Interview: Polar
Alter The Press sat down with guitarists Fab & Max, and drummer Nick from Polar ahead of their incendiary performance at Hevy festival a couple of weeks ago to talk about festivals, their crazy year and rockstar moments!
Alter The Press : Just to set the scene, you boys formed in 2009 in Guildford, were you all mates before?
Max: We knew each other before yeah. We’d all been in bands in the same area and were mates, it made it easier.
Fab: All the bands had been doing shows and stuff, and we’d done some shows together.
ATP: And everything just ended at the right time?
Fab: Yeah, you know how it is, certain bands split up, disbanded.
Max: Minor tensions happened; we’d had a lot of lineup changes in our old band and our drummer developed a medical condition that meant he couldn’t play hardcore anymore, so that packed it all in and we started Polar, basically!
ATP: You released an EP called ‘This Polar Noise’ in February, were those tracks that you’ve been playing since the band formed?
Max: As far as Polar goes, and our old projects, none of these were songs that we had done before, these were all written as Polar. We’d been playing them for a while, but then obviously we had Wolf At Your Door come along and pick it up, and put it out so that was great.
ATP: …and that was right before you played with Bring Me The Horizon in October right?
Max – We had the opportunity to play with them…
Nick: ...was it Rock Sound?...
Max: Yeah, I think it was Rock Sound
Nick: …in the pub round the corner!
Max: Yeah, then we went and played round the corner so it was pretty rock and roll!
Nick: One of the most rock and roll moments of all of our lives so far!
ATP: So you guys have had a pretty awesome last year?
Max: We’ve had a good year, a really good year!
Nick: A lot of stuff’s happened that’s been mindblowing.
Max: We’ve been fortunate enough to go on tour with some really good bands, we’ve had the privilege to go up and down the country a fair few times and just experience that and since the EP launch everything’s just gone up and up and up. It’s kind of surreal in a way to get to do what you love but we’ve been fortunate enough to get out the really.
ATP: You were on the Six Great Reasons Tour…
Nick: The lineup for that tour was so good but it was a bit of a shame that ticket prices couldn’t have been less basically.
Max: The thing was that the lineup was just so good. We’re fortunate enough to be part of SGR (Stuart Gili-Ross from Gallows management company) and he’s got some of the best bands in hardcore and the best bands in metal around at the moment under his name, so we were fortunate to be part of that tour and it was great.
Fab:
Max: It’s like an SGR hangout!
Fab: We’re always bumping into each other on the road so it’s wicked.
ATP: Did you know all of the bands on the SGR tour before you went out?
Nick: We knew Feed The Rhino…
Max: …TRC, Heart In Hand we’ve toured with before and the only band we didn’t really know before the SGR tour was Mallory Knox.
Nick: Nicest guys, great band as well…
Max: They’re some of our best friends, great band as well, they’re going to go far.
Nick: They’re going to go places, they’re going to be massive!
ATP: …and you just shot a video for a song?
Max: Yes, we shot a video for ‘Tonight Matthew, I Am The Batman’ which is the
first track off our EP ‘This Polar Noise’.
ATP: Have you got plans for a full-length? Are you writing at the moment?
Fab: Yeah, at the moment we’re writing an album.
Nick: After Hevy we’re taking some downtime, not playing as many shows, we’re doing the album, just taking our time.
Fab: We’ve done half of it.
Nick: We’ve got 5 definites
Max: We’re looking to try to record towards the end of the year. There’s plans for it, it’ll be out next year!
Nick: Whether it’s the start or the end, it will be out next year!
ATP: Festivals then, do you approach festival shows differently to normal shows?
Max: In all honest, we did Ghostfest this year and we were so happy with the response we had from people… we really haven’t had a record out that long so the response we got was just overwhelming. People might not have known us when we went there but we definitely came away with a lot of new fans and we’ve seen them since, which has been great. As a band though, all together…
Nick: …it’s the first ‘proper’ festival we’ve done! We’re gonna approach it fuckin’… we’re gonna smash the place apart!
Fab: Performance wise, it’s going to be the same as ever.
Max: It’s a countdown to tomorrow before we can smash the shit… if I can say that in the interview?!...
ATP: I think we can allow it!
Max: …until we can smash the shit out of Hevy! We want to show people what we’re all about and that’s tearing the place to pieces!
ATP: You guys must have been to festivals yourselves as punters, have you got any
disaster stories?
Max: I wish Woody was here!
Nick: It’s just drunken mess stories really!
Max: Crazy shit obviously goes on but I’d love to say that I can remember it! Last night was pretty mental, I’m still piecing it back together…
Fab: There’s still time for tonight!
ATP: Is there one band member who you have to watch out for?
All: Woody!
Max: Straight up, Woody, he’ll be charging around…
Fab: You don’t know what’s coming next… that’s the scary bit!
Nick: That’s why he wears shades all day so he doesn’t look like he’s going wrong!
Max: To be fair, everyone’s pretty responsible on before we go on stage. Last night we partied hard, and we’ll have a few drinks before we go on but as much as we don’t see it as work, it is.
Nick: We’re never going to drink so that it’s going to disrupt our performance.
Max: For us, as much as you can record and get people to like your record, we are a live band, we love playing live, interacting with the fans, getting out there. For us, live performance is where we’re at our best, if you’re hammered you’re not enjoying it properly, we like to get our heads on and get involved with it. At the end of the day, the one thing we strive for is our live performance.
ATP: Final question then, have you got one defining moment that you thought, this could work?
Fab: For me personally, it was probably our EP show, the hometown show that we did for the release of ‘This Polar Noise’. It was absolutely rammed and we set up, did our line checks and everything and we all went offstage…
Max: …have a word with ourselves, get ready…
Fab: …the part where we were walking through the crowd to get onstage, the crowd were already going for it, going off, cheering and we hadn’t even put our instruments on!
Max: We all been in bands playing in Guildford before, and we’ve played there so many times and now we try not to play there as often because, as much as we enjoy playing our hometown with all the people we know back there…
Nick: We want the impact to be the same every time!
Max: …we hadn’t played there for ages and to have that reaction and you’ve got people cheering…
Nick: …there was stage-diving, circle pits…
Max: …it was just the craziest show I’ve ever played!
Nick: There were so many stage invasions that the drum kit was getting... all the fans were smashing it up! It’s nice to know that people give a shit about our band!
Max: For me, personally, it’s coming to a festival like here, which is a couple of hours away from where we’re from, and seeing people wearing our t-shirts walking around and that. For me is so nice and people are so nice and having them come up and appreciate the music and the band that you play in, it sounds mega-lame but getting that warm feeling inside that people actually give a fuck and my rockstar moment is having that!
Words by Nick Worpole
