“We’re just trying to write popular songs,” Polish Club’s Dave Novak tells BLUNT, “And however that comes out, we don’t really care anymore.”
Freeing yourself from the shackles of others’ opinions is no easy feat, but Novak wears this sentiment like a badge of honour as he eloquently deconstructs the no-bullshit approach Polish Club took to their forthcoming third album, Now We’re Cookin’. The highly anticipated release is an amalgamation of purposeful and exciting music – a collection of ten standalone hits hand-picked from a massive assortment of 90 ‘could-have-been’ tracks.
“We kind of have to get all the bad ideas out first anyways,” laughs Novak. The precision behind their fat-trimming process is a testament to the band’s ‘no excess’ approach, taking extra care to ensure the album’s tracklist is packed with songs that hit a very specific mark.
Novak continues: “The first album was all the songs we had, basically. With Iguana we struggled a lot, and that one only came together thematically once our producer was like, ‘These songs sound like a nighttime album’. And with this one, the approach was so far away from, ‘What’s this about?’ – it was more, ‘What’s in this? What is the substance of the song I’m writing in this?’
“They’re catchy pop-rock songs. That’s all they need to be. There’s a nice light and shade that I don’t think we’ve ever used as effectively as we did this time. I’m not worried about the variety in there – I mean, it’s the fucking spice of life. And I’m happy with the range of themes and having not all love songs. There’s songs about shitty, toxic men and how shit the music industry is. There’s a song literally telling Rupert Murdoch to die, which is fun.”
As calculated as it was getting the record where it needed to be, Novak solemnly admits it isn’t always a straight and narrow road there – especially when you throw a COVID-sized spanner in the works. At the time of chatting, the band were originally scheduled to drop the album on July 23rd, but the global pandemic and constant forced plan-shuffling saw Polish Club postpone the release, and subsequently, everything else set to follow. It’s ever-fitting now, considering Novak’s outlook on the importance of seeing a release cycle through its entirety.
“We’ve discovered that no matter how much we try to not write a rock song, it’s always, always, always going to be a rock song.”
“There are so many other things you need to take into account, right? Especially now,” he says. “No one can play 100 percent capacity shows anymore, so that sucks. Then the flow-on effect – beyond just being a lot of people’s livelihoods – is that you can’t really release an album without being able to tour it properly. So now everything has just kind of fallen apart and those cycles have become longer and longer.
“We’ve always been that band who has a really modest amount of streams, but sells out every show. We very much rely on that direct connection live. We pretty much write and release stuff with a view to how it’s going to sound live. Without that element, every single part of it is just totally in disarray.”
Be that as it may, Novak refuses to let these challenges dictate how the album will settle – that’s an indulgence reserved for the fans. Now We’re Cookin’ is an experimentation of sorts, and Novak is excited to see the findings of his research play out. He goes on to explain how each song is different but holds the same purpose: to be as mainstream as possible in all the right ways.
“We’re in a rock band,” he says, “And the state of rock might as well be non-existent at this point. I don’t think it’s a particularly cool genre and I don’t think it’s an exciting genre, so I think that affords us a lot of leeway in terms of writing pop songs and messing around with instrumentation, and going as far as possible from writing a rock album as we can. Because we’ve discovered that no matter how much we try to not write a rock song, it’s always, always, always going to be a rock song.
“We don’t care anymore, really. We want to write songs that excite our current fans and songs that can appeal to people that do not agree, in terms of music taste, with our current fans. We’re basically just trying to be as mainstream or palatable to as many people as possible. I think that’s something maybe a lot of rock bands steer clear of because there’s this weird sense of, ‘If everyone likes my music then it’s generic and it’s boring.’ No, it’s literally the opposite.”
Keeping that in mind, not caring doesn’t necessarily equate to not giving a shit. If anything, Novak has an overarching goal to appeal to those who do care – an attitude we’re sure Polish Club fans can appreciate.
“We wrote songs and then people ended up enjoying them and it ended up, weirdly, enriching some people’s lives – which is the most mind-blowing thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. So why would I not try to chase that and do that as much as possible? That’s my approach.”
Now We’re Cookin’ is out August 13th
Polish Club
Now We’re Tourin’ Australian Tour Dates
Tickets available now.
Thursday, 28th October
The Tivoli, Brisbane
Tickets: Polish Club
Friday, 29th October
Miami Marketta, Gold Coast
Tickets: Polish Club
Thursday, 4th November
Torquay Hotel, Torquay
Tickets: Polish Club
Friday, 5th November
Croxton, Melbourne
Tickets: Polish Club
Thursday, 11th November
The Gov, Adelaide
Tickets: Polish Club
Friday, 12th November
Badlands, Perth
Tickets: Polish Club
Wednesday, 24th November
Uow Unibar, Wollongong
Tickets: Polish Club
Thursday, 25th November
The Cambridge, Newcastle
Tickets: Polish Club
Thursday, 9th December
Roundhouse, Sydney
Tickets: Polish Club
