new release – The Offtopics

Isolation (Tonight) will be available on all streaming platforms from Thursday 19th November 2020

‘Polash From The Garden’ is the forthcoming solo EP from The Offtopics songwriter & frontman and former Grenadines guitarist Polash Larsen. The EP is an introspective, reflective and occasionally whimsical offering from an artist more known for his on-stage antics and high energy performance persona.
Recording during the lockdown created unexpected opportunities to explore songs that couldn’t find their place in a band context. “It would have been easy to become negative, focusing on what we couldn’t do but we (Polash and sound designer and Tim Minchin engineer Darius Kedros) chose to lean into the limitations. If I couldn’t play it on guitar myself then we couldn’t bring someone else into the room to do it. There was no hiring fancy equipment. One of the tracks features a drum that Darius found in hard rubbish! I still try to focus on story when I write a song and the stripped back production puts the events and characters front and centre.”
A case in point is the single ‘Isolation (Tonight)’ which, in a subtle nod to the EP tittle, starts with a circular chord cycle similar to Van Morrison’s ‘In The Garden’ but then deviates into unexpected territory by contrasting languid vocal delivery with the underlying impatience of the rhythm guitar. “I wrote this song very early on in the pandemic thinking about people physically separated from their loved ones. It’s an anticipatory sort of song from the perspective of someone who’s trying to make the best out a date night over Zoom. It’s a song of frustrated romance.”
The EP makes a virtue of “making do” and is inspired by the acoustic bootlegs of Bobby Womack and Rick Rubin’s American Recordings with Johnny Cash. The EP title is a play on words referring to both the recording taking place at Kedros’ Garden Studio and the Bengali-Australian Polash being named for the flower from the Flame of The Forest tree. Illustrator Rebecca Stewart’s cover art was inspired by a New Delhi mobile Covid testing station depicting the artist as “the sort of Hindu god who keeps an arm free to pat dogs”.
http://www.theofftopics.com | management@theofftpics.com

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Hey there friends of The Offtopics, it’s Polash aka “The Funk Dynamo” here… though, to be honest, I haven’t been feeling very dynamic for most of this year. I know it’s been a long time since you’ve heard any updates from us and I apologize unreservedly. There have been some events besides the obvious global happenings going on for us that have made me want to gnaw off my time tapping foot rather than do a mail-out. This isn’t me substituting sounding mysterious for being interesting. Neither am I having a moan (who needs to hear that right now??) I’m just trying to keep things “real” for a moment.

It’s still hard for me to talk about it but I promise I will bring everyone up to speed over the coming weeks. Rest assured, we Offtopics, have been making plans to get some new music out there. It’s complicated by the same pressures that have been affecting everyone but it WILL happen.

In the meantime I want to share something super positive with you all. During lockdown I teamed up with my buddy Darius Kedros to record a solo EP which I’ve called “Polash From The Garden”. The EP has six songs on it, three of which Offtopics fans might recognize from our live shows. I really hope you enjoy these stripped back acoustic versions. The other three songs are originals from beyond The Offtopics’ wheelhouse though they may get funkified after the zombie apocalypse.

It wouldn’t be one of my projects without some beautiful visuals to go with it so I was absolutely thrilled to team up with Rebecca Stewart again and she’s come through with the goods. Here are some of her concept roughs to spark your interest.

There’s a whole story behind the visual ideas for the EP cover and if you’re keen I’ll do a deep dive in another email.

For now I just want to let you all know that the first single off the EP is called “Isolation (Tonight)” and will be available on all streaming platforms THURSDAY 19 NOVEMBER so SAVE THE DATE!

That’s it from me for the moment. Please write back to say g’day. Don’t be like me and go quiet ‘cos the world is getting you down. Right now, nothing would please me more than to have a bit of back and forth via email.

I hope you’re all hanging in out there. Lettuce know!

All the best,

Polash OTO*

AKA The Funk Dynamo
AKA The Love Wombat

(*Of The Offtopics)