fests 'n' friendship with josaleigh pollett and jordan watko

Historically on the blog, I'm simply a big fan of Salt Lake City-based singer-songwriter Josaleigh Pollett. So when I saw she was on the Kilby Block Party bill, I rubbed my hands together w/ glee. And I asked if they would be down to do an interview for musicpulsestudios at some point during the weekend! After all, the content must flow.

New (and I think improved) for this year at KBP was the migration of the Mountain Stage into the Days of '47 Arena, a zone in the Salt Lake City Fairpark with stadium seating that will host several rodeos later in the year, as well as a demolition derby and a Third Eye Blind performance. This was a clutch move which created a nice enclosed space with ample seating, an oasis of sound and relaxation on the teeming fest grounds. The Josaleigh Pollett band rocked in this context, bringing dynamism and drama to the introspective indie rock songs of No Woman Is The Sea and In The Garden, By The Weeds. Josaleigh's vocals on "No Man Is An Island"...holy moly.

The day after their set, I got to have a chat with Josaleigh and their frequent musical collaborator Jordan Watko about their friendship, the SLC DIY scene, and sharing a bathroom with Slowdive...

Molly: How long have you known each other, slash been working together?

Josaleigh: It's been six years now? Yeah, we met in 2019. I had just started the process of recording my album No Woman Is The Sea, and I was dating one of Jordan's friends, and he was like, "You've got to meet my friend Jordan. I think you guys should make some music together." We were both in this perfect headspace of both being recently divorced bisexuals, and we liked the same music. We were both really into the Sharon Van Etten album that had just come out, Remind Me Tomorrow. I started dragging him to the studio with me every weekend and now we've made two albums since then.

Jordan: My memory of it is that I kind of snuck in there in the middle of the recording process. I inserted myself a little bit.

Josaleigh: In the best possible way.

Molly: I know you've played Kilby Court before, because I saw your name on the the mural. I heard Jenny Lewis shouting out Kilby Court during the Rilo Kiley set yesterday.

Josaleigh: It's such a staple. The city has changed around it, but Kilby kind of stays the same. They've made tiny upgrades to the space, but for the most part it's stayed a little hole in the wall.

Jordan: Yeah, it hasn't changed since the first concert I ever played, with my first band ever. It was at Kilby Court, 20 years ago.

Molly: What was the name of that band?

Jordan: The Continentals.

Molly: Nice. I was just eavesdropping on, I don't know who that band over there is, but they were saying their high school band name was Wheatgrass. Now I'm on the "first band name" tip. Anyway, what's the Salt Lake City scene like right now, pros and cons?

Josaleigh: I feel like it's a really exciting time. The folks that own Kilby, they own a lot of the venues in town, and they've gotten a lot bigger. So it's gotten harder and harder for small DIY shows, especially shows for small touring bands, to happen at their venues. But now there's a couple of independent curators, almost, of really cool DIY shows—there's one called Hypha Productions, and then another one called Yardwork Presents. They've been doing little pop ups all over the place, partnering with local businesses and making shows happen that have been so cool and so needed, especially as somebody that's lived here for a long time. When I've had friends touring through, I've been like, ugh, if Kilby doesn't have the date for you, I'm not really even sure where to recommend you play. But lately I've been able to say, hit these people up and see if you can find a cool weird coffee shop boutique show to put together. It's also been more all-ages focused. It's really cool to be more accessible that way.

Molly: Well, your set yesterday was amazing. There was one block of sets before yours but you more or less kicked off the day's proceedings. How did that feel?

Josaleigh: It was crazy. We both started getting nervous, like, 24 hours before.

Molly: That's a long time to feel nervous.

Josaleigh: The morning was rough. We had our load in at 9 a.m., and we were just pacing behind the stage. It was one of the biggest shows we've ever played, and it was fun to see all of the behind-the-scenes production. But my favorite part of all of it was how much fun our band had. Everybody was really jazzed on their performance. Actually our drummer was fighting off kidney stones, and had been since the day before. And we were like, dude, are you sure? You don't have to play this show in pain, if we need to call it off, we can. And he was like, nope, I'm going to power through. And he was the one that was the most jazzed about how we played and was so happy all day yesterday. So if he can have that good of a time while being in that much pain, then we did a really good job.

Molly: And then you're done and you can enjoy the day.

Josaleigh: Yeah, totally. We got very tired immediately after.

Jordan: The adrenaline and cortisol to serotonin overload pipeline...

Josaleigh: ...it was rough. Rilo Kiley was who I was most excited to see, and I was happy and dancing, but I was also like, I think my brain is not here. I am so on another planet right now.

Molly: That's a big day. What are you doing for the rest of the weekend, what else are you looking forward to?

Josaleigh: Super excited to see Ovlov today. And Sasami. I'm excited for Geese and TV On The Radio.

Molly: That one's a tough conflict. A bit rude.

Josaleigh: The Youth Lagoon vs. Rilo Kiley conflict sucked. Mostly this been really good because Jordan actually lives outside of the country now, so he's just been visiting for this show. He's been here for a few weeks and he leaves on Tuesday. It's been great to be able to hang out and see some shows together, because it's not a world we get access to very often anymore.

Jordan: That's pretty much all I have on the agenda—hanging out.

Molly: That's nice!

Josaleigh: That's my favorite part about this festival too, I see so many friends that I love and haven't seen for so long. It's social overload, but in the best possible way.

Jordan: It's such a distillation of Salt Lake City, Small Lake City.

Molly: Oh my god, is that what people call it?

Josaleigh: Yes, for sure. Jordan and I were actually on a bill together in our teens. I had the poster for it for years. And so for us to meet way later? It's like, of course we played a show together when we were teenagers. This is just how this scene works.

Jordan: [Kilby] is like a weird mix of seeing Jenny Lewis fly by on a golf cart, Justice doing an interview two booths over...

Molly: Ooh, you saw Justice?

Jordan: I think so. It was just a lot of hair and leather.

Josaleigh: I was in the bathroom in the green room yesterday, peeing while the woman from Slowdive was washing her hands.

Jordan: So it's a weird mix of that, and seeing people that you've known since elementary school.

Josaleigh: It's special and chaotic.

Thank you Josaleigh and Jordan! Listen to Josaleigh's music and check out their link aggregation.

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