Polly Paulusma will be releasing a new album in September 2022.

Its full title is The Pivot On Which The World Turns (a corrupted quote from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina) but it is affectionately shortened by those in the know to ‘Pivot’. It is the product of a decade of songwriting.

It started life as 24 tracks which Paulusma sent to a small group of friends over a two-year period (2019-20), a song a month, a project designed to keep Paulusma songwriting as she completed her PhD.

Originally she intended to write songs about the women in her life, and the important roles they play. But over time her intention evolved into the many roles she finds herself playing in any given day: lover, daughter, mother, sister, friend. She culled down the burgeoning song pile, and then some new songs popped out just as she was finishing.

The co-writes on the record stem from intense songwriting retreats and include collaborations with Kathryn Williams, David Ford, and novelist Laura Barnett.

Aside from three days in studio for bass, drums and strings, the entire record was self-recorded and self-engineered in Paulusma’s garden shed. Her artist husband Mick Paulusma has drawn a series of line drawing portraits of Paulusma, each representing a different song.

She is also self-directing, self-filming and self-editing all her own videos (sometimes with a little camera-holding help from Mick or collaborators).

A UK headline tour is booked through the autumn — on some dates Paulusma will be joined by Rastko Rasic on drums and Jon Thorne (Lamb, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan) on double bass.