Chairlift's Caroline Polachek on How Her Sly Brooklyn Band Went Big

It’s Woman Crush Wednesday. We talk to the songwriter and lead singer of Chairlift about their propulsive third album, David Bowie, and classified studio secrets.
This image may contain Caroline Polachek Clothing Apparel Human Person Sleeve Pants Long Sleeve and Blouse

Chairlift, as a band, has always done what it has promised: The music elevates you steadily, gorgeously, sends you blissfully careening. The band's third album, Moth, has catapulted its audience from its seat.

Unlike its whispy pale-butterfly imagery, Moth is urgent and flirtatious. Singer Caroline Polachek’s vocals are laid bare to reveal a strong, capable core; Patrick Wimberly's instrumentals provide a persistently tumultuous groove. The vaguely heist-themed first hit, "Ch-Ching", shows that this album has the sexy, nefarious confidence of somebody getting away with something. (New fact: The string of numbers in the song, 27-9-9-23, was the combination to the band's Brooklyn recording-studio lock.) (They've changed it now.) The cuteness of their 2008 breakout hit, "Bruises" (yes, from the Apple commercial; yes, that exact Apple intersection of cheery and hip), looks much smaller from here.

A few blocks away from where Chairlift shot their new music video for their racing anthem, “Romeo,” Polachek tells GQ all about the band's new energy.

Do you usually think of making music in the context of how people will use it in their lives?
Definitely. That’s how I think of my favorite music, too. It’s not just the feeling it evokes but it’s the situation you want to listen to it in. As soon as we wrote the beat for “Romeo,” I knew it was a running song. I was thinking about it in terms of the body. What do you want to do? It’s not a song you want to dance to. Now that it’s out in the world, my hope is that people use it to channel their own energy.

Just like “Crying in Public” [another song off the album]! Why do you think public weeping has become a recent cultural fixation?
When things catch you off guard when you’re in public, it plays with your sense of scale. You feel like one of many, many, many in a vulnerable place. I get kind of disturbed when I see that, because on one hand you want to ask someone if they need help, because you don’t know what situation someone is dealing with. I have a story about that: A friend of mine was in line at the MoMA store, and he’d just been denied funding for a big project he’d been working on for years. He broke down crying in line while buying his mom a present, and he felt a hand on his back and a voice saying, “Are you alright?” and he turned around and it was David Bowie.

Phew! That’s going to make me cry. Chairlift’s first cover song was a David Bowie song, wasn’t it? “Always Crashing in the Same Car”? How did you choose that?
Low was probably the album that influenced me more than any other, because of how it combined humor and impressive, glamorous, driving energy with this totally surreal soundscape production. That was a huge influence on Chairlift, especially at the beginning. I first heard that album when I was at a party in Colorado, and people were dancing and on drugs and I just had to sit and listen to this album. I couldn’t believe all of these songs existed on one record.

There are some serious diva moments on this record, especially in “Show U Off”…
I know what you’re talking about! REALLLLLL! [sung in an operatic pitch]

That’s it! What brought about this heightening?
It’s fun to stick those notes in there. We made an intentional choice to make our vocals much less affected, less reverb. It was a challenge because it requires a certain amount of bravery to keep my voice that exposed. I have been studying opera recently as a cross-training slash hobby slash side passion. It’s a very private practice. I have an opera coach who I went to as a teenager, when I was 15 and 16 years old. When I went to college, I forgot about it. It wasn't until we started writing songs like “Ch-Ching” and “Romeo” that I thought, These songs are actually going to ruin my voice on tour permanently if I don’t learn how to sing them properly. I called up my teacher in Connecticut. She’s become a mentor for me, not just for music but for life.


Walk me through the choreography for “Ch-Ching.”
I wanted to feel like it was liquid and smooth and suspended, but also really sassy. I was looking into Bollywood and street dance in New York and Chinese ballet and dancehall. The men’s dance style in dancehall is territorial, but it’s also flirtatious and it’s also showing off strength by way of smooth movement that you can only do if you’re really strong. It has so much attitude. I found a New York–based choreographer, Korie Genius, who is doing amazing dancehall stuff. A lot of people thought we were doing Asian-style dance, and it couldn’t be further away on the globe.

How did you select the moth as the animal for this album?
It’s a soft thing in a hard place; it has a soft and tender core in an urban crust. We wanted to touch on the relentless optimism of moths. They continue and continue and continue and try again and try again and try again; this record touches on that feeling, whether it’s better for you or not, to just keep going.

Chairlift's new album, Moth, is out January 22.