Soulfully Utah: Sitting Down with Josaleigh Pollett

Josaleigh Pollett (photo by @ashleybirdphoto)

Ogden native Josaleigh Pollett (@brosaleigh) performs deeply sorrowful pieces about emptiness and loss, connecting with our deepest human fears, then breaks the trance with her exuberant, child-like laughter once the last chord is played. You can't experience one of her shows without laughing at your own pain. She leaves you wondering how a girl like her can pull out so much painful emotion during a show but be so infectiously happy in life.

"It's because I emote so much of the sad, hard shit in songs that I'm able to be happy and positive in the rest of my life. That's how I try to exist in the world. If I only wrote happy pop songs, maybe I wouldn't be able to be so happy in my natural life," she tells S&A with a slight giggle.

Josaleigh has played her somber tunes in venues all over Ogden and Salt Lake City for 13 years. Her formal music training began at at age 5, when she started going along with her father to the music store where he taught private drumming lessons.

"Whenever a student cancelled a lesson, he would shrug and say, 'Well, I came here to teach someone how to play the drums,' and he'd look at me... so drums were my first instrument."

By age 9, Josaleigh took interest in writing her own music and looked to the guitar as an instrument that would allow for that level of versatility. At 14, influenced by female artists such as Alanis Morisette, Joni Mitchell, and Edie Brickell, Josaleigh brought her own unique, brooding, style to the stage. She began by playing local Salt Lake venues such as Kilby Court, random coffee shops, eventually getting added to local showcases.

Local shows kept rolling in for Josaleigh and she was enjoying the success, but she found herself getting increasingly more restless with Utah culture. Growing up non-religious in a predominantly Mormon culture brought many challenges for her.

"I always felt like there was this club my friends were a part of that I couldn't be. It was a weird feeling of being a little on the outside."

After her graduation from Weber State University in 2014, where she majored in Anthropology, Pollett packed up her pets and her acoustic guitar and left for Seattle where she hoped to find a place she fit in. What she ultimately found was a deeper appreciation for Utah.

"Being in Seattle felt like being 14 again and starting all over in the music world, but without the bravery I had at that age to put myself out in front of the right people . It's hard to meet new friends, the music scene is saturated, and it's really expensive to live there. Every time I'd come home to visit, I'd feel overwhelmed by love for the smaller, tight-knit Utah communities," Pollett explains.

After a year and a half, Pollett moved back to Utah permanently and immediately started playing shows in bars and coffee shops again. It wasn't long before Lavender Vinyl in Ogden asked if she'd like to record a label, and the album Strangers was born.

"Strangers is like a collaboration with all the people I know and love in the city. A friend recorded it, another friend did the photography, and another the surrounding artwork. I love it."

Josaleigh is currently recording a new, even more emotionally heart-wrenching album, based on the ending of her short-lived marriage. She's branching out from the innocent angst of the acoustic to the multi-dimensional sound of the electric guitar.

"Extreme emotions bring out the best art. If something deeply impactful happens in my life, even if it's not super happy, or it's hard to talk about, I'm going to talk about it, and the electric seems to add that bit of extra emotion needed for this one. It's by far my most emotional collection."

Pollett hopes her music will continue to connect with people at their deepest, most vulnerable points to help people feel less alone, and make being human a little more comfortable.

You can get the full, unforgettable, and positively uplifting Josaleigh Pollett experience this weekend at the Ogden Arts Festival. She plays at the Union Station at 2 PM Saturday. Also, keep watching her Instagram for details about upcoming events in Salt Lake City and Ogden.

In the meantime, have a good cry to this tune!