Interview with POLKER: ‘There’s a piece of each and every one of us in each song’

St. Helens, UK-based alt-rock band POLKER will release their debut EP ‘Over Words Ever After’ on 15 April 2022, which talks about love and lost love.

The band comprises Sam Rughoo (vocals and guitar), Maddie Hale (drums), Lewis Burgess (guitar) and Lewis Jones (bass). Rughoo and Burgess were at high school together and Rughoo knows Jones from their BMX days. Hale joined the band last August. She used to work with Jones’ girlfriend in a pub and got a message from her one day asking if she was interested in joining the band: ‘We had a bassist who we kicked out ‘cos he never turned up,’ Rughoo said. ‘Lewis said to me “I’ve got a bass, not I can play” (laughs) and he joined the band! It doesn’t make a lot of sense, our name used to be Polker Dice. I was at my mate’s house, he’d introduced me to the game poker but I spelled it wrong!’

Late last year, they released their single ‘Kiss Me Alone’, a haunting yet beautiful track with a sweepingly cinematic chorus: ‘It started off simply but everything sort of snowballed and it took on its own nature,’ Rughoo said. ‘I was maybe drinking a little bit too much at home (laughs). I had a conversation with someone which didn’t leave me very happy and the song came out of that. For me, it’s kind of about coming to terms with your demons. Sometimes you win the battle, other times you don’t. It’s day by day. In the verses, the song follows a structure, it’s sort of baroque. The melody comes from the guitar and bass, with Es and Fs in minor, half-step changes, they’re not full note changes.’

Typically, Rughoo will come up with the lyrics first. Or, as Burgess puts it: ‘He’ll get drunk first!’ Rughoo laughs: ‘I’ll have a bottle of red wine at 12 at night and something will come out,’ he said. ‘I’ll have the basic structure to a song and everyone puts their part on it.’ Hale agrees: ‘It’s a special thing on the drums,’ she said. ‘And Lewis is really good at doing these guitar lines that float, that you hum. Everyone has their own creative input that’s acknowledged.’

‘It doesn’t align the same way as the other songs, it stands by itself’

Interestingly, their upcoming four track EP ‘Over Words Ever After’ will not feature ‘Kiss Me Alone’: ‘We went in such a different direction with the other tracks that it didn’t really fit anymore,’ Hale said. ‘It doesn’t align the same way as the other songs, it stands by itself.’ Instead, the EP will feature four unreleased tracks: ‘Suddenly September’, ‘House of Trees’, ‘As Good As Mine’ and ‘Corpus Christi’: ”Suddenly September’ is a big starting track,’ Hale said. ‘The intro is very soft and then it kicks off. It’s nice and calm at the start, it makes you wonder what direction the song will go in.’ Rughoo weighs in: ‘When we started on the scene, we were struggling for a set. ‘Suddenly September’ was the first track. It starts with just vocals and me on guitar. It’s ethereal and then it kicks in. When we played it at our first gig, there were only 10 people in the room when we started but by the end, the room was full,’ he said, looking delighted. Burgess admits to having a bit of stage fright: ‘I get nervous onstage, my palms get sweaty,’ he said.

‘Suddenly September’ is essentially a story told over the course of a year: ‘It will make more sense when you hear it but it tracks a year,’ Rughoo said. ‘It’s a metaphor for the start of a happy, burgeoning relationship but by the end it crescendos through the seven stages of grief to acceptance at it not being what you need. ‘House of Trees’ is about a relationship that never really takes off, it falls at the starting gate and never gets back up, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Sonically, it’s quite heavy but steps more into psychedelia at the end. ‘As Good As Mine’ is about the feeling of having to break a relationship off for an intangible reason, or it just not feeling right. It sounds angrier and a bit moodier than anything else, there are lots of heavy guitar and drums. ‘Corpus Christi’ is more papal in its approach, and has themes of the church in it, in the context of someone having control over someone else in an unhealthy way. It’s aggressive, short, and to the point.’

However, not all of their tracks chart troubled relationships. One of their more upbeat songs is ‘Louder By The Sea’, which they released in 2021: ‘It’s a simple, happy song about sharing things with people,’ Rughoo said. ‘It’s about those moments when you see something and you want to share it with someone you love, that’s nice.’ Jones interjects: ‘We wrote it a long, long time ago!,’ he said. Rughoo is laughing: ‘We had a terrible, terrible version of it,’ he said. ‘We were 16, it was the first song I’d written, I made some rubbish up. We released it but it was terrible! Lewis did the art. We took it off streaming platforms afterwards.’ Hale joins in: ‘We thought it could be something better,’ she said.

‘The song is who you are, everyone has put in their version of my bit, it all becomes our tune’

All of them wish they could work on their music full-time: ‘I had a conversation about it with my dad,’ Rughoo said. ‘He’s not musically inclined but he’s a music fanatic. I studied history and politics, which I’m not using at all (laughs).’ Hale agrees: ‘Music is a full-time job when I’m not studying biochemistry or working,’ she said. ‘If you’re an accountant, no-one says your spreadsheet is rubbish, do they? But if someone says your song is crap, that’s your heart and soul. There’s a piece of each and every one of us in each song.’ Rughoo adds: ‘Luckily, no-one has said that…yet! The song is who you are, everyone has put in their version of my bit, it all becomes our tune.’

If they could go to a gig tonight, Jones picks Kentucky rock band Black Stone Cherry, who Rughoo has seen live. ‘They were absolutely incredible,’ he said. ‘I saw them at the Manchester Apollo. They did a one and a half hour acoustic set, had a 10 minute break and then did a two hour electric set!’ Hale picks Bedford rock band Don Broco: ‘I’ve seen them 10 times, their energy is completely unparalleled,’ she said. ‘I want to do what they do. I’ve met them a few times, they’re so lovely, they signed my cowboy hat! They get better and better every time.’ Rughoo has a few bands on his list: ‘There’s a folk duo I’ve seen on YouTube called The Civil Wars. Their ‘Live in New Orleans’ set is amazing, they’re incredible. Their names are John Paul White and Joy Williams. They’re hauntingly gorgeous, their chemistry is on another level, they have a frightening level of connection. I’ve watched that video every day for the last seven days!’ Burgess goes with Bristol rock band IDLES: ‘I’ve been following them for a year, they’ve really shot up,’ he said enthusiastically. Rughoo agrees: ‘We went shopping and he bought the album for 40 quid, that’s how much he loves them,’ he said.

‘Joe Bonamass – in a Barbour jacket – one day, if we reach stardom, I hope we’ll meet in person!’

Rughoo used to work in a guitar shop in St. Helen’s, Peter Darwin Music, and it turns out that even legends have been known to pop in: ‘John, the owner would always call me up and say so-and-so was in, even though it wasn’t true and then one day he told me to get round there because Joe Bonamassa (the American blues guitarist) was there, he wanted to have a look at all the smelly guitars and I was like “Sure, right” but then this voice comes on the phone saying “This is Joe Leonard Bonamassa”! I wasn’t in St. Helen’s that day, so I couldn’t get back in time to meet him. He was so nice, he left us tickets for his show in Liverpool that week but I got there too late and the doors were closed. He’s got some serious gear. It was about six years ago. Joe Bonamassa – in a Barbour jacket – one day, if we reach stardom (laughs), I hope we’ll meet in person!’

I ask them what their dream line-up would look like and they get very excited: ‘That’s big, let’s establish some rules!,’ Rughoo said. Jones looks deep in thought: ‘It has to be Led Zeppelin, they’re phenomenal,’ he said. ‘Robert Plant’s voice is ridiculously good in ’73.’ We all agree. ‘I’ll say David Bowie post-2000,’ said Rughoo and we all ‘ooooh’ in unison then burst out laughing. ”Life on Mars’ is one of the most amazing songs ever. We’ll have his band, him and me on my own in the audience! He was ahead of his time in so many ways, not just when it comes to music. I saw a clip of him being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman where Paxman asked him if he thought the internet was just a flash in the pan and Bowie said it would change the world in ways we couldn’t even begin to imagine, he already understood what it was capable of, long before other people did.’ Hale is trying to decide: ‘I’m in a crazy toss up between Black Sabbath and Depeche Mode,’ she said. ‘Violator (Depeche Mode’s album from 1990) is the best album of all time.’ I say that it’s a brilliant album. ‘I’ll say Tears For Fears, they’re a great band,’ Burgess said. ‘Oooooh, we could have a gaggle of 80’s bands,’ Rughoo said delightedly.

As a female drummer, Hale is used to defying expectations, something that delights them as a band: ‘When we arrive at a gig, if the other bands aren’t familiar with us, they don’t quite know where Maddie fits in,’ Rughoo said. ‘Only when she gets on stage and plays better than everyone else do they realise what she’s about, and it’s always amusing to see a group of emasculated boys not quite understanding how a girl is better on the drums than they are!’

(Top photo from left to right: Lewis, Maddie, Lewis and Sam.)