Pol_On

For Jackmode Radio 02 we take in a taste of Warsaw. Pol_On are a production duo hailing from Poland, a land where the Pierogis are abundant and the vodka flows freely. They released their first single Ranon in April 2009 and soon after followed EP's on the mighty Get Physical and the marvellous Mothership records. Here, Olivier Massey, talks to Pol_On about their discography, their home land and their favourite brand of vodka. They have mixed Jackmode radio 02 which in one word can only be described as fantastic. 

 (Tracklist below)

Pulse: For those unfortunate to not know of your output, please tell us who you are and what it is you do. Pol_On: We're Kacper and Michal, we make and play music! We met at an after party in Warsaw. Michal was organizing the party and I was there. It was when I (Kacper) just finished music academy and often went to clubs to listen to some new music. The next day I went to Michal's flat to get some music from him. We noticed that we have a similar taste of music, and we decided to try to do something together, that's how we started Pol_On.

You only started playing out together a mere four years ago yet your ascension to success has been incredibly quick, what is your secret? How did you get your lucky break (if you would even call it that!)? There is no secret in that, maybe it's because we working really hard and spending lots of time in our studio. Now it's easier for us because recently Kacper has moved to my (Michal) borough, and now we're neighbours.

Each one of you comes from different musical backgrounds, Kacper stems from the school of Jazz and Michal is a top dog in Warsaw’s house club scene, what do each one of you bring to the table when producing or DJ'ing? These two backgrounds compliment each other, and when we produce or play we lead each other.

How would you say your hometown its surroundings have influenced your output? We live in Warsaw, it’s a great city for us with lots of inspiration and a growing music scene. Fortunately many artists from Poland are our good friends and fortunately we can exchange our experiences and knowledge. Now that we have the Internet, we can find inspiration from everywhere around the globe.

Do you think these divulging tastes are important in a production duo? Do you ever have disagreements when approaching an EP or a remix? When we work together we always trying to listen each other, and when something does not work for one of us we're try to find compromise.

You guys are part of the brilliant Jackmode agency, how does it make you feel to be part of an agency that seem to represent the crème de la crème of forward thinking house and techno producers, and DJ's? Jackmode is a kind of family for us, we've met personally, all the crew and artists, and we know that this is an agency which we want to work with.

You guys hail from Poland, there seems to be a growing number of big producers stemming from there? Is there something in the water or is Poland finally getting the musical acknowledgement it deserves? In Poland there are a number of artists who make great electronic music like Catz'n'Dogz, Marcin Czubala, Jacek Sienkiewicz, for example, and there are some producers who really deserve more attention from the rest of the world, for example Slg, Kuba Sojka, Max Skiba, Piotr Bejnar, Jackname Trouble and many others.

Let’s turn to your esteemed discography: are there any more collaborations in the pipeline? Now, we're focusing on our own tracks, but of course in the near future we will do something together with some of our friends.

You also boast a large amount of remixes, from the likes of: Timo Garcia, Mr. Ho, Kasper Bjorke and many more. How do you guys attack a remix and how does that process differ from working on original material? When we're doing a remix for other artists, we always try to get an interesting sample or melody, and then around this we make a new track. It's always a good experience for us because, we have an idea from the original track and must interoperate in our own way. We have a lot of fun with this.

Care to share with us any forthcoming releases that you are excited about? We just released our remix for Two Stupid Gods, Dirt Crew and Jonny Cade. Soon our EP for Systematic will be out, and we're just finishing our new tracks but for who, let it be a secret for now!

Have you considered doing a full length artist album? If so, any idea what direction it would take and when about wemay hear some of it? We are thinking about our first full length album and we have some ideas, but we have no pressure for that.

What is your typical set up in your studio? Do you guys share a studio or work separately? Our set up is only digital and we don't use any hardware for producing. As we said we're neighbours now so we are working together in our home studio.

What advice would you give to any young budding producer or DJ who wants to hit the big time? Always do what you feel, no matter what kind of music is popular right now, be honest with yourself.

In this digital age, it’s hard to say where dance music is headed with many tracks having such a short shelf life, where do you guys think it is headed in the next year or so? Which artists do you feel will hit the big time in the upcoming months? Indeed, there are alot of releases right now, we think there are too many; 98% of this will be passed and then gone, but there are 2% of them which will be immortalized, and we will play it for a long time. There are some artists like Deetron, Soulphiction, Henrik Schwartz and others; they always manage to surprise us with something special.

With the summer nearly upon us, care to give our readers five top tips to survive festival season? Remember to drink a lot of water when you drink wodka in the summer!

As well as a top ten summer festival tracks? It depends on the festival and what time you play but we think that the new track from Hot Natured [Forward Motion] and the Tale Of Us remix for Who Made Who will blow up the dancefloors this year.

Do you guys have any other side projects (musical or otherwise) that you wish to share with us? We only focus on our "poloniusz style".

How do Pol_On spend a relaxing on a Sunday afternoon after a mammoth club session that started the previous Friday? This is the time to spend with our girlfriends, walking in the park, go to cinema or just stayin home and watch movie or something.

If you could program your ideal night line up spread over two rooms, who would you have playing or DJing? We’ll evenlet you resurrect a few fallen legends! There are a lot of artists, but our dream is to play with: Moodymann, Theo Parrish, Kerri Chandler, Kenny Larkin, Ricardo Villalobos, Deetron and many others.

Now to finish, if you had to choose one of the following which would it be?

A. Pierogi or Bigos?: Pierogi
B. Zubrowka Vodka or Belvedere Vodka?: Zubrowka
C. Vinyl or CD?: Both
D. Winter or Summer?: Summer
E. house or techno?: house

Interview - Olivier Massey

Jackmode Radio 02 - Tracklist
6th Borough Project - Iznae
Subb-An feat. Beckford - The Lovers Night
Maurice Aymard - Dimensiones Imposibles (Pezzner Remix)
Aérea Negrot - All I Wanna Do (Efdemin Remix)
Julio Bashmore - Battle For Middle You
Ben Westbeech - Falling (Deetron Acid Remix Dub)
Viadrina - Better (Arto Mwambe Remix)
Genny G - Restart
Stuffa - Proof (Wolf + Lamb Remix)
Pol_On - Molala (Mercury X Rmx)
Kerri Chandler - From Day One (623 Again Mix)
Scope - (Pol_On Remix)
Greg Paulus - Nightime (Crazy P Remix)
Move D - Sur Un Bateau Avec Eric

Pol_On on Pulse