INTERVIEW: Adam Woodford – Polar

As London’s POLAR approach their ten-year milestone of being a band, 2019 also marks the start of a new era for the post-hardcore quintet – both thematically and musically. Eschewing the worldly outlook that permeated the core of 2016’s No Cure No Saviour in favour of personal reflection and a range of hard hitting subjects, from death to sexual abuse, Nova (read our review here) is an unequivocal statement of intent. We caught up with vocalist Adam Woodford ahead of the album’s release this Friday via Nuclear Blast/Arising Empire to the insight behind the music.

Your last album was 2016’s No Cure No Saviour – POLAR’s music has always come with a message in the past. In this case, it was the issues of homelessness that acted as a catalyst for the record. You’ve become known for being incredibly passionate when it comes to a cause – so much so that people were beginning to think you were becoming a politically motivated band. Was it important to distance yourselves from that and go down the personal route?

Adam: Massively. I wouldn’t say that any of the five of us are particularly politically motivated in any way, shape or form. With that album it was just something that really struck a nerve. We were on a heavy touring cycle and were visiting a lot of places and we were seeing an ever increasing problem just growing and spreading. We all felt quite emotionally attached to the situation and so it made sense to make that record about that particular subject. A lot has changed over the years in terms of personal situations – for us individually and as a band – so it was important for us to pull away from this worldly outlook we’d written about on previous albums and write something much more personal. It allowed us to release a little bit of the weight that we had been carrying. We haven’t been know to write personal records, so for us it was more of a challenge to do so – to put these situations down on paper and it was also a case of using it as a bit of therapy.

Would you say that writing the album provided you with a sense of emotional catharsis~?

Adam: I guess on reflection it was more therapeutic than I actually thought it would be when we were writing it. It felt very tense, and I think when you are releasing a lot of emotions and reliving certain moments it can be quite stressful. You can’t really see the therapy that you’re getting from it until you sit back and look at what you’ve done. We’ve actually tackled some serious subject matter here and it has been a massively cathartic experience.

It’s been said that the most beautiful art is created by broken people – would you agree there’s an element of truth in that for you guys?

Adam:That’s a very true sentiment. Nobody is perfect and I think that as human beings we really strive to find and achieve perfection and I don’t think anyone ever wants to admit to being broken. But I feel you can be a lot more honest in your art if you can be at peace with it, and I feel that that’s kind of what Nova became. The fact is that we all had to sit and kind of look inside ourselves and really evaluate the fact that we are broken people in one way shape or form. By admitting you have these imperfections, they make you who you are. Everyone has that similar feeling, but not everyone is honest with themselves. I think a massive degree of honesty has really helped pull us through – musically and lyrically.

The material on the new record is inescapably dark in it’s tone – do you think the album’s title (its definition being “the brightest burning star”) is working on a metaphorical level too in the way that it’s you guys coming out of the darkness through your music to find the light?

Adam: When I named the album that’s kind of how I saw it to be honest – so you’ve hit the nail on the head there well done! [laughs] We went through a very dark period – being in a band and touring in this day and age is a very very hard process. The rewards for doing what you do, there are many, but sometimes its hard to see the wood through the trees. We were just hammering it and were tired and our personal situations were changing quite quickly and dramatically. We then did this album and it just felt like a light at the end of the tunnel – suddenly our eyes were open and the blinkers were off and you could feel this brightness from what we’d created. But we had to come through a lot of darkness to arrive at that point. That’s a very good analogy though – so thank you. I’ll have to try not to use it now in another interview!

A brief look at Nova’s track listing immediately conjure up this underlying sense of darkness. As you listen to each song, you can hear you guys running the gamut of emotions as the personal subject matter at the record’s dark heart reaches towards the surface. The first single to be released was Drive. Why choose that particular song to lead off?

Adam: It was actually more of a musical decision than anything else. As a song, it follows a very regimented rock and pop  structure which people can easily get on with, but it is arguably one of the heavier songs but with the biggest anthemic chorus. It just felt like the best way in which to introduce the rest of the record to people, and for them to get an idea of where we were going and what we were doing with Nova. It contained everything that we were becoming and what we’d become on this record – and it felt like a strong move for us to do it that way.

Can you tell us a bit more about the concept behind the video for Midnight?

Adam: The video is obviously working with the idea of it being at night and focuses in on the things that come to haunt us during that time. The concept was actually based upon a situation I was in when I was 15 – where I ended up being sexually assaulted by a 21 year old. It’s a subject that’s on the cusp of being very hard to describe so it’s very hard to put a video together and easy to misconstrue that mindset and process of thought. So we used the ideas of night terrors, me being in a bed and the black hands smothering me. The things that come for you at the moments when you can’t fight back.

The subject matter of the song is bleak and might be uncomfortable for some to face, but it’s widespread affecting both women and men alike. As someone who has experienced it first hand, do you think enough is being done to draw attention to the issue? If not, do you reckon addressing it head on is the only / best way to move forward?

Adam: The tides are turning. People are beginning to be honest with themselves. They’re not suffering in silence anymore or scared to use their voices . And I think that’s a massive development in itself. Being able to talk freely about something raises awareness. And whether they’re going to counselling or speaking about it to their friends, I think that can only lead to people finding peace and living better lives.

From it’s opening throat shredding scream, to eerie whispered refrains and anthemic gang chants, Devil bellowed in unison in a live capacity. So, can we just ask – where in god’s name are you getting this aggression from?

Adam: Probably from years and years of working in hospitality! [laughing] I’ve always channelled aggression through music – its always been my release. When we’re angry on Nova – we’re very angry. My mum still wonders how I’ve got a throat left. I guess we’re just throwing out all of these emotions that occur at particular points on the record. When I was writing [Devil] it just made me think of the situation that I went through – that trust being misused – and it just manages to draw all the rage and anger to the surface. It felt like a bit if an exorcism at the time and after the track ends you just feel like a different person. Deep down I’m obviously still an angry 16 year old! I think screaming in a metal band has saved my life in one way shape or form. It’s allowed me to have an outlet in which to release my anger which lots of people don’t have – to voice things that have really eaten away at me over the years.

Unbridled aggression aside, there are also smatterings of electronica as well as a degree of chilling ambience at points – did you go into Nova with the aim of pushing your musical boundaries?

Adam: It was a conscious decision to make a mature record. We’re ten years old as a band this year and as people we’re grown up and we’re not angry at our parents any more – in fact I can quite happily sit round a table wit them and have a conversation with them now. The teenage angst has worn off! There’s an instrumental track on there, and poppier vibes too. I think experimentation in sound is the best thing in the world – in music anyway – and I think the pioneers behind it all at the minute are BRING ME THE HORIZON. They’re head and shoulders above everybody else. Plus I think we’ve added that whole 80’s synth sound throughout – which makes it a thicker sound, more soundscapey. I’ve said in a lot of interviews lately that I don’t think our band fits into a genre as such – and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I just think we are a piece of the puzzle that’s never really fitted into the whole picture.

Is there a deeper story behind Amber – it’s lyric “this is an open letter, this is a letter to you” suggests this could be the case?

Adam: I was on the Never Say Die tour in 2016 and woke up on the tour bus one morning n Luxembourg to find out a friend of mine had committed suicide. I literally had to finish a tour and go home and bury someone who I’d grown up with since school. It was not a good experience to have to deal with – especially when you’re on a tour with THY ART IS MURDER. They don’t wanna see some guy from Surrey crying in the corner.  The whole idea with Amber is you’re writing a letter to someone telling them that things could have been different. That things could have changed. But you never know that until you get to the point where things can’t be reversed. Its an open letter – something that is never meant to be read – the idea of me saying my piece over that whole situation.

Would you agree that Nova is a statement of intent and do you think you’ve hit a creative peak through writing it? 

Adam: I think we’re still climbing. I think there’s a lot more to give, but with this record it’s a milestone in terms of those personal attributions that we’ve brought on board. I think its opened doors to the fact that we can write more of a personal record, and that we’re gonna have a lot more avenues to explore – whether it’s musically with the idea of using a bit more electronica and synth or the tuning of our guitars – these have changed quite dramatically over the past few records. It’s juts made us more aware of where we can go and what we can do musically and lyrically.

What would you like fans to take away from this album?

Adam: I’d just like them to live the journey – every song is a story and I just want them to be able to relate to it. I think that the situations in the songs and some of the stuff being sang and written about, people go through. And I hope it gives a lot of listeners and fans the idea and power of knowing they don’t have to suffer in silence. For all the dark, there is light so don’t think the world is just a gloomy and dark place. You’re gonna get the hard days, but they’re brightened by the good and hopefully they’ll outnumber them.

And finally, as an individual and on behalf of the band, what would you like to get out of 2019 – what’s the ambition for the year?   

Adam: To take Nova as far and as wide as possible. There are a lot of countries we desperately want tot get to. We just wanna get out on the road and see as many people as possible. To just enjoy the fact that we’ve written an album that we’re all super proud of that hopefully people can get behind and we can have some really long lasting memories. Until we can get to the next record!

Nova is set for release on April 5th via Arising Empire. 

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