Art School Girlfriend | Is It Light Where You Are - Orange Vinyl

ASG2

10/09/21

Limited edition transparent orange vinyl

‘Is It Light Where You Are’ is the debut album from Art School Girlfriend, moniker of Welsh producer, multi-instrumental musician and song writer Polly Mackey.

Mostly written over a two week period of 14-hour solo studio sessions, the bulk of her album is torn straight from a journal kept throughout 2019. Those pages chronicle the end of a US tour, the tumultuous ending of a six-year relationship and Mackey’s journey back to London from Margate, where she lived and co-owned a book shop with her then girlfriend.

“The record starts with that feeling of being on the precipice of change,” she explains. “Before deciding to pull everything apart, go through it all and come out the other side.” While the lyrics are autobiographical, the full story can be heard in the album’s sonic relief map. “The main theme is duality between light and dark, lightness and heaviness. The production sort of mimics human emotions: there’s a lot of beauty buried underneath these uncomfortable-to-listen-to sounds.”

Polly is also a DJ – she has a monthly show on women-led radio station, Foundation FM, plus has been DJ for Anna Calvi’s London show at Heaven, and opened for Tuner Prize 2019 and at Queer rave, Chapter 10. Additionally, she is a featured vocalist on 2 tracks on Ghostpoet’s most recent album, I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep. She has also scored a BFI short film, Shy Radicals.