Written by Ella Hardie | Photo Courtesy of Poolish

“Well, when you bake sourdough, you have to start by taking care of a combination of water and flour, and poolish is a ratio of water and flour,” James explains. Matthew interjects: “Doesn’t it also have commercial yeast in it? I thought it was a combination of sourdough starter and commercial yeast…” James concurs. Apparently they’ve both read The Tartine Bread Cookbook. In baking, poolish is considered the “liquid version of a sponge,” and pre-fermentation is a vital step in the baking process that results in a better loaf—the flavors have time to fully develop and the increased acidity builds up resistance to mold, giving the bread a longer shelf life. Part water, part flour, part beer-sodden-alt-country, part slowcore-post-rock (with a bit of yeast/grunge?), Poolish’s debut EP Slip-On manages to capture the ephemerality of a young band in their early stages while they’re still actively fermenting. The record is undeniably an achievement in and of itself—this “fermentation” isn’t necessarily a means to an end, but a constant state of sonic absorption, collaboration, and evolution. 

That bread metaphor can only go so far: listening to Poolish is a lot like slipping on a pair of boots you broke in years ago or sewing a new button onto an old sweater. They carry well-worn traditions of rock n’roll with a distinctly Midwestern twang and an endearingly palpable sense of reverence for musicians who’ve come before them, from local acts to all-timers. It’s hard to believe Poolish only have one EP under their belt when you see them play live, a natural result of each member’s storied history within the DePaul-adjacent DIY scene—for most of them, this isn’t their first band. With the chemistry of old friends and the composure of a group well beyond their years, their performances remain underscored by the playful spirit of a weeknight jam sesh in someone’s bedroom, basement, or garage. It’s the kind of spirit that makes you feel nostalgic for the night before; a call to simultaneously celebrate and mourn your youth while you’re still in the thick of it, to sway along and soak it all up.

This interview features Matthew Boyd (guitar/vocals), Danny Barney (guitar/vocals), Cece McIntyre (violin), Tyler Cook (bass), James Matthews (drums), various members of the band Glass-Beagle, and my beloved friend Cordia Ritz (for a second at the end). It has been edited and condensed for (relative) clarity. 

1/8/2026: Glass-Beagle, Poolish, and Marble Teeth @ Empty Bottle

I imagined this interview taking place outside over a cigarette after their set, but it’s Chicago’s rainiest January day in 50 years and the Empty Bottle’s small awning can only withstand so much… I once again find myself in the green room, but this time we’ve formed a circle on and around the couch by the door. I’m hunched over on a small ottoman with Cece sitting on the floor to my right, James and Tyler on the couch across from me, Matthew and Danny in swivel chairs on my left. We all chat for a few minutes and Marble Teeth’s set begins downstairs before I start recording:

ELLA HARDIE: Alright guys, some of you know the drill—

(For context, the first interview I ever did was with James and Matthew’s other band, Intoner, a couple years ago at Archie’s Cafe (RIP) where I asked the same first question.)

EH: How would you rate your set tonight out of 10?

DANNY BARNEY: Ten! It was fun, I like that we messed up a bunch—

Everyone laughs.

DB: I don’t like playing straight, I like that we were having fun… And Empty Bottle is the best place ever.

JAMES MATTHEWS: Yeah, I’m gonna go ten as well—

MATTHEW BOYD: I’m gonna go nine and half because of my major fuck-up on that one song—

Everyone: No! That made it better, that made it a ten—

MB: But I feel like I can’t give it a ten…because of that…

CECE MCINTYRE: Well, I’m gonna give it a ten. For friendship. 

EH: For the power of friendship—

CM: The Power of Friendship was up on that stage tonight. 

EH: That’s beautiful. Tyler, are you also going with ten?

TYLER COOK: Yeah, ten. It was really great, I was on it—

DB: It’s always either a ten or a five. It’s never, like, an eight.

Laughter.

EH: Have you had a five recently…?

DB: Yeah, definitely. [________] was a five—

MB: [_________] was great! That was a fun show!

JM: No, [_________] was like, an eight or a nine.

DB: There’s no eight’s!

***

EH: Have you guys ever done a formal interview before? Like, with this band?

MB: No, I don’t think so—

EH: Ok perfect, I’ll try to keep the questions pretty broad. Introduce yourselves!

James sits up.

JM: I’m James… I play drums—

I laugh a little and interrupt:

EH: Sorry, my bad, I was thinking more like a “We are…” kinda vibe—

JM: Ohhhh! We’re a band. A rock band. A five-piece rock band—

Nathan from Glass-Beagle enters the green room and stands behind Cece by the door:

DB: Hiiiiiiiii!

NATHAN: Heyooooooo!

DB: What’s goin’ on?

N: Poolish Best Band Ever, that’s what’s goin’ on!

Everyone “yeahhhh”’s & “woo”’s.

EH: That’s going in the interview.

N: Poolish goated!

Nathan walks down the hall into another room and closes the door behind him.

EH: Ok, what’s the origin story? ‘Cuz a lot of you were in bands before this, or are currently in other bands—

JM: So me and Matthew really wanted to start a slowcore band—

MB: That’s so funny—

EH: That’s not what you guys are doing at all—

JM: Yeah, we wanted to sound like Duster… But it was just us two, and I remember going over to Matthew’s place and we recorded demos and stuff, and then we ran into Danny at a show—at the Cruel farewell show—

DB: Well, you guys hit me up before that—

MB: I was scoping him out because he follows the slowcore appreciation page—

DB: Wait, was that actually why?

MB: No.

Laughter.

JM: So we surrounded him at Sleeping Village and asked him if he wanted to jam with us, and he said yeah. Then the three of us jammed for a couple months—

MB: And then we stole Ian from Daundry for a while, and then he got too busy, and then we brought Tyler into the band—

TC: That was after the second Bottle gig… Ian played the first one, right?

MB: Yeah, he played like…seven shows with us? Five shows?

Nathan returns:

DB: Do you wanna say something for the interview?

N: Do I wanna say something for the interview?

CM: What do you want to say, on the record?

N: Umm… Poolish is the most goated band in Chicago that does a cover of “Hot Burrito #2.” It’s not the best Flying Burrito Brothers song, but it’s close—

DB: Damn, that’s a hot take—

MB: What’s your favorite one?

N: I don’t know! I dunno, I really don’t know…but I don’t think that’s the best one. It’s gotta be a cover, I feel like it has to be—

DB: I like “Do Right Woman…”

TC: Yeah, that’s a good one—

N: No, wait, wait, wait! “Sin City!”

TC: But that’s an original, right?

N: Oh, that’s true, that’s true…

The conversation devolves into everyone shouting out their favorite Flying Burrito Brothers songs: “Dark End of the Street,” “Colorado,” “Wheels,” etc.

A beat. Everyone cracks up.

EH: Thank you for your time.

N: Hot Takes! “Hot Burrito” Takes!

Nathan heads back downstairs to catch the rest of the Marble Teeth set.

EH: Alright, let’s get back into it: Cece, how ‘bout you? How’d you get in the mix?

MB: Cece’s a new addition—

CM: Yeah, I’m the most recent addition, I wanna say about…a month and a half ago? But we’ve known each other for a while. They reached out and asked if I would play the Hot Burrito cover and one other song with them at the Hideout show. After a couple rehearsals I just sorta…weaseled my way into doing more songs and I won over the hearts and minds, and now I’m part of the band.

MB: No, she played with us at one rehearsal and we begged her to join the band—

JM: That’s actually exactly what happened—

Laughter.

CM: Well, you guys were being very nonchalant about it, so I couldn’t really tell—
EH: Two sides of every story…

EH: You guys released your first record, Slip-On, back in September. How did you approach this project in terms of trying to establish your sound? Were you kinda throwing everything at the wall or did you have a clear vision? 

MB: What’s funny is that the first thing we ever recorded is not released… It’s a slowcore EP with, like, four songs that are mostly instrumental—

DB: But then everyone fell asleep when we listened to it.

Everyone laughs.

MB: Yeah… By then we were playing live and we were writing stuff that really wasn’t that vibe, we were definitely moving away from that. We had these four songs [on the EP] that I still think are a little more in the vein of what we first were writing, at least compared to where we are now. We recorded that album in [our friend] Grant’s room—

EH: Aw, really?

This time, Bayden from Glass-Beagle enters the room:

B: You guys sounded great out there!

Poolish: Thank you so much!

B: I love when there’s two singers!

More thank-you’s and compliments exchanged. 

He walks down the hallway. Matthew doesn’t miss a beat:

MB: But yeah, we recorded in Grant’s room, Tyler engineered it, it was fun! We just did it in a weekend in the basement—

TC: I recorded it, I wasn’t the mixing engineer. I did the tracking—

MB: Oh yeah, Gabe Bostick mixed it.

JM: I feel like recording it in a house made it feel super chill. I didn’t feel a rush at all, we could literally just kinda sit in there—

MB: Yeah, there wasn’t any pressure on studio time… Well, there was pressure from Grant—

JM: There were times when we were like, “Ohhh, Grant’s coming home! We gotta wrap it up!” But other than that, it was just a really good environment. 

TC: It was just throwin’ stuff at the wall, we had no idea really what we were doing—

MB: We all went to get tacos while Tyler tracked the bass part—

TC: Yeah, everybody left… They also left when I tracked the tambourine which took, like, an hour—

JM: I was making you food!

TC: Yeah, you’re right—

MB: Oh yeah, we all ate potato soup at the end of it—

TC: It was fantastic. 

EH: James, you should post the soup recipe on your Substack that has gone extremely quiet.

JM: Y’know, that’s actually on my Resolutions List, to write out my recipes more. It takes a lot of work to write out recipes, it’s like way more than you’d think—

More talking about Substack and recipes that I have to cut for time:

EH: So, what’d you guys learn from this first record and what are you bringing into the next one? Are you cooking as we speak?

I make myself laugh with the “cooking” comment after the Substack sidebar.

JM: We are cooking.

DB: So pretty much we’re just bringing an “old-familiar…” 

Everyone tries to hold it together as Danny talks:

DB: “New spin on a classic” kinda thing…

Everyone cracks up and rolls their eyes.

JM: I couldn’t have put it better myself. 

DB: We’re just rockin’. We haven’t really recorded most of it yet, but the first song we did really straight and tight and it was cool. Super exact. But the rest of the songs are gonna be so barely together. We’re gonna play, like, one take—

MB: We’re gonna be lowkey out of tune n’ shit—

TC: Yeah, no tuning’s the rule on the new record.

JM: No tuning…

DB: It’s gonna be like spaghetti—

EH: This sounds very postmodern…

James reels it back in:

JM: No, but Jay Gardoqui’s gonna produce it and he’s very passionate about what he does. He wants to try a whole bunch of things and I think it’s gonna be, again, kinda throwing shit at the wall, but this time in a studio. 

MB: In a real, legitimate studio. 

A third (and final) member of Glass-Beagle, Jack, walks into the green room:

JM: What’s up!

J: ‘Sup dude?

More compliments about the show ensue and Jack walks away down the hall.

JM: That’s my boy, Jack…

Everyone quietly laughs as the door loudly creaks shut behind him.

EH: I’m curious about your transition from “slowcore” to the twangy rock n’ roll, alt-country situation you guys have going now. What happened?

TC: It was, like, Danny and I trying to convince them—

DB: That’s the part that they’ll leave out, that Tyler and I had to religiously convert this band into something else—

TC: And now it’s perfect.

DB: They kinda went from a Protestant band to a Catholic band— 

Laughter. 

DB: Slowly it’s become less of what Tyler and I want, it’s less of what James and Matthew want, and it’s more about what the band wants to do.

MB: I do feel like that’s what happened. We started writing songs as a group instead of one person bringing songs in for the rest of us to play, and it just started sounding like that—

TC: With the new song we were working on, it was really like: “You try this and then you try that—”

JM: And sometimes it’s just the ugliest shit, it just doesn’t work, but I think that’s where it’s just throwing everything out into one vessel—

DB: And now we have a new mediator, Cece. Every final decision’s always gonna be up to you—

CM: Yep, I’m the tiebreaker now.

JM: I feel like all of them introduced me to a lot of music that I now feel really inspired by. 

EH: What kind of stuff?

JM: Like, the fuckin’ Flying Burrito Brothers and shit like that, just older stuff that I didn’t grow up knowing or know before I was playing in this band. I feel like I’ve been exposed to more music through this band than I have through anything else. 

Someone (I can’t tell who) whistles in appreciation.

EH: Who are some of your other influences?

TC & MB: Neil Young—

EH: Oh My God…

TC: Wait, cut that—

Everyone groans/cracks up. 

We all take a beat to recover from that.

MB: Yeah, Neil… Bob Dylan…

DB: Bob Dylan?

TC: Bob Dylan…?

Another eruption of laughter.

MB: I mean, it doesn’t sound like Bob Dylan, but I love Bob Dylan, y’know?

TC: So, spiritually…

MB: I also love George Harrison a lot. All Things Must Pass is one of my favorite records.

EH: How about you Danny? You seem like you’ve got a lot to say…

DB: For influences? Oh man, I’d say—

TC: Jerry…

DB: Yeah, Jerry Garcia from The Grateful Dead.

MB: Are you serious?

JM: Bruh…

TC: fakemink?

DB: No, no—

MB: 2hollis?

DB: No, no—

JM: Let’s keep going! EsDeeKid—

Laughter. Danny shakes his head.

DB: We’re trying to get on some Alex G vibes, that’s pretty much it.

MB: Sorta like an Alex G copy-paste-type-thing—

TC: More of like an unreleased Alex G that you find on YouTube—

MB & JM: Alex G offline, yeah—

DB: And anything on Instagram that makes me sad, like, any song—

JM: Like with Bart?

DB: No, not Bart, but like, the sad-rock sounds on Instagram—

MB: Oh, like Duster?

DB: Yeah, we’re trying to be like Duster.

Laughter.

***

EH: What’s special about playing music in Chicago? Where are some of your favorite places to play?

CM: Oh gosh… My favorite thing about playing music in Chicago is the people. This is such an incredibly supportive environment and everyone is very collaborative—everyone wants to be playing with each other and forming new groups, it’s very inspiring. As for venues, I love the Empty Bottle, this was my first time playing here and it was a really great experience. 

JM: Yeah, Empty Bottle, favorite venue. I like the community that surrounds the music here, it’s kinda the coolest people. Everyone is so friendly and very talented and has a lot going on, it’s really easy to make new friends. 

EH: Totally. I don’t get a ton of competitive vibes here, especially being a major city—

TC: I feel very competitive—

DB: I was gonna say—

Laughter. They’re (half) kidding.

TC: There are so many times where I’ve been like, “Yeah, we gotta play better than those guys,”

DB: No, this is definitely a race to the top. This shit is not fun at all…

EH: Yeah, I hate everyone in this room actually…

JM: Alright Danny, actually go.

DB: That was my answer! I think, y’know, you gotta rock for fun but you also gotta try your hardest or else no one’s gonna pay attention.

EH: True.

JM: What’s your favorite venue?

DB: Well, one we’re playing very soon, Sunflower House. That’s like, my favorite venue—

EH: That’s our friend’s old apartment, actually—

MB: Wait, Sunflower House?

I turn to Cordia, who’s been sitting behind me the whole time:

EH: Yes! Cordia, that one is [______]’s old place—

CR: Ohhh, right—

MB: Have you been to Wildwood, that DIY?

EH: I have not…

MB: That’s [_________]’s old apartment— 

CR: Wait, what? I guess we don’t have to “dm for address”…

EH: Damn, why didn’t they ever do that?

CR: They kind of did—

MB: No, I know, I walked in and I was like: what the fuck I’ve been here for a house party before… It was crazy.

EH: That’s crazy. The next generation… That’s wild—

MB: Wildwood! But yeah, that’s a good spot. 

Laughter. 

MB: There are just a lot of good bands here that are fun to play with. And it is supportive, I think, not competitive like Danny and Tyler think it is. 

TC: I think we might get a little bit competitive in our heads, but I think that’s healthy.

MB: Yeah, like, I want to be a better musician, but—

TC: We love everybody—

MB: We love everyone, there’s no hate, there’s no beef. I dunno, I just like a lot of bands here—

TC: Joe Glass! We’re beefing with Joe Glass, put that on the record.

MB: Oh yes, Joe Glass. Please put that on the record. 

EH: I also have beef with Joe Glass.

MB: Everyone has beef with Joe Glass. “Fuck Joe Glass! Fuck Snakewards!”

EH: Yeah, “No one go to his show on Saturday that I changed my shift to go to!”

TC: He’s blacklisted from any gig—

Laughter.

EH: Tyler, what about you? Venues? Vibes? What makes Chicago so fertile for bands?

TC: I dunno…I love the Hideout—

EH: That’s probably my favorite too—

TC: I think some kids had a lot of money and a lot of connections and now everybody’s trying to get the same connections, so it’s really good for kinda working your way up in the scene. And a lot of the music is really good as well, which I really like—

MB: That’s a crazy answer—

TC: No, there’s a lot of connections here! It’s like a mini-LA, y’know? Like, you know a guy who knows a guy, and then you get signed to—

MB: You’re like, two steps away from Finn Wolfhard, bro—

EH: Maybe less…

TC: True… But then, out of all of it, there’s good bands that poke through it.

Matthew laughs.

MB: Where was I…favorite venue? I love the Empty Bottle. And I love the Hideout, those are two of my favorites.

TC: Oh, and Bookclub! Old Bookclub…

EH: I miss Old Bookclub—

MB: Rest in peace.

TC: I think that’s where we all met each other as a band and stuff.

MB: Yeah, we played with Soaps, Tyler’s band, at Old Bookclub a long time ago—

EH: I think I was at that show…with Mimaroglu?

CM: And that’s where I met Matthew for the first time too! 

MB: Yes, that’s true! I worked with Cece’s best friend at a bagel shop and I knew who she was before I met her. Fun fact.

***

EH: Any closing notes? What’s the haps, do you have anything coming out soon or any shows coming up that people should pay attention to? Any shoutouts?

TC: We have a single coming soon, a-side, b-side, put it on a ‘45—

MB: We’re going to Indiana, and Milwaukee, and Madison soon—

TC: We have merch—

JM: We gotta come up with more merch—

MB: We’re gonna make more shirts—

CM: I think we should do beer koozies next—

MB: Yes! Or little bottle openers, that would be fun…

More murmurs about merch ensue.

TC: What are some bands I like… Shoutout to Feller, Joe Glass, Glass-Beagle, and Marble Teeth—

EH: And [Cece’s other band] the Bootleggers—

MB: And the Bootleggers, of course.

EH: Is that it? Who wants the last word?

CM: I love making music with my friends!

Perfect.

Listen to Poolish’s debut EP Slip-On out now!