Since their emergence from Minneapolis’ vibrant underground in 2011, Poliça has carved out a singular space in electronic indie-pop, blending shadowy synths, pulsating rhythms, and the unmistakable vocal presence of Channy Leaneagh—a voice that bends and refracts like light through water, shaped by intricate processing yet deeply human at its core. Co-founded by producer Ryan Olson, the band’s alchemy has long been defined by its balance of warmth and detachment, with Chris Bierden’s melodic bass lines and the dueling drums of Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson anchoring their hypnotic sound.
From the spectral longing of Give You the Ghost (2012) to the dystopian undercurrents of United Crushers (2016) and the machine-driven paranoia of Madness (2022), Poliça has never been content to stand still. Their upcoming LP, Dreams Go, is perhaps their most emotionally charged yet—a collection of eight new songs recorded at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota, marking the band’s final sessions with Chris Bierden before he lost the ability to play due to brain cancer. The record pulses with a raw, elegiac energy, a testament to the chemistry that defined Poliça’s first decade.
While Bierden can no longer perform live, Poliça presses forward with a new addition of Alex Nutter, reimagining themselves once more with a new touring lineup. Dreams Go doesn’t just memorialize the past—it propels the band into the next phase of their evolution, proving that reinvention has always been part of their DNA.
With Dreams Go, Poliça delivers their most emotionally resonant and texturally rich work to date—a poignant meditation on loss, resilience, and the fragile beauty of holding on. Written and recorded in the shadow of bassist Chris Bierden’s glioblastoma diagnosis, the album is both elegy and act of preservation, capturing the band at a moment of profound transition.
Produced by Ryan Olson—co-creator of the band and Poliça’s main producer and composer extraordinare—and fronted by vocalist and lyricist Channy Leaneagh, the record also features Bierden on bass guitar, alongside the atmospheric percussion of Drew Christopherson and Ben Ivascu. Across tracks like “She Knows Me”, “Wasted Me” and “Creeping”, Leaneagh’s vocals hover over expansive synths and fractured rhythms, delivering lyrics that are both deeply personal and universally resonant. The album was mixed by Jake Luppen (Hippocampus), Alex Nutter (Braingiver, Poliça), and Ryan Olson (Gayngs, Marijuana Deathsquads, Poliça)
Though born of grief, Dreams Go is anything but static. It breathes, shimmers, and ultimately insists on the power of making art in the face of uncertainty. Whether or not Poliça continues beyond this release, Dreams Go stands as a moving testament to the band’s creative bond—and to Bierden’s indelible role within it.
Channy quote:
“After Chris Bierden, Poliça’s bass player, was diagnosed with glioblastoma in the summer of 2022, it seemed like the band would be done. It had always been the 4 of us (Drew, Ben, Chris and I), and I couldn’t imagine playing without Chris on stage. Chris went through round after round of experimental treatments, along with chemo and radiation. We brought him out to Pachyderm Studio in April of 2023 to record and hang. We knew there may be the possibility that he could no longer do his favorite things in the world as his cancer progressed and his treatments became more intense: playing bass and singing. After a week in the studio we got some worthy tunes out of ourselves. But as Chris’ cancer progressed, he lost the ability to play bass and sing. His grief and the loss of his dreams for his own life felt too heavy to pursue finishing and releasing the Pachyderm recordings.
I went back to school, and finished my degree. Ben, Drew and I all worked straight jobs and went on trying to muddle through a life without Poliça. After a few years, I came to this conclusion that I was miserable without writing music and performing. I called Drew and Ben, and they were also missing playing together.
Life is often cruel and out of our control: it felt very unfair that Chris had his ability to play and sing taken from him. At any point I could also lose the ability to sing, perform, write songs…but that time had not arrived for me, and yet I was acting like it had. Ben, Drew and I started getting together and running old songs, and thinking out loud about what the future could be like for Poliça. Ryan thought Alex Nutter joining the band would be a great fit; Nutter is an old friend and long-time Poliça collaborator. He could process recordings of Chris’s bass (from old live recordings), beats and my vocals: Chris would still be on stage in this way. The four of us started practicing the songs we had written at Pachyderm 2 years previously, while working through the awkwardness and loss of Chris not being with us.