FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/b><\/p>\n
June 29, 2015<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
The Pollies To Release\u00a0Not Here<\/em>\u00a0On September 25th<\/b><\/p>\n Via Single Lock\/Thirty Tigers<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Album produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes\u2019 fame<\/b><\/p>\n and The Pollies singer and songwriter Jay Burgess<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Florence, AL-based quintet The Pollies is set to release its new album,\u00a0Not Here<\/em>, on September 25, 2015 via Single Lock Records\/Thirty Tigers.\u00a0 Recorded at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, MS, and produced by Ben Tanner (of Alabama Shakes) and The Pollies\u2019 lead singer and songwriter, Jay Burgess, the album is the band\u2019s first for Single Lock\/Thirty Tigers and the follow-up to their 2012 release,\u00a0Where The Lies Begin<\/em>.\u00a0 The album shows the band shedding their alt-country skin in favor of experimental noise and unadulterated risk.\u00a0Not a surprise from a band that is known for defying genres and leaping over boundaries.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you write a song, you have a million different things you can do with that song,\u201d lead singer\/songwriter\/guitarist Jay Burgess says.\u00a0 \u201cOn our records, we always try to shake up the landscape. On this one, we incorporated a lot of elements that we normally wouldn\u2019t think about using.\u00a0 It changed the atmosphere of the music and pushed it in a different direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Burgess hits on all the familiar topics\u2014love, loss, regret and triumph\u2014with an edge and ferocity that shows up on tracks like \u201cLost\u201d and \u201cJackson.\u201d\u00a0 Simply put, these are compelling stories\u2014and Burgess has stepped into his own as a gifted storyteller.\u00a0 \u201cLove lost is what drives the record lyrically,\u201d Burgess says. \u201cSome of these songs started as musical ideas\u2014where I\u2019d record something on my phone and then go back three or four times and make sense of the words\u2014and other songs were just there without a lot of work.\u201d\u00a0 Throughout the record, the subject matter changes, but the themes remain:\u00a0 love, loss, regret and triumph.\u00a0 \u201cThe record isn\u2019t just about losing love,\u201d Burgess says.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s about surviving the aftermath of that.\u201d<\/p>\n The title of the album comes from the way Burgess felt when he wrote most of the album, like he was watching his life unfold from afar.\u00a0 \u201cI was almost living parallel to myself,\u201d he explains.\u00a0 \u201cI watched myself react to what some people probably view as\u00a0\u2018normal life occurrences,\u2019 but for me, someone who\u2019s never been through these kinds of things, it was very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLost,\u201d a fan favorite, started as one phrase and a host of different musical ideas. \u201cIt was a song that I had sitting around with unfinished and unrealized lyrics,\u201d Burgess says.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d do multiple recordings of it with different lyrics.\u00a0 One phrase I kept coming back to was, \u2018I wish I was lost.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 For weeks, that one line stayed on my notepad.\u00a0 Soon after that, a friend of mine found out his marriage was falling apart.\u00a0 I was someone for him to talk to, and after one of our conversations one night, the words for \u2018Lost\u2019 just fell into place.\u201d<\/p>\n Another standout track, \u201cJackson,\u201d came together in a much quicker fashion\u2014with a far different focus.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve always been into revolutions\u2014more specifically thinking about what things would be like if they hadn\u2019t happened,\u201d Burgess says.\u00a0 \u201cObviously, a major movement in this country\u2019s history was the Civil Rights movement.\u00a0 I think about how long that effort took and how great the risk was, and it\u2019s amazing to me.\u00a0 I thought I had heard all of the stories that went along with the movement until I heard the story of Jimmie Lee Jackson.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson, a church deacon, was beaten and shot to death by Alabama State troopers during a peaceful voting rights march. His death was one of the inspirations for the Selma to Montgomery marches.\u00a0 \u201cAt the time, there was no movie explaining him and his involvement with the Selma story,\u201d says Burgess.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s pretty much the reason Dr. King came to Selma, and I found his story inspiring in many different ways.\u00a0 I had to write something about him, and frankly, I could\u2019ve probably done an entire record on him.\u201d<\/p>\n The press has been kind to The Pollies for its past music:<\/p>\n The Pollies is Jay Burgess (lead vocals, guitar), Reed Watson (drums), Danny Hurley (keyboard, vocals), and Spencer Duncan (bass, vocals).\u00a0 The band plans to tour in support of the album; tour dates will be announced soon.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n