Signed to Björk’s record label, local singer-songwriter Polly Paulusma discusses defining moments, creative superpowers and an extra-special live show
Images by Lina Jusevičiūtė
Cambridge Edition: As a Cambridge resident and alumnus, what does the area mean to you?
Polly Paulusma: I was born in Cambridge; my dad was a historian at Queens’ College, Cambridge in the 70s, but we moved away when I was three, so I don’t remember it. My older brother and sister would crow at me about how beautiful Cambridge was while I was growing up.
When I came to university here in 1994 (at Murray Edwards College, or New Hall as it was then called), I spent three years reading novels and poetry, and singing in a ten-piece, soul-funk cover band. Back then, I didn’t realise that both parts of my education would be just as formative as one another.
For a long time I felt that being an artist and an academic were competing activities. I felt I was riding two horses, jumping back and forth between them, and it was exhausting. But since doing my PhD in my 40s on writer Angela Carter and folk singing, and seeing the crossovers between them, I realise I have in fact been riding a chariot all of this time, and my two horses have been helping each other.
I moved back to Cambridge in 2010 with my husband Mick to raise our two children. I swim in the river all year round and buy my vegetables from Simon at the Sunday market. There’s an eerie beauty to the Fens I find mesmeric. I feel very much part of the town; a native to these parts.
CE: I believe you now hold an academic position at Murray Edwards College – can you tell us a bit about that?
PP: When I moved back to Cambridge in 2010, I reconnected with my alma mater Murray Edwards and, in 2013, started doing little bits like teaching the English students practical criticism and helping with their dissertations. I remembered going to the houses of poets and artists who lived on the edge of town when I was a student, and I became one.
Thanks to encouragement from them and others, I embarked on a PhD in 2016 and completed it in 2020. In 2025, they made me a Bye-Fellow of the college – an official friend, essentially. I am so honoured that my work with the students has been recognised in this way.
CE: What are some of the other threads that are woven together in the fabric of your musical life today?
PP: My emotional electrical sea is always the place I go to for my songwriting – the feelings that flicker across my senses daily. Like many artists I know, I am sensitive; some might see it as an affliction, but I think of it as a superpower. I feel other people’s feelings and can find myself moved to write a song about someone else’s situation if I feel immersed in it.
I am bipolar and I am sure this contributes: it gives and takes away from my artistic capacity in equal measure. It can knock me out of action if I let it, but it can also lift me up over the hedge for a moment to see the sunset.
I have learned to bob in the sea of my feelings, to ride them a bit. It is a beautiful sea to swim in: others’ feelings, my own and our perceptions of what being alive feels like.
CE: For those who aren’t yet acquainted with your music, can you describe it?
PP: Others have described it as Norah Jones meets Edie Brickell. I just make, sing and share it – and I hope it connects us.
CE: Which moments in your career have stood out above all others?
PP: Supporting Bob Dylan and playing Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London both had the same effect: they got my dad off my back about my career choice – just for five minutes. That was helpful!
But I am happiest when writing and when playing live. The best moments have probably been in my shed, writing. Seeing a connection. The making. And then the sharing of it. The rest is gravy.
CE: This year brings an exclusive run of three performances, kicking off in Cambridge, to celebrate the anniversary of your double album, Wildfires. What do you have in store for us?
PP: I will play in Cambridge, London and Edinburgh with two extraordinary musicians. The first is Jon Thorne on the double bass. Jon played on Wildfires, and we toured together last March when the album came out.
We played tiny little dives – the scruffy kind of acoustic places I love – as a duo. But for these special shows I’m stepping up to play bigger venues and fewer shows.
The second musician is an incredible jazz pianist I’m not allowed to name. But if you’re curious, he played on the record so you can just check the liner notes.
With the shows, I’m celebrating the one-year anniversary of Wildfires by releasing The Wildfires Tapes, which are alternative versions of songs that were on the record – mostly demos and early voice notes. And if that isn’t enough, there’s a reissue of my very first album, Scissors in My Pocket, to mark its 21st birthday. There’s a new vinyl edition in red and a new deluxe CD version with five bonus tracks that were recorded at the time of the original release.
This run of special dates is a proper celebration of the work, of the horses I am so lucky to ride and of all the connections yet to make.
Catch the show on 23 March at Cambridge Junction J2, and find out more about Polly and her music at pollypaulusma.com