Caroline Polachek

Caroline Polachek has had many musical lives—as singer in the indie-pop duo Chairlift, as the pastoral-folk princess Ramona Lisa and as co-producer and writer for mega-star artists like Beyoncé (“No Angel”)—but the fantastical pop universe she has built in albums like Pang and Desire, I Want to Turn Into You could only come from under her own moniker. “The longer I’ve been in the game, the more understood I feel, and the more confident I am of this lane that I’m building,” she once told Apple Music. Born in 1985 in New York City, the avant-pop singer, producer and director was raised in Connecticut and went to university in Colorado before returning to NYC to begin a career with Chairlift; there, the single “Bruises” became a surprise indie hit. Polachek’s biggest mark on the pop world has come from her own creative direction and her operatic, velvety voice, which can blend into atmospheric synth textures (“Door”) or be its own glitchy sequencer (“Bunny Is A Rider”).