Polly Mackey
Polly is a producer, artist, engineer and academic. As Art School Girlfriend, she has established herself as a master of the sonic space that realises electronica through a songwriter and shoegazer perspective, with her third album Lean In containing an electronic-organic hybridity and unparalleled production born from time, expertise and a ‘studio of one’s own’. She has toured extensively across the UK, Europe and USA as well as appearing at festivals such as Field Day, SXSW, Latitude, Green Man and BBC 6Music Festival.
Originally from Wrexham, North Wales, Mackey moved to London in 2011 with her shoegaze band and threw herself into the vibrant East London music eco-system. In 2016, she began the solo electronica project that would see her sign to Paul Epworth’s label Wolf Tone (Universal). The Church Studios in Crouch End became her musical home and reignited her love for studio engineering. After a string of EPs, Mackey has now released three full-length records on Fiction Records and Domino Publishing.
Alongside her solo project, she has diverse involvement across the music scene at large – contributions to the work of Daniel Avery, Lane 8, Ghostpoet; being chosen by Bonobo to DJ at his Outliers series at Drumsheds and Mixmag Lab; touring the US with both The Japanese House and Marika Hackman; a notable DJ set for HOR; producing and engineering for up-and-coming post-rock band Pencil; the tastemaker curation of her 5-years-in-the-running monthly radio show on Foundation FM.
In 2019, Mackey began teaching music production after a series of guest lectures at Goldsmiths and ICMP. She now teaches production, studio engineering and sound design at UAL, ICMP and Abbey Road Institute with a particular interest in how technical knowledge can help unlock creativity. Her research explores generative ambient music, microsound, noise and how a sense of human-ness and intimacy can be created in digitally-made music.
