Don’t let Nick Bertke‘s thick Australian accent presume you to think his maturity is beyond his youth – this 22 year-old is indeed a kid at heart and has an amazing talent of… well no one else compares actually. Nick is better known as electronic samplist Pogo who has attracted the ears and inspiration of millions around the world with his re-composure of animated and youth-centered films into extraordinary dance music.
Pogo – Expialidocious
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/emilyliisa/expialidocious[/soundcloud]
Along with capturing the support from the younger generation, Pogo’s music has also reached out to a much broader community from recognizing his innovation of using snippets of cinematic audio and visuals to puzzle-piece together on top of consistent house grooves. The Terminator, Alice in Wonderland, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are just a few of the films that Pogo has remixed, each of which have effortlessly reached over 1 million views on his YouTube.
More recently, Pogo has started to branch out of his online character and tour in the states as an effort to personally reach out to thousands of fans of whom he’s acquired in only a 4 year time-span. On March 2nd, Pogo crossed seas and debuted his tour at Black Cat in Washington, DC. Their small back room was the host to a crowded sold-out night, full of Pogo’s house-soaked sampled tracks.
After the projector screen slid down, Pogo walked out and began the show without hesitation. He kept a wired focus on the music presentation throughout the performance, which was unfortunately in a dark-cornered booth. Throughout the show, the visuals kept the crowd at standstill-aw at times and then into an energetic dancing frenzy once the catchy house beats and character voices kicked in.
Due to his enormous online community where listening to his music means watching its music video, the audience was able to easily recognize the constantly-changing visuals, and upcoming rhythms and ‘lyrics’ including “to infinity and beyond!†in Pogo’s Toy Story remix called Toyz Noize. As @KyleSimmons tweeted: “The YouTube generation is out here in full force…â€
Despite Pogo’s lack of interaction with the crowd during the show, he kept calm after the last track and left the booth with fans screaming “encore†but wasn’t able to come back out for another song. Fortunately, I got to speak with him after the show and as it turns out, he’s not the shy character I imagined he was when in the booth. He took time in the Red Room to make a personal connection with fans – asking questions regarding music tastes and his production process. I asked him what made him decide to tour in the states and not much in his home country of Australia, he simply responded, “Because this is where it happens.†However, I’m pretty sure he was lying just to get our ‘Americanized approval’, but either way, you are always welcome to the states Pogo – as long as you remix The Goonies in the near future.
Pogo – Wishery
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/jakobmichon/wishery-pogo[/soundcloud]
There’s plenty more to know about Pogo and his upcoming production adventures. I highly recommend following his news updates on his website since he recently got involved with touring the world, a project of his called World Remix, where he remixes the sounds of real life people and nature into unique musical compilation that resembles that particular culture.
Thanks for the one-of-a-kind show Pogo!