United Crushers, out March 4, is very Minneapolis, at least in its name. Inspired by a group of Twin Cities graffiti artists, the phrase "United Crushers" can be seen on old silos, overpasses and other infrastructure throughout the area. As with Shulamith, Polica's second album, singer Channy Leaneagh says she gravitates toward the idea of naming her records after people she admires. "I drive around and I see that big, ominous 'United Crushers' looking down at all of us, and to me it feels like, 'United States of Dreams Crushed,'" she says. "We're all in this rat race, and we're all trying to survive, and a lot of the time it feels hopeless. So for me, a lot of these songs build hope."
While the album art depicts a pregnant Leaneagh, the album isn't necessarily about childbearing. "United Crushers should have lots of different meanings, and I want people to take it where it takes them," Leaneagh says. Still, being a mother did play a huge part in inspiring the writing on the record.
"The stuff I'm writing about is always the woman's experience: what life is like for a woman, how women and children are like a canary in a coalmine." When there is wrong in the world, Leaneagh says looking through the lens of women and children says a lot about its effects. For example, in the music video for "Wedding," Polica looks at police abuses of power through the eyes of children.
Here, the band performs the song in The Current's Twin Cities studios.
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