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INTERVIEW WITH JAMES POLLITT FROM SOSEITY

What are your names and what do you do in the band?

Hi!! I'm James Pollitt and I, write, as well as being lead vocalist in Soseity, (and I'll probably a little bit of keyboard once I get good enough) Lucas Rigby is on drums, Cam Stephenson is on bass and Ben Moore is on guitar and they both do vocals too.

How did you meet each other?

Ahah it's actually quite a funny one how me and Cam met, he messaged me, maybe 18 months ago now, asking me where I got my penny board from. I started doing a bit of promotion for his band at the time, The Strays, and eventually I started Soseity with him and his best mate Tom Braithwaite. Together, we wrote ITILY and Lover That I Lost (mainly them though to be fair, I just wrote some lyrics over those beautiful instrumentals). I owe them a lot to be honest, Tom's left but without him and Cam I would never have had the confidence to do anything with my songs. Just before Tom left, we pulled in Lucas, who I knew through a mutual friend. And then we replaced Tom with Ben, who I'd met through Instagram. It's worked out quite well really to be honest like, me, Cam and Ben are all at the same uni so that's bare deece. It's all just mad for me, being in a band and that. I just proper love these lads man.

How old are you and what are your birthdays?

I had to proper hit up the lads and ask them this not gonna lie to ya rkid. Cam's is in May, the 29th I think? Don't quote me on that though ahah. He's just started uni and he's 18. Me and Ben are a year older, in our second year at Uni, I'm born on the 18th June (expecting bday presents off people now that I've said that) and Ben is born on 5th August. Lucas is the baby of the group, he's just started college, he's only 16 the lil cutie and his bday is 10th July.

What are your favourite colours?

My personal favourite colour is sort of a turquoisey colour. I've always been a fan of blue (being a lifelong City fan, I feel like my dad would have killed me if it had been red aha) not too sure about the other lads, but that's the colour we're using a lot recently so I'm guessing they can't hate it too much.

Why did you decide to form a band?

Well I've been writing songs for a while now, maybe 5 or 6 years, and eventually I felt like I wanted to get something that I'd written out there. I felt like I had a lot to say, maybe some of its shite but hopefully there's some good in there. I didn't wanna put stuff out when I was 15/16, because I really struggled with my confidence and self-esteem a lot at school. I had really bad acne, I was really awkward and shy, to be honest, I just wasn't really happy with myself as a person, I think that's reflected in the early stuff I wrote. Not gonna lie, I kind of looked like a potato until maybe like I was 16, school really wasn't a good time for me. When I got my Instagram, at the start of college, I felt a bit more confident in myself generally, as well as in my songs, and my voice. But I wouldn't have said I was ready to put them out there. Cam and Tom gave me that final push to get my songs out there, or at least attempt to do something with it. Being in a band gives me a bit more confidence. I just hope people like it. I really hope they do...

How did you choose the name Soseity?

'Soseity'... Well this is where it gets a little pretentious, sorry, ah, erm so basically me and my sister were looking at starting a clothing company. She wanted to use the name Ipseity which is Latin for 'selfhood', I wanted Soseity. The clothing company never happened but I kept the name as I thought it was kinda cool...

'Seity', I think, is ancient Greek for individuality, and I feel like there's a lot of people who just wanna be sheep in the world, it's like, kind of a play on the fact that there's not much individuality in society. I hope that doesn't sound too cuntish? I feel like it does aha.

What genre of music do you make?

I mean yeah, I'm not really sure how I'd describe it. I wanna kinda break genres and do different things. Having done promotion for quite a while now, I feel like where a lot of bands go wrong is it's all a bit too similar, with their songs all being slightly 'samey' and also a bit too much like what's already out there, like I can't even tell you how much I've heard "these sound proper like Catfish, or the 1975 or the Smiths" when introducing the band's I've worked with to people, and like that's okay, but I don't really wanna be a tribute band. Is that too rude to say??? I don't know man I don't wanna upset anybody but I just wanna do something cool and a bit different...

I've taken influence from different bands (mainly bands like The Cure and The Smiths because they talk about things that matter and I fully love that) from 80's/00's pop, blues, from newer bands that to me, stand out, bands on the new indie-pop wave like HUNNY, Clay, Phoebe Green and King No-One, I love their lyricism, I love what they're doing man. Along with other bands like SWMRS, Bulletproof Bomb, Carnival Club and Field Medic (and a few others man, there's a few too many to mention) they, they're all a bit different and I love that man. Also like anybody who follows my twitter (painfully for them, sorry) kinda knows I love grime and 50's music as well. Basically I'm not sure what vibes we'll go with but I know there's a mix of heavy shit, indie, things about my mental health struggles, political stuff and a few norty little love ballads (who doesn't love a good ballad) aha.

What are the inspirations behind your songs?

I mean there's a lot of different inspirations, but basically I want to make music that matters, I feel like anybody can write a half-decent love song, but I kinda wanna say something important with my lyrics. Saying that, I've literally just been dumped after a very long-term relationship with a girl who I've been madly in love with for basically my entire teenage life, that's still a bit tender, my heart's a bit broken, so expect some stuff that's a bit lovey dovey and sad. It was one of those where I really did think we'd get married and it would last forever, maybe that's naïve, and I guess she didn't feel that way, as sad as it is. but yeah, like anyway all the songs I've written about her and us over the last 5 years or so, will hopefully be coming out soonish, I just hope that's not too awkward for her, or for me (they are quite heartfelt ahhh)... A lot of my inspiration comes from my own life, my vulnerability, my struggles with mental health issues, and obviously I'm a History And Politics Degree student, there's a lot of politics and references to global events, as I said I wanna talk about important things like, otherwise, for me, there's no point...

If you guys gain like thousands of fans will you use your platform of fans to promote things that are important to you like politics and to promote stuff that needs to be shown awareness to such as; mental health; and sexual assault within the music and acting industry and outside of the industry in the real world?

Yeah man, that's proper important to me. I've been sexually harassed at so many gigs and assaulted on a few occasions, like I said before I've just got out of a long-term relationship, but I think, as it is with boys, there's a few horrible people who simply don't think the rules apply to them, I've never understood why people just assume that they can touch people up, or act like a dickhead, it's so grim. I wasn't ever gonna be about cheating and I certainly didn't want my dick grabbed when I was trying to start a pit or like just have some fun with my mates. When we start gigging, people who sexually assault will be blacklisted. They can fuck off I don't care. Obviously mental health issues are a huge part of who I am. Previous work with Yellow4Change and my yellow heart project, along with my own issues, really shape who I am and what I wanna talk about in my music, songs like The Bridge, which I posted an acapella snippet of on Twitter, are really like a little flood of my emotions. Music has really helped me through my problems and I hope my music can help people through theirs. Politics, although I'm worried about the engagement level and market for it, is a massive thing to me. I think people don't realise that the world around them is politics. It's not just a vote or a leader. From the doctor's appointment they moan about, the roads they drive on, to the price of gas and electric, politics is everything. I want to help people to see how important politics really it is, without sounding too much like a preachy prick.

When do you plan on releasing music?

Well I've got to apologise about that. The songs should have been out ages and ages ago and I really have fucked that and I'm sorry to anybody who cares and wants to listen. They'll be out soon and I'll keep putting previews on twitter and insta. Sorry everybody, love you...

Do you want to stay anything to the people who already support you?

Erm, I don't really think many people will care at this point. But just be kind, everybody you meet is fighting a hard battle man. Be there for people and just yeah, be kind.

Follow Soseity on:

Twitter

Instagram

Follow James On:

Twitter

Instagram

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