Coach 1941 — Village Voice

Caroline Polachek, the lead singer of Brooklyn-based duo Chairlift, knows a thing or two about moving around the city. Both of the videos for the band’s latest album, Moth, released in January, have her running around town in an assortment of visually stunning vignettes—whether it is high-kicking on the Wards Island Bridge in a gauzy, perp-walk orange kimono or theatrically outpacing a mysterious pursuer in the frenzied midnight hours downtown on Mott Street. It is clear that her feeling for New York comes through in just about everything she makes. “The city gives me so much energy. You can never truly know NYC. It’s always changing under your feet, which I find very exciting. It’s also wildly different from one day to the next, beauty one moment, horror the next,” she explains. The video for the single “Romeo,” set in Chinatown, is inspired by the Greek myth of Atalanta. If you ditched your classics requirement, herewith a quick primer: Atalanta was a virgin huntress, reluctant to marry, who struck a deal with her father that she would wed the first would-be suitor who could beat her in a foot race. Seeing as she was raised by bears, this was not an easy feat until Aphrodite distracted her with some golden apples, causing her to lose to Hippomenes and they both lived happily ever after (until they were turned into lions). This is all to say that Polachek and bandmate Patrick Wimberly know their references and can flip the most esoteric of stories into compelling and thoroughly modern musical moments.

And while we’re on the subject of apples, it is more than likely that you got Chairlift’s 2008 single “Bruises” happily stuck in your head at some point that year after hearing it on Apple’s iPod Nano ad. The song, which debuted on the commercial, was a breakout moment for the duo but also offers a telling example of how they work within the industry, nimbly adding their sound to projects you may not immediately associate with them. For instance, Polachek co-wrote “No Angel” from Beyoncé’s self-titled 2013 album, perhaps not the first place you’d expect to find traces of an electro-indie singer-songwriter. But despite having the most influential brand and arguably the most influential artist on the planet come to you when they want to make an impact, Polachek is remarkably grounded, making her home in the unassuming Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint where she lives with her architect husband.

There is an undeniable juxtaposition when you consider her signature, high-register vocals against her calm presence on the streets of Manhattan’s East Village, where she favors Coach 1941’s playful knits and signature leather pieces designed by Executive Creative Director Stuart Vevers. “I love jackets and New York City is a jacket city. You can wear all black with a cool jacket and feel put together pretty much anywhere here,” she says of her most useful piece around town, adding that she is lately favoring vintage twinsets for some sartorial perversion. At Veselka, the legendary Ukrainian diner on Second Avenue, she blends in with the neighborhood regulars and 24/7 crowd that have filled its weathered booths for the last 60 years, exactly the kind of offbeat-but-delicious spot for folks who know what they want (the best pierogis in town) and crave a bit of privacy amid the downtown gawkers. But her days of ambling downtown will be put on hold this spring when Chairlift embarks on a tour of the U.S. and abroad for Moth. She is looking forward to the strangeness that can be found in the more out-of-the way places across the country. “I love cities where you really feel like you’re in a deep and singular pocket. Cities where there’s an odd tension and time feels like it moves slower,” she says, listing towns like St. Louis, where they will play March 31, as less obvious highlights. This is not so surprising given her uncanny ability to illuminate the otherwise unseen in the world around her. She blends the unusual and the classic (be it Greek mythology or a beloved leather jacket) and in the process redefines what it means to be a New York musician and artist, drawing crowds to her light much like her album’s title character.