as a reference to an unwritten code that guides the members when they play together, as well as its work ethic. Despite this explanation, the Polish word for "policy" is actually polityka.

In another interview, Leaneagh claimed that they wanted something unique, and she had a file on her computer which, following a corruption during a computer crash, had come back as "Poliça".

History

Origins

From a musical family, Leaneagh attended the Ramsey Fine Arts school where she learned to dance, play violin and participated in theatre. She graduated from Minneapolis South High School where she met Alexei Casselle and formed an acoustic duo, Roma di Luna. Casselle had previously been a member of hiphop group Oddjobs, but sent Leaneagh tapes of his acoustic songs while she was in Cambodia teaching art for a year. In June 2005, Leaneagh and Casselle were married. As a member of the folk-rock duo Roma di Luna, Leaneagh played violin and performed on the three self-released albums by the band. In November 2008, Leaneagh gave birth to a daughter, Pelagia.

After a marital and professional break-up, the singer was looking for a 'creative release' that eventually became Poliça. Experimenting with various vocal effects, the duo drafted in Chris Bierden (bass/vocals), Drew Christopherson (drums) and Ben Ivascu (drums) to complete the sessions that also featured a guest-appearance by Mike Noyce (Bon Iver). Olson declined to be part of a live set-up and Bierden, Christopherson and Ivascu together with Leaneagh became the Poliça touring outfit. For the rest of the year, the band toured, partly as support to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The band also received support from Bon Iver founder Justin Vernon who told Rolling Stone, "They're the best band I've ever heard." In March 2012, the band played at SXSW in Austin, Texas, where NPR wrote that 'Where Give You the Ghost gives the suggestion of a subdued live presence, Polica's stage show heads to somewhere approaching the opposite extreme — a welcome jolt of beauty and power.' During a Polica live performance Leaneagh uses effect pedals to stylize and manipulate her voice.

The summer of 2012 saw the band tour parts of Europe and play a handful of festivals together with Bon Iver. In August 2012, it was announced that the band had signed with Mom + Pop records and re-released the album on the 14th of that month, together with a remix EP. In October, they returned to the UK for an appearance on Later... with Jools Holland and a 16-date UK/European tour.

Shulamith

In the first half of 2013, Olson and Leaneagh began working on new music, described by the singer as 'Drums. Bass. Synths. Me, Women'. Much of this was done by e-mail as the band continued to tour and Olson was spending time in Brazil. Much of the actual recording was completed at the April Base studios of Bon Iver in Wisconsin. Their second album, Shulamith was released on October 20, 2013, and preceded by the single 'Tiff' featuring Justin Vernon. Both the video for "Tiff" and the artwork of the album were described as "brutal".

In June 2014 the band released the Raw Exit EP that consisted of four outtakes from the Shulamith sessions. The four songs included three originals and one cover of "You Don't Own Me". It was also included in the expanded version of the album that was released simultaneously and supported by a North American club tour and festival dates in Europe.

Poliça appearing at SXSW 2016

United Crushers

Leaneagh began writing material in 2013 and continued to do so between tours. The second half of the month was used to record the album at the Sonic Ranch residential studio in Texas.

The band released their third album, United Crushers, on March 4, 2016. Again produced by Ryan Olson the track "Lime Habit" was released online in November 2015. The album was recorded over 10 days in El Paso. Leaneagh described it as "I saw this record as my last chance [and] wanted it to have a 'final paper' feel."

Music for the Long Emergency

Poliça teamed up with Stargaze, a Berlin-based orchestral collective, to develop the new album, Music for the Long Emergency which was released on February 16, 2018, on Transgressive Records. The two groups first met in February 2016 in Berlin during the Liquid Music project hosted by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and first worked together on Bruise Blood: Reimagining Steve Reich's 'Music for Pieces of Wood'. The two groups worked for 18 months on the new album. The first single is a ten-minute song, "How Is This Happening", which Leaneagh wrote on the day after the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

When We Stay Alive

On October 9, 2019, the band announced that their fifth studio album, When We Stay Alive would be released on January 31, 2020.

Madness

In April 2022, the band announced that their sixth studio album, Madness, would be released on June 3, 2022.

Discography

Albums

List of albums, with selected chart positions

Title	Year	Peak positions
		US	BEL (Fl)	BEL (Wa)	FRA	IRE	SWI	UK
Give You the Ghost	2012	—	47	62	—	—	—	86
Shulamith	2013	115	47	69	141	93	85	33
United Crushers	2016	—	52	178	—	—	—	72
Music for the Long Emergency (with Stargaze)	2018	—	—	—	—	—	—	142
When We Stay Alive	2022	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Extended plays

• Raw Exit (2014)

Singles

List of singles, with selected chart positions

Title	Year	Peak positions		Album
		BEL (Fl) Tip	BEL (Wa) Tip
"Dark Star"	2012	2	42	Give You the Ghost
"Wandering Star"		36	—
"Lay Your Cards Out"		62	—
"Form"	2013	82	—
"Tiff" (featuring Justin Vernon)		—	—	Shulamith
"Chain My Name"		60	—
"Lime Habit"	2015	—	—	United Crushers
"Wedding"	2016	—	—
"How Is This Happening"	2017	—	—	Music for the Long Emergency
"Driving"	2019	—	—	When We Stay Alive
"Forget Me Now"		—	—
"Steady"	2020	—	—
"Sea Without Blue"		—	—