Pool Kids // POOL - Split

The idea for a Pool Kids / POOL split has been orbiting the Florida band for years, but as they prepared for their first headline tour, they realized now was the right time to make it happen. Timing put them in a bind––they decided just before leaving for several months of national and international touring alongside bands like PUP, Beach Bunny, La Dispute, Origami Angel, and more––but Pool Kids always accepts a challenge. They returned home from tour and immediately spent 9 straight days in the studio bringing this vision to life.

"We are so much happier with the result than we thought we would be. It was incredibly reassuring to see what this band could create under such a time crunch and with far less planning than we are used to. We really ended up with something that we are proud of, back to front."

The split opens up with a Pool Kids b-side, "No Stranger," that could easily stand well on its own as one of Pool Kids' finest works. 

It almost made it onto the album but other songs were coming together more naturally and this track just didn't get fully realized in time. Vocalist Christine Goodwyne (she/her) finally found the lyrics and vocals that the song was missing from the back of the van on their first European tour earlier this spring, and they went straight to the studio upon returning to the states.

"It turned out sounding absolutely up to the standards of the rest of our self-titled record," she says. "We’re so happy this song found a way to live independently and to serve as a bookend for this whole record’s lifecycle."

Followed by that are two alternate versions of singles from S/T, including "Talk Too Much" and "Arm's Length."

The split ends with 3 tracks of pure chaos from POOL. 

The lore of POOL begins with an April Fools joke in 2019 that went way too right, where Pool Kids warned fans to prepare themselves for annihilation as they dropped a blistering double single as their hardcore alter ego POOL.

"All the heaviness seems to have been extracted and funneled directly into the trio of POOL tracks, which are filthy, nasty, absolutely grotesque death metal-adjacent immolations." - Stereogum