THIRTEEN: What would be poolblood’s elevator pitch? You only have a few seconds, a few sentences to describe poolblood.

POOLBOOD: Poolblood is folk alternative. Sad, but also fun music that comes from the heart and is for everyone. 

THIRTEEN: So you mentioned you’re from Toronto, correct? Do you still live there?

POOLBLOOD: I still live in Toronto. It’s a great city. I grew up in Toronto and I don’t know anywhere else to call home. We have really good music there. 

THIRTEEN: Is there a difference in the music scene between Canada and the U.S.?

POOLBLOOD: It’s quite similar. I do think we’re pretty lucky to be in Toronto because there's so many great bands. Everyone who plays there. Or there are a lot of Toronto bands that I'm friends with and friends who are playing in my band, my touring band. They're also in a band called Westelaken that I love. I think I'm really lucky to live in and being from Toronto because we have a lot of great bands. I think we're quite similar, actually. Pretty similar.

THIRTEEN: Yeah, that's definitely not a bad thing! So, you've already had so many incredible achievements. So far, you've been like a rising artist on TIDAL, you played SXSW, which is insane. How does that all feel? 

POOLBLOOD: It feels really cool. I didn't really expect much to happen from this record. I kind of went into it with a little naive thinking. I was just going to go in, record songs, and make a record. I was on another label, before my label that I’m on now, and I was itching to make a record. When I did this, I was like, “Oh, this is all coming together, kind of organically”. Then, it was about finding the person who I wanted to produce with, who is a pal named Louie Short, and my friend Shamir who also produced it. Then I connected with other friends like Christian Lee Hutson and some pals from Toronto as well. It all happened organically and nicely that it was just a domino effect. Not only am I happy that it’s doing well, but I feel like this record is also a great way to showcase all the amazing players who played and how much I love their music. 

THIRTEEN: That’s awesome! Has this album been a collaborative project or is it mostly you doing a lot of the work behind the scenes?

POOLBLOOD: I wrote all the songs and was just really excited to have certain people who I love their music, and I love the way they play, and wanted their musical minds to play on the songs. I was really intrigued on just having them set the mood for each song in a way that I knew they could. 

THIRTEEN: Do you have any goals in mind that you want the record to still achieve or any goals in general for your career going forward?

POOLBLOOD: I really love everything that’s happening now. I’m really grateful to be on tour with Speedy. It’s just been so great. I think other goals would be to make more music and continue to explore and have fun. I think sometimes a lot of stuff in the industry can get into your head, so being on stage, playing with friends and traveling with friends is the reward of it all. I hope I get the chance to do that more. I’d love to keep touring more, that would be really fun. 

THIRTEEN: Is this the first tour you’ve been on? Or have you toured before?

POOLBOOD: This is my first major opening tour, which has been really great. Especially with Speedy, they are such a great go-to band so it’s been really cool to open for them. I’ve learned a lot and I’ve been learning a lot as I’ve been touring. It’s day seven and I just realized that I don’t know what day it is. 

THIRTEEN: Switching gears, your bio mentions that you grew up in a religious household and listening to popular music wasn’t really a thing you did. How did living in that type of household influence your sound?

POOLBLOOD: I think what I meant from that bio is that I just wasn’t fed it in a way that everyone else has traditionally been where they go to their parents catalog of music or their parents are sitting with them explaining that these are the bands and musicians that we love. I would sneakily watch music videos and listen to music really early in the morning while I was getting ready for school. It wasn’t completely banned in my household, but it was definitely not something that was ambivalent. 

THIRTEEN: It wasn’t idolized like it usually is.

POOLBLOOD: Yeah, and I think that's where I started to get a bit itchy about it because I found that I could connect to it really well and no one else in my family connected to it. It was something that was my own and I felt like I could flourish and feel okay.

THIRTEEN: How did your parents feel about you finding this path in music?

POOLBOOD: They’re really supportive. My mom, she’s great, she does love music. They definitely grew up on music, just not western music. They grew up on Somali music and maybe a few popular Western artists like Michael Jackson and Bob Marley, but it wasn’t played in the household. It was just kind of her reminiscing on her adolescents and what was happening in her background as she was grouping up. I think it’s interesting when you don’t have family who are in the music industry, because they don’t know what’s supposed to happen. Isn't fame supposed to happen immediately? Where’s the house and the car? But yeah, they’ve been great about it. 

THIRTEEN: What was the process of you discovering music on your own and how did that morph into you finding your own sound?

POOLBLOOD: I was obsessed with, like everyone in my age group was, Limewire and Youtube growing up. I would look up music and just keep scrolling. I think when I got into high school was when I started to get serious about it. Well, not too serious, but I had an inclination towards writing music and learning the guitar and figuring out if I want to do this. I remember leaving high school and being like, “I don’t think there’s anything else I want to do other than performing or being in music. I was just trying to find different routes to do and be in music. Sound-wise, the record was very experimental. I was experimenting with production and it’s definitely evolved from my EP a lot because that was more dream-pop and now it’s a little folky. I think that’s just where I’m at in my life and how I write music. It’s just kind of evolving with me and it’s these little archives of where I am in life at the time. The sound comes from me being excited about something or listening or watching something or hearing someone talk about something.

THIRTEEN: Building off of that, where do you pull inspiration from? Do you look to certain people or pull from your own experiences and emotions? 

POOLBLOOD: Definitely experiences. I like to write about the conversations I have with people. My lyrical writing is definitely dialogues in a sense, it kind of reads in a script format. Kind of like me recalling a conversation with someone but editing it in a way of what I wanted to really say, what I really felt, and stuff life that. Inspiration-wise, I love film and other artists. For this record, specifically, I was listening to so much Fiona Apple, Nick Drake, I really loved Paul Simon. I was kind of thinking of them and then there’s people who I’ve been listening to forever, like Alex G and Mitski, who kind of influence me.

THIRTEEN: What would you say is your favorite song of yours overall?

POOLBLOOD: Oh man, I feel like that changes a lot. I want to say the song I’m most proud of is “wfy”. Just because that was a very experimental song for me, at least with chord progressions and stuff. I’m just happy with the way that it kind of encapsulates two things I really love, which is kind of early 2000s drugstore music and then a sweet pop song at the same time. It’s just a naturally good pop song. I’ve always wanted to write a really good pop song and I feel like that’s it.

THIRTEEN: Is that also your favorite song to play live or do you have a different one you enjoy on stage?

POOLBLOOD: That’s also so different. I really love playing “sorry” live. I think there’s something about it that feels very meditative and very sweet. Then when my band comes in in the arrangement that we’ve done for this tour is just perfect. It feels really nice and feels like the song I’m most close to.

THIRTEEN: Last question, what direction do you hope your music takes in the future? You mentioned that this last project evolved with you, is that something you’re still working with do you think you’ve found your sound?

POOLBLOOD: I definitely have things that I will carry over from this record. I think sound-wise it’s ever evolving. When I think about having a distinctive sound, it kind of makes me think I would get bored really quickly. I’m always thinking of the next thing that I could do a different interaction of, change, or wonder how I can build off of that. I think a majority of my sound is just me continuously searching for something different or a different feeling that I can connect with at that time.