This text beforehand appeared on Audiomack World.
POLO PERKS <3 <3<3 is a pop-rap artist with out giving into mainstream pop attraction. The New York-based rapper and member of the collective SURF GANG—inducted in 2015—spent his youth doing something he probably may to keep away from rising up. As of late, yow will discover him microdosing My Chemical Romance guitar riffs and Woman Gaga snippets inside his music. Polo counters the style of the mainstream, even when meaning being the one one with a pair of ICECREAM Reeboks, a lip ring, and a mohawk.
A 2000s revivalist with a deep love for different rock and Ksubi denim, Polo is infatuated with the fleeting nature of reminiscence. Flipping Y2K alt-rock classics just like the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” “places folks again to being a child once more,” as he explains. Polo Perks redefines angst, translating the sensation into web microgenres. Nonetheless, he doesn’t flip away from his drill roots, rapping concerning the chrome on his hip and the cough syrup in his cup. With a monotonous voice that attracts a sulky baritone, Polo Perks shines a colourful mild onto a style recognized for its dense, sliding basslines.
On the heels of AT LEAST WE TRIED with SURF GANG, Polo Perks sat down with Audiomack World to replicate on how far he’s come since their first official undertaking SGB, altering the fringes of web music, decentralizing rock music, and tweaking the sound of pattern drill as we all know it.
On avoiding rising up… I don’t watch a film if I didn’t see it as a child. My playlist of music, I don’t obtain something new. I’m nonetheless looking for songs I’ve seen on MTV or form of bear in mind the melody of on Fuse. I don’t seek for new music except it’s underground shit or stuff like that as a result of I’m fascinated by how mindlessly folks re-enact the identical factor.
On reminiscence and nostalgia… I’m not making music for at the moment’s folks. I’ve to go looking and discover [my audience] in bizarre, quirky, and witty methods. I take advantage of the straightforward truth of reminiscence to make it extra settling for folks to hearken to the music. I’ve bought a variety of songs that aren’t rock beats; they’re rap beats and I flip rock songs onto them in a bizarre means.
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On the affect of other music… After I first bought onto different music, I used to be residing in Connecticut and the inhabitants of Black folks in my city wasn’t actually that large on the time. Everybody wished to be Soulja Boy. I used to be like, “Fuck that shit. I’m attempting to be completely different.” I stored maintaining myself utterly separate and it was solely as a result of I had a special supply of tradition to have a look at.
On pattern drill… Sampling is part of the New York sound. Rising up, fucking with Max B and French Montana, each tune they did was a pattern, so I used to be already adjusted. Freestyling after I was first getting began could be to Max B beats or French Montana kind beats. Me and my brother, we at all times rapped on samples.
After I began moving into [Black] Kray, [Yung] Lean, BONES, and all them, I noticed how a lot BONES was utilizing these pulled rock-shits. Him and Greaf, they’d pull guitar strings from all these songs and make precise songs out of them. That’s what began getting me into, “Let me begin utilizing chopped-up rock-rap beats.” I began moving into that sound in 2014, 2015.
Behind closed doorways, I’ve been engaged on pattern flips since “Nyquil.” The very subsequent day I met up with Harrison and DeliverTheCrush and I flipped [A Day to Remember’s] “The Downfall Of Us All” and “Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too” by Say Something. I had a pair songs that have been low-key within the reduce of flipping rock shit, then I made “thetasteofink,” which is a flip of the Used. As soon as I bought into the jist of that, I used to be kinda like, “I’m not doing nothing else. Fuck that shit!”
On SURF GANG’s accomplishments… The accomplishment that got here with SURF GANG wasn’t with music—it was with life. A whole lot of the folks that have come to my exhibits up to now 12 months was once telling me to get a job. They’re taking a look at music shit prefer it’s one thing in-between.
Now, it’s means completely different. I went from being homeless in 2018, from sleeping on flooring and sleeping in vehicles to having two cribs, about to purchase my third crib. [Evil]Giane takes care of his entire total household. Harrison will get checked out in a different way as a result of the whole lot that’s occurring in music. Moh [Baretta] takes care of his entire household. It wasn’t about music in any respect, in anyway.
By Yousef Srour for Audiomack
