Hey everyone!  What a wild, strange few months we’ve all had.

First off, the election was insane but we are very happy to see the Biden/Harris ticket succeed!

We’ve had some fun moments lately that we wanted to share....

Our song “Wait Forever” will be featured in CBS’s ‘B Positive’. Excited to see that one.  Tonight in fact ha ha.  We love Tom Middleditch’s work, so this is very fun for us. 

The other day Maddie was picking up groceries at our local Ralph’s. She found herself humming our song “American Dreams” and thought, “I wonder how I got that stuck in my head...”. She suddenly realized that our song was playing overhead in Ralph’s.   So it’s official. We’re Ralph’s Certified. Huge thanks to Shoplifter Music for making that happen!

Work on our next album - “A Quiet Storm” - is nearing completion. We have been recording vocals with our dear friend Yan Perchuk, who has helped us track vocals more most all of our releases. Just 4 songs left to track vocals for and then our good friend John Spiker will once again be helping us to mix. I think it’s safe to say you’ll be hearing a first single from “A Quiet Storm” in January or February 2021. 

As we finish production on “A Quiet Storm”, we are also writing our next album. We have a title and about 12 song ideas mostly written. Our hope is to record album #5 next year and have that released for ya’ll in 2022. An album a year is sort of our goal. 

In other news, Maddie has been getting quite a bit of attention for a blog post she wrote about Spotify botting.  If you don’t know, we run a music label services company called Shark Attack, and this was written to help educate musicians about the kind of stuff we work with. 

Read Maddie’s blog here!

For me, I’m finishing up production on a couple other projects. My prog-rock solo project - Johnny Stranger - is nearly done with a 6th album. I’ve also been recording a new project with drummer Brad Dickert called Rocket Eggs. We’ll be releasing a new album and EP next year as well. As you can probably tell, I’m extremely excited for all the new music coming out next year!

Oh, and finally, I listened to our fabled lost record: “Knives Among the Orchids” and really liked it. For a lot of reasons, we didn’t release that one... but we certainly will. Maybe after album #5. 

Alright, that’s the update. Be safe and take care!

Hi everyone! Peter here.

First off, we just want to say how amazing it has been to see so many new listeners here in Polaris Rose land.  We’ve been receiving frequent messages from people just discovering our weird blend of pop and rock and we are so touched by the kind words.  It has been everyone’s outreach that has made us realize just how much we’ve been neglecting our social media presence and we promise we’re back on it!

We’ve been so neglectful, in fact, it’s been years since our last blog post.  A lot has happened since then.  We recorded a record called ‘The Waves Within’ with our dear friend and incredible producer, John Spiker.  That whole awesome experience would be a post in and of itself, but we’ll have to save that for another time.  In short, we had an awesome time writing and recording that record.  

Once it was all done, we had high hopes with the reception it would get… so we floated it (still unreleased) to our connections here in Los Angeles… and received a deafening amount of disinterest.  So we sort of held onto the record for the better part of a year, unsure how we wanted to release it.  We finally just sort of released it on a whim, without promoting it at all.  Honestly, looking back, it was a missed opportunity.  But we were feeling pretty disheartened.  Now, over a year later, we realize we shouldn’t have been and that we just weren’t reaching the right audience.  C’est la vie.  You live and learn.

Following the completion of ‘The Waves Within’, we sort of put Polaris Rose on pause and focused on other projects.  Maddie really focused on her love for business and helping artists and created her company Shark Attack.  We had been putting out our Polaris Rose records under that name for years, but Maddie took it to a new level and began helping other artists release their material and helping with marketing.  At the same time, I focused on writing/producing music for sync, while rebooting my old prog rock project: Johnny Stranger.   In fact, Maddie has been an essential member of Johnny Stranger: playing bass live, recorded vocals on the album, and has been managing us. Kind of like Polaris Rose but harder/darker rock.

These experiences took away a bit of momentum from Polaris Rose for about a year… but funny enough, we started seeing the best results while we were on hiatus.  People started reaching out.  We started getting our music placed in various syncs.  Our fanbase grew, slowly and steadily.  It was always awesome to see and it encouraged us to make plans for our future.

Oh!  And we got engaged.  Woot woot!

In 2019, we started tracking our new record, “A Quiet Storm”.  We really took our time and allowed ourselves to stretch out creatively.  The album just needs vocals now.  ‘A Quiet Storm’ is a bit of a story and follows ‘The Waves Within’ in (we think) a cool way.  We decided to self-produce, largely just for the sake of experimenting at home.  And we are writing the following record (album #5) already, with a sonic plan to keep telling this story over the course of many albums.  Because life is a story and we go through phases.  We want to tell a story that’s authentic to our journey and that challenges us creatively.

So thank you for reading!  We’re writing this from our apartment where we are spending quarantine living our best lives, recording a ton of music, and collaborating with creatives (of a variety of sorts) to celebrate this beautiful life until that final, tangerine sunset.

Until next time…

‘All energy flows according to whims of the great Magnet.  What a fool I was to defy him.”  - Hunter S. Thompson

It's been a minute.  But it's been a good minute.

The last time I blogged, we were on the verge of releasing "Knives Among the Orchids"... well, as you may know, we decided to shelve it.  It was a funny situation that led to the decision.

"Knives Among the Orchids" - at its conception - was intented to be an aggressive turn in direction... shooting away from the California vibe that we have loved so dearly in the past and heading into darker territory... and we loved it.  We really did.  But there was just one problem.  Two problems, actually.

The first problem was a song called "Someone to Break My Heart" and the other was "Creating Mr. Wonderful". 

You see, while we were indulging in our hard rock fancy, a couple songs just popped into my head one day.  And I mean popped.  Songwriting is a funny thing, but sometimes songs just pour out of you... and they tend to be the best ones.  Well, these two beachy jams were instantly there and we said "whoa, these are great but they sound like an entirely different album".  I even came up with a name for that imaginary, beachy album: "The Waves Within".

Initially, the idea was to release "Knives Among the Orchids" and follow it up with a chill beach record called "The Waves Within"... but, as the release date for "Knives" crept ever closer, we found ourselves collaborating on new songs that really seemed to fit with "The Waves Within"... songs like "Wait Forever" and "Nightmare" were among the first... and, honestly, we just thought they were better songs.

The nail in the coffin came when we passed our record along to our good friend Don Grierson.  Don is a legend in the world of A&R.  Seriously, just look him up.  Because he has been responsible for so much of the music that we know and love.  I won't get into his resume here, but he is amazing... and a wonderful friend.

We shared "Knives Among the Orchids" with him and we shared the acoustic demos we had from "The Waves Within".  From 'Knives', he liked our song "Writing on the Wall", which was the sole single from the album we released.  But he preferred the songs we had written for "The Waves Within"... and that really did it for us.  We trust Don's judgment always.

"Writing on the Wall" by Polaris Rose. Written by Peter Anthony and Madelynn Elyse. Drums recorded by Kiel Feher at the Spirit Lodge. Vocals recorded by Yan Perchuk at Vibrant Productions. Mixed by John Spiker. Mastered by Eric Boulanger at the Bakery.

I suppose there was one other reason we decided to go with the "Waves Within" material... as I described earlier, "Knives" would have been a strong change in direction... whereas "The Waves Within" felt natural, like a better version of the same Polaris Rose concept that was present on "Ocean Blue, Velvet Skies" and "Telescopes"... yeah, we just felt like it was the right next step.  It made sense.

We have no idea if we'll ever release "Knives Among the Orchids".  Maybe if people want to hear it.  But, looking back, Maddie and I both feel like it's a record we needed to make but it's not really Polaris Rose.  It was an evil twin.  A bizarro-world version of what we do.  But we still love it and value what it meant in our lives.  But we're even more thrilled with "The Waves Within"- how it sounds and what it means for us moving forward.

First off, thank you so much to everyone who has made it out to our last few shows.  From our acoustic performance at Hotel Cafe to two nights at the Virgil… we really had a great time meeting new faces and playing music we love.  :)  Special Thanks to ROVE and ALL SCENE EYE for inviting us out.

AND.  We’ve been working for the last year on a new record… quietly obsessing over the right tone and song choices.  The album is part 3 of our 6-album story and it’s called ‘Knives Among the Orchids’.  

A bit about the writing… while we were completing work on ‘Ocean Blue, Velvet Skies’, we knew that we wanted to take the sound in a more aggressive direction… without losing the ‘prettiness’ or the dynamics.  So I started writing a new record… thinking all the while about desert landscapes and the fate of the American Dream.  

This is the original album design (since scrapped for something more befitting of the final album)…

The first two songs I wrote were ’SodaJerk’ and ‘Stars & Stripes’.  The second Maddie heard them, she put her foot down (as she does often) and said: “We are putting these on ‘Ocean Blue, Velvet Skies’.”  I resisted, claiming that they conceptually belonged on our ‘desert record’.  But Maddie got her way.  And I’m happy she did.

As the writing continued, Maddie really wanted to bring a bit more of a dirty blues vibe to it. So we kind of did… although I’m not sure you’d be thinking ‘blues’ if you heard it.  But it’s there.  Faint remnants of ye old 12-bar.  So, we reshaped the record together and dreamt up new artwork.

Just yesterday, we completed drums with Kiel Feher at his studio: the Spirit Lodge.  For those who don’t know, Kiel is the drummer for Polaris Rose who doesn’t pose for the band photos but plays a killer kit.  He is an amazing musician, with an vast instinctual understanding of what a song needs.  

You can watch a video of us recording a song called ‘Goodnight Daylight’.

3 songs from ‘Knives Among the Orchids’ were actually completed months ago.  John Spiker mixed and mastered for us.  We’ve been floating them to different people in different places and we’ve been really thrilled with the response.  Even better, we’ve been playing a couple of the songs live… and the response there has been pretty enthusiastic.  :)

‘Knives Among the Orchids’ is 9-songs… and we think it’s our best work.  We think you’ll agree.  You’ll probably hear the first single in January.  We’ve got a lot of work to do from now till then.  We have 4 songs that need vocals to be tracked.  We have at least one music video to shoot.  We’ve got the art already.  And we’ve already begun booking shows for the spring.

A video posted by Polaris Rose (@polaris_rose) on Nov 3, 2016 at 9:12pm PDT

'Rose' by Polaris Rose. Produced by Peter Anthony and Madelynn Elyse. Drums by Kiel Feher. Vocals recorded by Yan Perchuk at Vibrant Productions. Mixed by John Spiker. Mixed by Eric Boulanger at the Bakery.

Take a listen to ‘Rose’.  It’s the latest featured single from our album “Ocean Blue, Velvet Skies”.  Partially inspired by the character Rose from Titanic, partially inspired by a more general sense of sharing the sunset on a beach with a special someone.  I also meant for the sunset to symbolize death and the passing of time and how our lives/loves are fleeting... but I'm told that particular message isn't all that apparent.  haha.

Tonight we are playing at the Mint here in LA!  It’s a busy day, but I still wanted to get this blog done.  I’ve been putting it off for far too long haha.

First off, the first single from our upcoming album Ocean Blue, Velvet Skies is out!  The song is called TigerBait.

We’ve been very happy to see the response the song has been getting.  Bucket Full of Nailssaid, “A portmanteau of David Cassidy-era fervor and today’s data-driven reality, new single “TigerBait” from Los Angeles-based duo Polaris Rose is an analog plea for physical contact and human connection.”. 

I also had the chance to interview with Kira from Roll the Dice and Play Niceand it was a really fun one!  A little excerpt from Kira’s introduction:

“TigerBait” does juggle lots of pieces: The steady, consistent chug of tightly layered guitars; an extremely catchy, synth driven melodic hook; lyrics that take on unexpected syllabic emphasis, thanks to syncopated rhythms (What I know / is tragically subjective / a three ringed show); a striking guitar solo and perfectly aligned vocal harmonies galore. Top that with interval and chord combinations – created by the vocal and instrumental parts together – which oscillate the track between singable major and dissonant minor, and this song might sound like compositional chaos. Yet, much like the intricate power-pop works assembled by Rivers Cuomo, Elyse and Anthony have shrewdly delegated each piece of TigerBait’s puzzle into something that is indeed wholly irresistible –in the best possible way.” -  Kira Grunenberg

Check out the full interview HERE.

We have been hard at work on music videos.  First up is the video for TigerBait, which we’re really happy with.  Kind of a classic Polaris Rose video, with the whole collage of old footage with simple performance shots.  Last week, we traveled down to Joshua Tree with our good friend and dp David Walk, as well as our friend and producer Mohamed Omar.  They helped us film a video for our second single which is - we think - definitely our best video to date.

So, tonight we are performing at the Mint, and it’s a special night because we will be joined by long-time friend Elliot Klein, who we were close with back in Boston.  He has brought a lot of great guitar work to these new songs!

We are rehearsing this afternoon, learning a new song last minute before the show (at Maddie’s behest), and then going out for a good-old band dinner.  Hopefully we’ll see you tonight at the mint!