Their album is set for release on June 23.
Skating Polly share "I'm Sorry For Always Apologizing" - a deceptively joyous rock song that is accompanied by the official music video directed by Christian Papierniak. The multiple award-winning director, producer, and writer best known for his hit Indie feature film Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town brings the track to life with a humorous touch.
"I'm Sorry For Always Apologizing" follows the raucous single "Hickey King" and is the second track to be taken from Skating Polly's new album Chaos County Line, which is set for release on June 23rd via El Camino Media. "Doctors don't think I'm sick / Just a self important prick" Kelli Mayo sings sweetly, sending up her past relationship mistakes with a cutting sense of self-judgement.
"This song has some of my favorite lyrics on the record" Kelli comments. "It was originally inspired by my very real habit of over apologizing, then the concept came to me to write it from a perspective of constantly hurting someone you're wildly in love with, which is a feeling I unfortunately know all too well. So, some of it is definitely hyperbole, but some of it is about my short-lived love affair with the bass player from Starcrawler. And the super huge prick I make myself out to be as the narrator is my big fear of how I must've come across to him and is also a furthering of many apologies I've given him on the matter..."
Over the past decade, few artists have embodied the unbridled freedom of punk like Skating Polly. Formed when stepsisters Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse were just 9 and 14, the band have channeled their chameleonic musicality into a sound they call "Ugly Pop," unruly and subversive and wildly melodic.
With Kelli's brother Kurtis Mayo joining on drums in 2017, they've also built a close-knit community of fans while earning the admiration of their musical forebears, a feat that's found them collaborating with icons like X's Exene Cervenka and Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson, touring with Babes In Toyland, and starring as the subject of a feature-length documentary. On their forthcoming double album Chaos County Line, Skating Polly reach a whole new level of self-possession, ultimately sharing their most expansive and emotionally powerful work to date.
The follow-up to 2018's The Make It All Show, Chaos County Line finds Skating Polly showcasing the depth of their growth, both as songwriters and personally. Whether they're opening up about matters internal (identity, disassociation, unhealthy coping mechanisms) or external (obsession, deception, gaslighting), Skating Polly imbue that outpouring with an unfettered emotional truth.
Working again with Brad Wood, the acclaimed producer behind indie-rock classics like Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville, Chaos Country Line sees their songs journey from art-punk to noise-rock to piano-driven power-pop, matching that musical complexity with a sharply honed narrative voice that manifests in countless forms (ultravivid poetry, diary-like confession, fearlessly detailed storytelling, etc.).
Over the course of its 18 kaleidoscopic tracks, Chaos County Line embraces the kind of combustible emotion that comes from fully uncompromised self-expression. "I think on this record Kelli and Peyton were really confident in being more honest and more experimental at the same time, whereas in the past they might've made the lyrics more poetic in order to cloak that honesty a bit," says Kurtis.
And as their songs shift from devastating to exhilarating to gloriously cathartic, Skating Polly hope to provide the same sense of solace they found in creating the album. "I've had people tell me we've helped them get through a breakup or an abusive relationship or the death of someone they loved, and all these other heavy obstacles everyone goes through," says Kelli. "I feel like I'm not necessarily the best person to draw a map on how to live the happiest life, but I like the idea that our songs can make other people's lives better in some way. I want our music to be like armor."
Videos