"Stop LARPing:" An Interview with Polearm

INTERVIEWS

By Olivia Lee

8/27/26

The prolific Wisconsin rapper discusses authenticity in the underground, sobriety, and why Paul McCartney is the best Beatle.

polearm performing at Barboza (Photo by Elias Mwago).

The only time I’ve been truly starstruck while doing one of these interviews is with polearm. I’ve kept the rapper/electronic musician on my radar since discovering his song “guillotine” from a thayerperiod reel, its glitchy rage production and pained emo-ish vocals really made him stand out from other figures in the underground I’ve heard.

polearm’s origins begin with plug music, initially creating it as a joke. He eventually transitioned from the genre into his current sound, inspired by artists like Hella Sketchy and early PC Music. Since then, he’s carved out a distinct lane with his unique emo-leaning, guitar-driven, semi-rage sound while making major strides in his career, collaborating with artists like thayerperiod and supporting rapper sewerperson on his 2026 tour.

Despite being starstruck and slightly nervous, polearm was one of the most honest and down-to-earth musicians I’ve ever interviewed, his genuine passion for music and art shining through his honest answers. I got to chat with him before his set outside of Neumos; read on for our discussion of his process for creating his online visuals, how to cultivate authenticity in your artistry, and our tangents about Letterboxd and Bladee.

So you've got the W tattooed on your neck [for Wisconsin, his native state]. What's the scene like there? Are there elements of the state that like influenced your sound?

When I first started making music there wasn't much of a scene at the time, and then I ended up moving to LA after I graduated high school in 2019. I was there for a few years and then I moved back two years ago to my hometown and I found out about the Milwaukee scene and there's a whole crazy scene in Milwaukee of people doing like a lot of different styles; whether it's kind of more jerk influence or there is some more like rage stuff happening too. It's great. A lot of great people.

Who are some of your favorites from the scene?

Superstar Cell, Subsad, kill.dawn, Certified Trapper. There's a lot. There's like too many I can name.

Your visuals online, like your reels and music videos, are very stylized and are super cool. I know you use Blender.

I love Blender. Blender is fucking awesome because I don't like leaving my house to shoot a video. Especially because like at least where I live in Wisconsin, there's a lot of locations that kind of just look the same. Like you can drive an hour and everything looks the same as the hour before. So it's like your options are a field, a barn or like a random steel mill, and that kind of gets old. So being able to like make scenes in Blender, I can kind of imagine whatever I want; I could put myself in a castle or I could put myself like on a mountain or stuff that isn't necessarily accessible to me in my current financial bracket.

Back when I was kind of first in the music scene, TikTok and Reels wasn't a thing and you didn't have to do that to grow. All you had to do was post music and maybe make songs with other people. Eventually I was like, “All right, fuck it. Like I'm going to do Instagram Reels.” And just try to actually promote my music.

And it was kind of a painful thing at first, because I didn't want to just get in front of the camera and do the same shit that everyone else was doing. So I don't know how the idea came to me exactly, but I kind of just figured out like I could green screen myself and put it in Blender like how they do in movies, so I've kind of figured out like that's my thing that'll set me apart from everything else is. I'd love to just focus on the music and only put that out and let it speak for itself, but in this day and age, there's so much competition. It's quite frankly oversaturated. So you do need to have something extra to get eyeballs on you and not have people scroll past you within like half a second.

I saw an Instagram comment on one of your Reels and someone said you were biting Slayr’s sound which I don't really get at all.

The older you get and the more music you listen to, especially if you really love music, you're able to differentiate even minute elements of music. I mean someone who hasn't really listened to music could like loop in the Beatles and the Stones, but they're very very different bands. But like, you know, a 12 year old will probably think they're pretty close. And I think that's the same thing with that.

I fuck with Slayr. I do. I think a lot of the beats are really sick. I think people need to stop punching in the first thing that comes to their brain though.Thinking a little bit more about the lyrics would do some good. I hear something I like in the underground, and then I read the lyrics and I get so disappointed to the point where I don't want to listen to it anymore. So I try to avoid doing that. But that's also just because I'm so critical about my own music that listening to music like in my field, I'm constantly analyzing it rather than just enjoying it which is why I gravitate to older music and music that does not sound like what I'm doing at all.

Like what?

Well, I'm in a huge Paul McCartney kick right now. A lot of people would disagree with me, but Wings was his best work. He peaked after the Beatles. Listen to Wings over America. He sounds like he's fighting for his fucking life and it's awesome.

When I listen to the newer stuff that's coming out, I'm just kind of picking it apart. Same with movies too.

What movies are you picking apart recently?

Like all newer films just because I mean, obviously it's the same thing with the whole like “contentification.” I just have a huge passion for art and I want people to try harder.

I think people get really hyped for movies that are just better than like the slop. I saw Marty Supreme and people are really gassing that up. But I think the people that really love Marty Supreme didn't see Uncut Gems. It's like the same thing, same vibe.

I personally didn't love Marty Supreme. I don't know, maybe hot take.

No, no, that's not a hot take. I mean like there's different reasons not to like it but like it's I think doing kind of like the same sort of chaotic vibe as Uncut Gems. I was just like I've kind of already seen this before. It's just in a different context, which is like that's good sometimes but I think the directorial style was a little too close. Same thing like Wes Anderson. Love Wes Anderson, his older movies, but I think his newer ones he's stuck in his ways. Like I feel like people get stuck in their ways with that shit too. Like music, movies, all that. People are just trying to do what works instead of dipping their toes a little further, like what David Bowie said.

What's your top four [on Letterboxd]?

Andrei Rublev, Heat, The Prestige. Lost in Translation. That’s my guilty pleasure.

Honorable mention for my top for The Game, David Fincher.

I never finished my Slayr question actually. But currently in the rap scene, it does seem pretty oversaturated and everyone's kind of chasing the same sounds and aesthetics and LARPing and just kind of being clones of each other. So to you, what does it take to not just stand out in what already is an extremely saturated scene, but also maintain longevity?

It's funny because like a lot of people say this all the time. It's like, “Oh just be yourself” but that's actually so fucking true. And me being myself, I already went through my fashion phase. I think Rick Owens and Hedi Slimane, like that shit is like so played out.

I blame The Hellp.

I respect Noah Dillon. I do. They talk their shit a little too much, but honestly now that I turned 25 and my frontal lobe is developed I kind of decided I want to talk my shit too.

I think doing coke on camera for the welcome.JPEG video was kind of burnt though. I was like, you don't have to do that. You can't be so full of yourself like, “Yeah, let's do coke on our interview!” Like nah, I'm good.

I think that's also just because I'm at least trying to be sober. So maybe I’m just kind of a hater like that. I don't like the idea of promoting that stuff really. I don't think glorifying it is doing any good to society at all. Just because I got roped into it from people glorifying it for a while. So I made some stupid decisions.

I feel like that's a big thing in the rap scene too.

And there's no need for that. There's absolutely no need for that. Frankly once I stopped doing drugs and drinking every day was when I actually got like way fucking better at music.

I watched Requiem for a Dream once and I'm like, "I'm never doing drugs."

polearm performing at Barboza (Photo by Elias Mwago).

Moving on to the question I've been aching to ask: What's your favorite Drain Gang project?

Oh, that depends on my emotional state. It's like the same with the Beatles. If I'm feeling myself, it's Cold Visions. It's pretty impressive to have a project like that so late in your career, but like just having a really long career and then putting out an album like that. I would say 333. That’s my favorite Bladee besides Cold Visions.

Thaiboy’s new project is awesome. E [by Ecco2k] was also in heavy rotation when that came out. Everyone, respectively, makes really great music in Drain Gang, but I think I just gravitate more towards Bladee because he is the most active.

Cold Visions is probably mine too, but Gluee is also up there. Dude, “Deletee (Intro)?”

Insane!

It makes me levitate. My sister's always like, “Play that at my funeral,”

I wish Bladee would yell more on a song. He did it a little on Sulfur Surfer, which was cool to hear, but that just like pained delivery is my favorite kind of delivery because that's what I do.

Yeah, “I'm the only one who has anything interesting to say nowadays” or whatever the fuck he’s saying.

Yeah, but he's speaking facts because like I was saying earlier, go to listen to any of these new rage projects. The lyrics are fucking trash. Not saying my shit is amazing or whatever.

I constantly I think there's something to constantly improve on always, but I think what a lot of people fuck up is that once they get some motion, they don't like try to improve and they just put themselves in like the same cell and try to do the same thing all the time...I have such like a huge passion for music and like the craft that I just think like people can try harder.

What do you think the underground needs?

Effort. Substance.

Who's the best Beatle?

It used to be George when I was younger. And then I got older, it's Paul. Paul was the brain, and John Lennon was a piece of shit.

Paul writes the best songs.

Yeah. He did. He really did. And he peaked after the Beatles too. Like, he didn't need them.

He didn't need them to make his best stuff. Like, come on. “Let Me Roll It.” “Band on the Run,” that's a great song.

I would say that because, well yeah he was the brain, but also just Wings. Like, Wings clears anything (besides All Things Must Pass). Wings clears fucking everything that any Beatle did after Beatles. That's facts. I will stand on that.

What's next for Polearm?

4.5 mixtape because I didn't want my fifth album to be a rage influenced album. I want that to be guitars and analog instruments. It's like a rage project, but it's like emo in a way. I'm not like talking about like rap music stuff. It's just, you know, my feelings. Per usual.

Anything else you wanna add?

Be yourself. Stop LARPing.