Interview ‣ Polo Perks
Polo Perks
Polo Perks is doing it differently.
Updated
If there’s anything you should know about Polo Perks, it’s that he is an extraordinary kind of artist. He moves fast like the city he is from, down to the short length of his tracks, to his quick and sporadic flow, impulsive lyrics and productive work rate. His music speaks to, and encompasses his generation. The kids who grew up in the early 00s who’ve made waves on Soundcloud, who’ve fused the nostalgic and the new, and in doing so, brought forth never-before-heard sounds. Take Perks’ recent album Punk Goes Drill for example: filled with indie/punk/rock samples from the likes of Snow Patrol, Taking Back Sunday and The Killers –but intertwined with “fried” drill beats, as he coined it himself. This is only the first album he released in 2021 though, after which came “Harrison” but before the year is over, there may well be another. Perks’ talks of being an independent artist, keeping everything close-knit with his Surf Gang family and how far he has come in the past 5 years. Read the interview
below:
Tell me a little about yourself-where you’re from and how got to where you’re at now making music?
Half Moon
I’m from Harlem, The Bronx and I’ve stayed in Connecticut too, mostly I’m from New York, but I can’t specify myself too much as being from a certain area.
Polo Perks
Do you feel that way about your music as well? Not being to specific and boxed in?
Definitely, I’m not trying to be boxed in! That’s not the thing, I feel like I’m in my own lane.
have you always felt you’re in your own lane? And what about when you were a kid, did you have a vision for yourself in this way?
To be honest, when I was a kid I thought I’d be a fuckin' doctor or some shit then that cancelled and I was like fuck it I’ll be a skater then I was like nah that’s hard! And after that came the music. Moms was struggling, pops was struggling so I always knew I had to be something.
So when did you first release music?
In 2018 I met my friend and producer Evilgiane, and he was putting together something called Surf Gang.
Oh mad so he’s the mastermind behind Surf Gang?
Yeah. He put the whole thing together. He’s the owner he’s the ceo he’s the backbone, the one who believed in everybody. So 2018 was when I started officially releasing music with Surf Gang. I was always an independent artist but having a family and having a collective to do something with is so much better than being by yourself, because people will try to pick you out when you dolo! But once they see you have family and you have that support, people will stay away from you.
So where has showed you the most love since you started?
We did a show last year (2020) on Valentine’s day at H0l0! we really shut that shit down the venue was packed out wall to wall. That was the first time we put our collective forward as Surf Gang and that shit was fire.
I’ve seen you’ve been getting a lot of love in London as well!
Yes- Shoutout Stephane from NTS Radio. I fw him heavy he fw me heavy I appreciate him! He’s been onto Surf Gang from early. Man shoutout Lucien Clarke! He’s been showing hella love It’s so crazy to see a skater like that fw me, that shit is head bussin to me.
It just cements what you already knew innit- that you’re good at what you do.
Yea, sometimes you need that confirmation you know.
do you remember your first solo show?
Yeah back in 2015
oh so it’s been a little minute you’ve been doing this?
Yeah! I’ve really been grinding.
did do you ever feel nervous doing a show or have you always believed in yourself?
Nah, and yes I always knew. I had to keep up with people around me who wasn’t anxious or wasn’t worried and I looked up to them, so I had to just have that self-belief and know that I’m fire.
how are you feeling about your creative flow right now? Seems like you’re steadily putting out bits?
Steadily snippeting shit! I just need to keep everything consistent, and its all good shit so I it’s stuff I want to drop. Some days Ill be bored and so ill drop a song and get all these reactions and my day will be good cus of that!
Would you say you’ve found your sound in a way or is this something that’s constantly developing?
It’s constantly developing. Throughout the past couple projects I’ve been giving people the opportunity to hear different stuff, but between my last tape and the one I’m working on right now- I’m doing everything I wanna do and I’m doing it how I wanna do it! It’s gonna be every type of sound, done in my own way! No auto tune none of that shit.
We can hear some of that in Punk goes Drill- all the samples…
Yeaaah hell yeah, we got a Foo Fighters sample, Mr Brightside sample, we got a Flight Facilities sample, shit! We got a Cat Power sample!
It’s wild that we think these music genres are so separate, but they don’t have to be at all! A good producer can take any sample and make it into something amazing.
Exactly, that’s why I fuck with Giane so much, we both just weirdos! Nah Not even weirdos. we both just outcasts in our own lane and it works for us whenever we link up. I can be like yo sample this whole screamo song and he can just nail it. Since I’m already familiar with rock and I listen to it, I can flow on it, I know how to hit it, I know where things go- where to put my voice at, where breaks go.
So you listen to a lot of music?
Yeah I listen to rock more than anything! Arctic Monkeys, Friends on Fire, Fall out Boy. I listen to rap too but I notice a lot of people get this concept where they listen to the music they’re making and one, it’s not becoming themselves and two it’s sounding like the next man. I support everybody in the rap community in the underground though, but I try not to listen to too much of it all, cus I want to stay as organic as possible. But It’s a lot of artists I fuck with in the underground! We got to support, and motivate each other because it’s what we need to keep going in this community.
That idea of community is important innit and like you said you have that already with Surf Gang. But when it comes to consistently making music- do you ever get creative blocks?
Nah, hell nah! Maybe if I can’t get to the studio. But I’m always making songs.
are there any ways New York has influenced your style of music?
Nah, I would say if we was doing this anywhere else were gonna go up regardless but I feel like people wouldn’t take us as seriously. But the fact were in new York city makes us more visible, it’s tough competition but our resume was already killing it. We all already had our sound, we do like funny little drill shit but it’s not drill music, it’s like fried drill music-
fried drill? That’s a good description! And yea, you all definitely have your own sound- it can’t really be described as one thing it does a lot of things.
Yeah, it’s true. It’s real and it’s just everybody being able to be comfortable with themselves. It’s not like all the “Zaza and the mata”. I feel like New York often gets categorized as this one thing, I hate the fact that New York is represented by Timbs and the fuckin Yankee fit. Like not everybody wear that! It’s all different types of styles, you got uptown, downtown, Queens Brooklyn. Each spot has their outlet from where they get flavours from. Where they get anything! You can’t classify us as one thing but people are falling into it, and people are letting us be known as that and capitalizing off that. Capitalising on the “deadass” this! “deadass” that! Not everybody is so …“deadass!” laughs*
haha that’s true. So do you have a method when you’re writing something? Or just take it as it comes?
I don’t write! Like at all.
You don’t write?! So everything just comes straight from your head to the mic? That’s talent.
Yeah thank you. Yeah nobody in Surf Gang write (apart from Babyxsosa cus she’s on her RnB shit). 2015 was the last year I wrote. It’s funny cus I had this song called Trendy Shit and I made that shit with 10 percent left on my boys laptop, an hour away from home with no charger and I had ten minutes to make this song and so I was like fuck it and freestyled it. And I shut the laptop and didn’t listen to it for 2 weeks, and my boy sent it to me and he was like bro? and I was like?? damn this shit type hard! I didn’t even write this shit…at all wtf.
None of you’s write?
It’s all How to spark a memory- that’s my transition as an artist- being nostalgic, we all have our own way of being nostalgic. Sometimes I’ll listen to Caspar and it’ll feel like some old school shit. This same nostalgic flow. Or something from Mo Baretta and he likes to rap his beats around old school feels. I do the same like on my song Taste the Ink -that was a song by The Youths- this old punk band and I flipped it. The same first 4 bars, and I was surprised that a lot of people knew of it. We be like recording something and I’ll be laughing like what does this remind us of? We drop it and it goes crazy.
Talking of nostalgia- you know when you see archival footage of people within music movements/scenes and it’s like damn, that’s really a part of music history, did they realise how important this was at the time? Do you feel like you’re gonna look back and be like wow, Or do you not think about it too much?
I don’t think of it too much but it’s crazy because I’ve known Caalvo or Giane through the internet for 3 and 4 years. But I only know them because of my homie in Connecticut and I would have never been in Connecticut if my pops wasn’t on the run. It’s just funny how life play out. I work with my genuine friends know what I’m saying? Like we don’t need no help we can do this shit independent. We can drop all different type of sounds.
that’s one of the things I think that speaks so true to everything you’re making like these are your friends, that’s not something that can be bought, that’s not something that can be manufactured, that’s just something that’s organic.
I’m saying, it’s like I literally been grinding since 2015, I feel so much better having a family, I have a foundation to keep me going, to keep me confident, like you know it let’s me know I have reassurance. I’m blessed.
