Polo (AR) is an Argentinean artist who has been making waves for a few years now. With a recent release on atish label manjumasi, we caught up with him to find out how the release came about, and what plans he has for the rest of 2024…
WWD: Hey Polo (AR) – how has your 2024 been so far?
Heyyyy guyss, thanks for having me. So far so good. I’ve taken a big break from production after a massive 2023, so I’m just coming back to Ableton after 3 months or so.
I like to rest in the summertime, so I return to my hometown Pinamar with my family. There were plenty of fun beach days and a couple of cool shows around my beautiful country. The one I enjoyed the most was this b2b2b with my good friends Agustin Ficarra and Cocho at Las Cavernas, Mendoza.
They filmed it all quite nicely in case u missed it hehe.
WWD: How did you get into dance music at first, what sort of stuff?
Well I was brought into dance music a year after coming to Buenos Aires to pursue music studies. I remember my first one was DAVI at The Bow (2018) and I was blown away. I reckon Argentina might have one of the best audiences in the world and that night made justice to that statement. It was not just the music (which was absolutely marvelous), but the atmosphere there was something that, from then on, I started to pursue.
As a music student, I quickly fell for melodic and harmonically rich genres of electronic music. Progressive House here is a big thing (and I don’t think I need to mention why) so my first year raving revolved around these sounds, also getting some of those early organic house influences.
WWD: How did you then get into producing and making it a career?
Not so long after my first party. I might have borrowed a little dj controller weeks after my first rave and months later, ableton was installed on my laptop. At first I don’t think I was after something specific. Not that I limited it to a hobby, but I clearly wasn’t anxious of getting playtime nor support from other djs. I just wanted to make music and get better at playing it. I believe the pandemic and the countless hours I spent producing and mixing during that time naturally showed me that this was the way to go.
WWD: What is the scene in Argentina like? What sounds are popular?
Ha, as I said, progressive here is big and the man responsible is Hernan Cattaneo. There are not so many places in the world with such strong deep and progressive culture. Furthermore, lots of scenes and sounds that thrive all over the world are getting their place here. Underground music is now trending so events are getting bigger and you can see festivals happen more often than ever before. I cherish that we Argentinians, as an audience, have a wide range when it comes to music taste. So the scene doesn’t narrow down on one specific kind of sound that hits. Here you can find true variety. There are people for every kind of sound.
WWD: What inspired your new ep on Manjumasi?
For Nostalgia, my hometown (and everything that comes within it) did. For Ultramar, the deep sea was of big inspiration when I was working on my parts of the collaboration.
WWD: How and why did you link with atish for it?
Around 2021 Atish was making these cool demo livestream sessions with different artists every week or so. I sent a demo for him and Tim Green to give some feedback on and their response was super possitive. Since then, the contact remained. It wasn’t until mid 2023 I believe that he asked for some new stuff and I sent Nostalgia along with other songs. He and Mark (his label partner at Manjumasi) LOVED it so we were immediately looking for a b-side to pair it off for an EP.
WWD: Where and when was it written and does that affect things?
Have you ever got that bitter feeling when you don’t want a good time to end? Well, I made Nostalgia last summer. As I said, I spend every summer at home in Pinamar, mostly surrounded by friends, family, beaches and forests. That summer still had one full month to go, but I started to get that shitty feeling of not wanting it to end. The song itself is kind of an ode to Pinamar and how I feel there which is like a much loved little boy enjoying the sound of crickets in the night and the waves hitting the shore in the morning. It’s kind of a special one, yes haha.
WWD: How much do DJing and producing influence one another?
I find it impossible to separate them. At least in my case, those two worlds are constantly communicating with one another. Producing in a more technical way trained my hearing to be detailed frequency-wise. Understanding the freq spectrum makes me get another layer of information for songs so not only you can pair songs considering bpm or key, you can also pair them based on how they sound like spectrum wise. On the other way around, djing and understanding the way songs function on dance floors makes me conscious about structure and how to manage it while producing my own tracks. These are silly examples coming from the top of my head how these two worlds are constantly connected and exchanging information for me.
WWD: What else have you got coming up?
My most deared project we are starting is a new artistic collective alongside my dear friends Kabi, Cocho, Agustin Ficarra, Facundo Losardo and Maezbi. The project is called Who Knows and our first event will take place in Buenos Aires next month. We plan to associate with different event organizers of Argentina to take our full showcase of artists around the country. The project tries to embrace all visual and musical aspects and it will certainly evolve on a label. We’ve got so much music to share that we can’t keep waiting!! Things are gonna be exciting quite soon 🙂
Also I’m planning to release a new Modulor (my own podcast series) I’m just getting the artwork done.
In case you missed the last one:
I’d like to release my remix of A New Funky Generation – The Messenger for free before the northern summer so I might find a way to give it away around may or june, and I have another release later this year but not sure when haha. It’s a collaboration with one of the best electronic artist of Argentina at the moment. A gorgeous song but not much more I can say right now.
WWD: What are your long-term career goals?
To make a living out of this has to be a dream coming true. Whatever comes next is a blessing. I’m just living day by day with no pressure nor prejudice. Who knows what I will end up doing? 😉