Pogo (musician)

Pogo
Birth name Christopher Nicholas Bertke
Also known as Pogo[1]
Born (1988-07-26) 26 July 1988[2]
Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa[3]
Origin Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Genres
Occupation(s) Musician
Years active 2007–present
Website pogomix.net

Christopher Nicholas "Nick" Bertke (born 26 July 1988) better known by his stage name Pogo, is a South African-born,[3] Australian electronic music artist whose work consists of recording small sounds, quotes, and melodies from films, TV programmes or other sources, and sequencing the sounds together to form a new piece of music. A number of Pogo's works consist almost entirely of the sounds he samples, with few or no additional music or sound samples.[4]

Music

Nick Bertke, under his band name, Pogo, has produced tracks using samples from films and TV shows such as Pulp Fiction.[1] He has also sampled from other sources, such as field recordings for his project Remix the World. Remix the World was an ambitious project, consisting of all original content. Bertke shot real world footage and then used those sounds and images to capture the essence of the places he visited. The Real World Remix was shot in Kenya, South Africa, Bhutan, and Perth (AU). [5]

Bertke is best known for his use of video sampling to produce music videos, which he uploads on the video-sharing website YouTube.[6] As of October 2017, his most popular YouTube video is Alice, made of samples of Disney's animated film Alice in Wonderland, with more than 20 million views.[6] In 2010, his music video Gardyn, created from footage of his mother working in her garden, was juried along with 24 other YouTube videos for an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.[7] On 29 September 2016, Pogo released a song called "Trumpular" on SoundCloud which consisted of quotes from Republican nominee, and later President, Donald Trump.[8]

Pogo's music is used on the popular conservative YouTube talk show, Louder With Crowder, on YouTube channel, Steven Crowder. Various music of his is used coming back from commercial breaks.[9]

Personal life

On his September 2011 US tour, Bertke was arrested and taken into custody for three weeks due to the lack of a proper work visa, and is prohibited from re-entering the United States until 2021.[10][11]

In an unlisted video to a friend that was uploaded in 2016, Bertke stated that he has a "fairly robust resentment of the gay community".[12] On the topic of the Orlando nightclub shooting, a terrorist attack at a gay bar in Florida in 2016, he said, "It amazes me to see the West welcoming a culture through the floodgates that wants gays dead. I think that's fantastic".[13][14] Bertke later said, "I have no hate for the gay community. I am in fact bi-curious myself, and it has not been easy within the culture I have been raised," and also cited his Asperger syndrome and bipolar disorder as contributing factors.[15] He stated that the video was "made in very bad taste" and that he never intended for it to go public,[15] although he also stated that he was trying to "impersonate the far right and create hysteria", noting that the video was made around the time of the 2016 American election.[16] On an appearance on The First Podcast, he indirectly spoke about the incident and how he shouldn't delve into things like politics, though he acknowledged he still had a desire to speak about them.[17] As a result of this video coming to light, Disney removed Bertke's songs from a restaurant playlist at its California Adventure location due to pressure from fans.[18]

Discography

Albums

  • Texturebox (30 December 2010)
  • Wonderpuff (27 June 2011)
  • Forgotten Fudge (2 November 2013)
  • Star Charts (22 December 2014)
  • Kindred Shadow (11 June 2015)
  • Weightless (30 December 2016)
  • Ascend (22 February 2018)

EPs

  • Wonderland (28 May 2007)
  • Broken Beats (2008)
  • Table Scraps (2008)
  • Weave and Wish (22 March 2009)
  • Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole (30 November 2010)
  • Fluctuate (5 January 2014)
  • Perfect Chaos (21 May 2014)
  • Younghood (8 June 2014)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Pogo's 'Pulp Fiction' Remix". Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  2. ↑ Pogo interview on ComfortComes.com, archived from the original on 3 March 2016, retrieved 11 May 2010
  3. 1 2 Pogo Interview on BrainsQuestionmark.com, archived from the original on 13 February 2012, retrieved 11 May 2010
  4. ↑ "Nick Bertke : The Story of Pogo and His Ideas of Music". SVANAPAPER. Retrieved 2017-01-22.
  5. ↑ Emami, Gazelle (6 December 2011). "'Kadinchey': Pogo's Latest Remix Mashes Up Bhutan (VIDEO)". HuffPost. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  6. 1 2 Adams, Erik (1 May 2013). "Pogo's "Alice" is the Internet's nostalgia fixation at its most enchanting". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  7. ↑ Smith, Roberta (21 October 2010). "The Home Video Rises to Museum Grade". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  8. ↑ Wilson, Zanda (29 September 2016). "Aussie Producer Pogo Drops A+ Banger Made Entirely Of Donald Trump Quotes - Music Feeds". musicfeeds.com.au. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Crowder, Steven [@scrowder] (3 June 2016). "For those asking about the sick #LwC bumps, they come from either "Pogo" (@NickBertke) or "Psychotic Giraffe" (@Bl3nder_LDG)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  10. ↑ "Australian Producer Pogo Arrested". Archived from the original on 30 November 2011.
  11. ↑ "Aussie music producer jailed, banned from US". NewsComAu. Retrieved 2017-01-22.
  12. ↑ Pogo Archives (2018-05-02), Why I called my channel Fagottron, archived from the original on 2018-05-30, retrieved 2018-05-31
  13. ↑ Farrell, Paul (31 May 2018). "Pogo aka Nick Bertke: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  14. ↑ Riley, John (2018-05-31). "Video emerges of Australian EDM musician Pogo explaining how he hates gays". Metro Weekly. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  15. 1 2 "Nick Bertke apologises for offensive video and shares he is bi-curious | OUTInPerth – LGBTIQ News and Culture". www.outinperth.com. Retrieved 2018-08-10.
  16. ↑ "Nick Bertke: Twitter Reacts As EDM Star 'Pogo' Fist-Pumps Over Pulse Massacre, Calls Gay People 'Disgusting'". 31 May 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  17. ↑ "Late Night Munchies (with Pogo)". Audioboom. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  18. ↑ "Disney Removes Pogo Tracks from Lamplight Lounge Playlist - LaughingPlace.com". 27 June 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
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