PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN SNODGRASS
INTERVIEW WITH SINGER / GUITARIST POLI VAN DAM BY JOHN B. MOORE
I
t was close to a decade after The Bombpops formed that they finally delivered their first LP, Fear Of Missing Out. And, despite the line-up changes, the fits and the starts, the result was wildly satisfying. As a reward for their patient fans, the L.A.-based band are now quickly following up that debut with Death in Venice Beach, out on Mar. 13, 2020, via Fat Wreck Chords. It’s an equally impressive album, albeit one with darker themes. Poli van Dam, co-singer and guitarist for The Bombpops, admits these songs came to the band pretty quickly.
“Recording Fear Of Missing Out, a couple of the songs there were older, a couple came quicker leading up to the session,” she says. “But [this time], since we had done it already, and we had the experience of recording before, we had a bit of a fire under our asses. And the excitement was there as well.” Van Dam notes that after assembling in the recording studio this time around, everything seemed to flow better for the band. “I wasn't as freaked out or scared,” she says. “For me, at least, it gets super overwhelming in the beginning. But we'd been through this before, and I knew we could get through it.” The band left their native California for Colorado to record, as they did for the Fear Of Missing Out sessions, linking up with producers Chris Fogal (The Gamits) and Yotam Ben Horin (Useless ID) once again.
40 NEW NOISE
