---

The five years Tacoma’s Skating Polly went without releasing an album — unusual for a 14-year-old band that, from 2013-18, released a new body of work practically every year — was not the result of a much-contemplated need for a break but a confluence of events beyond its control. One was the pandemic. The other was a series of vocal surgeries one of its co-frontwomen, Kelli Mayo, underwent that required at least a year of vocal rest that gave even the simple act of speaking a gravity it hadn’t had before.

Though Skating Polly’s other frontwoman, Peyton Bighorse — who’s also the stepsister of Kelli and drummer Kurtis Mayo — lamented the put-on-hold co-writing that might have gone on in a different world, she told South Sound in an interview that, ultimately, the imposed break was beneficial.

Read the full feature on South Sound.