Q POLLY, the first thing that struck me about ‘Let England Shake’ is that, not only does it not sound like anything else I have heard, but it doesn’t sound like you. It sounds completely different from what has come before. What was the starting point for this album?

A. The same as it always is for me. It’s important to feel like I’m experimenting and continuing to learn, and that’s not something that I study or sit down and make a manifesto about, it’s just very natural. Even going back to the days when I was at art college, my work was changing radically the whole time. I never followed a set pattern. For some reason that has remained really important for me, because I need to be learning, and so this album came out of looking at what I have done, particularly what I had just done, which was ‘White Chalk’, but also what had gone before, and thinking about trying to explore areas I hadn’t explored.

Q. With ‘Let England Shake’ there are themes going on... War being an obvious one, but also war from a personal perspective. So this must have been a different way of writing?

A. Yes, I felt like something I hadn’t really done yet with my writing was to approach big, concrete issues such as one’s country, and conflict – things which affect every one of us, every day of our lives. A lot of people try and write about these things, and their hearts are in the right place and everything is done for the right reasons, but for me, a lot of the time it doesn’t work. I didn’t know if I could even approach it in a way that I could get that balance right, that would work without coming across as maybe rather pompous, or as if I was preaching, or some sort of chest preaching protest music. It’s very difficult to get right, and I didn’t think I could. For the first time I thought “let’s have a go”. I had always felt passionately about these things and yet hadn’t put my voice to that, to express it. This was the first time I tried to do that. But it was very, very difficult, and like I said, so difficult to get the right balance that I think I probably threw away half, or even more than half, of what I wrote, to get to the point of this album.

Q. So what was your starting point? Did you do research? I ask because it has a very historical perspective on war and I think, reading into this, I see elements of Gallipoli and a lot of elements of the First World War? Also tied in is this idea of Englishness and England, and also modern warfare too.

A. I did an enormous amount of research, and like I said, the writing process took about two and half to three years. I read lots of books on war from all different eras. I read about war in a philosophical way, I read about it from all angles. I did lots of research on English history. I looked at the way other artists have spoken about England. I did a lot of internet research; I watched lots and lots of documentaries with interviews of people who had actually been there. Interviews with WW1 soldiers right up to present day interviews with Afghani people to produce the broad spectrum. I just tried to absorb as much information as I could.

Q. Also interesting is the picturing of England. On one level; there are the themes of war and history, but also you get this sense of ancient, oak-like, very British patter of rain on oak tree sound going on. So I’m interested in your relationship with England or how the dream of England might inspire you?

A. I think you can’t help but respond to the country you are living in. As an English person living in England, I am talking about this country but you could supplant that soul to a lot of different countries. We all feel this terrible disappointment in what happens to our countries, mostly its disappointment and this sense of connection and sense of push and pull with all the things you hate about it and love about it. They’re parts of you but then again you want to get it away from you at the same time. I think it’s a common human feeling no matter what country you’re living in. There are these feelings that you wrestle with and I can’t help but be affected by where I have grown up.

Q. About the recording of the album, wasn’t it recorded in a church?

A. Yes, we recorded it in a church that’s now just used for exhibitions and classical concerts mostly, in Dorset. It’s very remote, on top of a cliff, and has a graveyard, which has trees bent by the wind. It’s a classic, misty surrounding but actually a beautiful place and a place I was very familiar with and often walk through, so it felt a part of me. It didn’t feel very far away from me and I knew that with this body of work I didn’t want to go to London. A city didn’t feel right. I looked at a few studios in Berlin. That didn’t feel right. Then I remembered that the man, who now runs this church as an arts venue, had said to me a few times if I’d ever wanted to use it for a show or rehearsals that he’d love that.