Name: Mike Polizze aka Purling Hiss
Band members: Ben Leaphart, Pat Hickey
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist
Nationality: American
Current release: Purling Hiss's Drag On Girard is out March 24, 2023 via Drag City.

If you enjoyed this interview with Mike Polizze of Purling Hiss and would like to keep up to date with his music, visit him on Facebook, and twitter.  



The impulse to create came from an early age which started out with drawing, making art and then learning piano and guitar. I started recording on a 4-track in 1999. Once I started to hone my guitar playing a bit I went on to make songs and record them, and it just became a compulsive thing ever since.

I definitely get inspired to create whenI listen to other music, and when I record, I constantly listen to my demos to keep shaping the recording.

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I have thousands of voice memos, and notes I put in my phone. I'll usually start out playing guitar and just improvise until something catches my ear. I write lyrics last.

I don't necessarily think about good lyrics as much as just trying not to make them bad. Though I've started to care more about them over the years.

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For the process, I just improvise things until something sticks and then just record and multitrack and sometimes an overdub will take the song in another direction. I just keep following the improvisational process with steps like multi-tracking and molding it until I think there's nothing else to add.

Usually the recording is if i just do it at home, but especially when I'm in a studio. there isn't anywhere else to go from there, and if you end up unsatisfied, just don't use it.

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For production, I tend to embrace a lo-fi home-spun sound if I'm recording myself. Just a first-take approach, and then just jump into another track overdubbed and not stop to worry about mistakes so not to distract from moving forward and seeing where the song will end up in the writing process.

I've sat in on mastering sessions, but  tend not to really want to hear it until it's done. Then I can make notes, but I try to avoid that from happening.

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Once I've finished an album and it's out in the world I don't go back and listen for a long while.

It's my experience when I'm making it and when it's done, it's always time to start again. I think I take in the sounds of the world around me constantly and whatever is floating around my subconsciousness will just sort of manifest its way out when I start to just improvise.

That's why I try to catch ideas and document them as often as I can. If I didn't then there would be lots of lost ideas and memories.