Since releasing her first self-produced EP on Paul Epworth’s Wolf Tone label in 2017,  Polly Mackey aka Art School Girlfriend has established herself as a master of the sonic space that realises electronica through a songwriter and shoegazer perspective; her albums Is It Light Where You Are (2021) and Soft Landing (2023) were acclaimed for how they deftly painted emotions with sound.

Having toured the UK, Europe and USA extensively over the last few years, her rise has been one of a steady, cult, word-of-mouth from both fans and her peers. With music that reveals its depths and details over years of listening, Lean In arrives at a time where her audience has grown in exponentially, partly due to her diverse involvement in the music scene at large – contributions to the work of Lane 8, Jasper Tygner and Ghostpoet; being chosen by Bonobo to DJ at his Outliers series at Drumsheds; touring the US with both The Japanese House and Marika Hackman; a notable DJ set for HOR; producing and engineering for up-and-coming post-rock band Pencil; the tastemaker curation of her 5-years-in-the-running monthly radio show on Foundation FM.