In truth, I didn’t know where I was going to head with this week’s instalment. I was actually torn between featuring something separately on Skating Polly and one of my favourite bands of all time, Veruca Salt. Instead, I’ve found a compromise in a cool little song called Hail Mary which featured on Skating Polly’s EP New Trick (2017), that involved both bands. But first a little bit of a back ground to set the scene.
The story goes that as Skating Polly’s stepsister duo of Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse began to make a name for themselves in indie circles with their raw and rough 90’s inspired alternative rock leanings, they inevitably drew the attention of some really cool musicians including famed rockers, Nina Gordon and Louise Post of Veruca Salt fame. So anyway, when mutual friends of both bands encouraged them to get together for a songwriting session, Post and Gordon jumped at the chance to meet up with Mayo and Bighorse. “I was taken in by the songwriting and by their personalities, and I took them seriously and realized they were a force to be reckoned with,” Post said in 2017. “And I was totally intrigued by the idea of writing with them, and what would come out of that. Nina was too.”
In short, a two-day songwriting sessions with both bands produced the song Hail Mary. But a few months later Mayo asked Gordon and Post if they would be interested working together again and expanding it to a three-song EP. The end result was Skating Polly’s EP New Trick and it’s fair to say everyone was thrilled with it.
Interestingly, as a consequence of working with Gordon and Post, Skating Polly made an inspired change expanding their band to include Mayo’s brother, Kurtis on drums. The reason for it had to do a lot with the expansive sound brought on by Post and Gordon. Their influence can be heard, especially on Hail Mary, which slowly builds with guitar layers reminiscent of their own work. But the rest of course is pure Skating Polly with their completely unfashionable approach to songwriting.
Check out the song and its really creepy music video, which is according to Mayo and Bighorse, “about being addicted to poisonous people”. Enjoy!
Rearview Mirror 
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