Pogo

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I cringe at the beats on the radio today. They honestly bore me to bits. What was once a keen sense of rhythm in the mid to late 90s, is now a deftness that barely differantiates between a kick and hi-hat. Mainstream music has filed the blade of rhythm down to a nub. To better illustrate my point, I’ve created the following beats from scratch.

It seems mainstream music is getting more monotonous and mechanical by the day. There are some fields in which I enjoy minimalism and linearity, like the design of my mid 2010 matte Mac Book Pro for example, but music and rhythm needs angles, crannies, textures and jive. It communicates directly with our emotions – we aren’t machines. We’re beings that crave zest, funk and soul. This mechanical DUM, DSH, DUM, DSH crap with auto-tuned vocals makes me physically ill.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBFcJxA3Sbw

There’s a lot of speculation over the tracks I’m playing in this video. It’s footage from one of my first small-time gigs in Perth, West Australia. To quench everyone’s curiosity, the additional video content is from VJZoo live, and I’ve written a full track listing below including the sources I sampled from.

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At last, I’ve decided on a logo for myself. Graphic designer Tymn Armstrong took my bunny design and simplified it to create the Space Bunny. This image is actually very clever. If we imagine the ears as eyes, the head as a nose, and the visor as a highlight, we begin to see the face of the one and only Mickey Mouse, the signature character of the corporation from whose films several of my tracks have derived. Ingenious.

Many thanks to Mr. Armstrong for his creative work.
http://www.tymnarmstrong.com/

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Watch ‘Toyz Noize’ and ‘Buzzwing’ on YouTube!

At long last, my Toy Story tracks are out there getting some sunshine. It bowls me over how fast my videos  collect views. In just two days, ‘Toyz Noize’ already had half the crowd of ‘Gardyn’ tuning in. Disney Pixar has also posted the videos to their channel, slapping on some paid advertisement and featured promotion on the YouTube home page. I’m excited. Working passionately within corporate restrictions has proven to be disfunctional at times, but if there’s one thing I’m grateful for, it’s the fact Disney is fixing a medal to my jacket instead of tacking a subpoena to my forehead. It seems the mouse has a merciful side.

Production

The production of ‘Toyz Noize’ had me burried away in my hermit-cave for a good month or so. I spent many hours scanning through ‘Toy Story’ for syllables, sound effects, chords, passages – anything that made my ears prick. I produced several sections that I ended up binning, including an awkward section of John Lasseter rapping about the success of the film. The structure of the track changed enormously over time. At one stage, the track began with a darker version of Woody’s rap. At another stage, it was Randy Newman’s mix that finished the track off.

‘Toyz Noize’ starts off with a loop of the beep sequence that plays when Buzz presses his voice button to impress his new friends. We then hear a brief fade-in of his respiratory system in reverse before the track kicks off. The kick drum is Woody’s magic 8-ball hitting the floor behind Andy’s desk. The percussion comprises sounds of Buzz’s helmet and wings, Slinky’s spring and a few other toy sounds from around Andy’s room. In the first section leading up to Randy Newman’s mix, I used the “bobbing” of the orchestra that plays during the opening jib shot of the film, accompanied by my own bass to gives it some extra definition. All of the chords and passages throughout ‘Toyz Noize’ are recorded from the film, the longest of which is the string détaché that loops as Woody tries to cheer up his fallen space ranger during the breaks. All in all, I recorded a total of 206 sounds from the film.

‘Buzzwing’

‘Buzzwing’ was a side-project I developed when I wasn’t bent over at the grindstone. Composing freely in my spare time is like a breath of fresh air – investing my creative energy into a commissioned project with a deadline can often be a very different experience. ‘Buzzwing’ bored into my head very quickly. I found myself listening to it more and more, particularly at times when my levels of happiness and optimism were sagging. I found it emotionally fortifying for lack of a better description, so I decided to submit it to Disney along with my major project. I’m surprised to hear that some people actually prefer ‘Buzzwing’ to ‘Toyz Noize’.

Legal Issues

A few days before the fruits of my labour hit the web, Disney Legal hit the brakes with a last-minute issue that needed resolving. Any shots featuring the pink-haired troll doll had to be removed. Apparently, the rights to display this particular toy in my video could not be obtained in the two months I gave them to clear the video for release. The troll appeared in several shots throughout Andy’s playtime sequence, and I spent just over half an hour finding suitable replacements at the last minute. I feel the sequence is compromised as a result, but hopefully that’s just the perfectionist in me. The mouse also warned me that the Tinker Toys microphone that Woody holds throughout his rapping sequence might be off limits as well, but thankfully this was not the case in the end. What I would have done without MC Woody I’ll never know.

Logo Design

The logos for each track are my own works as well. For ‘Toyz Noize’, I spent two hours drawing a Z to perfection and enlarging the red box to make way for the word ‘Noize’. The challenge was not just to employ the same design characteristics like angles and shadows, but to design and position a new letter so as not to stand out. I’m still not sure if the Z should be of equal height to the O or taller than the Y, but overall, I’m quite happy. The ‘Buzzwing’ logo is a complete custom job inspired by the colors and lettering I saw on the front of a magazine that Rex finds at Al’s Toy Barn in Toy Story 2.

The Future

I thoroughly enjoy listening to ‘Toyz Noize’ and ‘Buzzwing’, and I hope they go on to excite and inspire people as they do me. Some MP3′s from the mouse would certainly meet popular demand, but hey, even ‘Upular’ remains an ornament for who knows how much longer. Thank you for your amazing support, everyone, and keep tuning in for more tracks in the near future!

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Watch ‘Gardyn’ On YouTube

Grab The MP3
10438 Clicks

Gardyn is a gift to my mother, a track made of sounds that I recorded around her garden. The track also features harmonic syllables of her voice. I shot the video myself over a number of days after a refreshing trip to New York. Gardyn marks the first time I’ve ever mixed the real world, and I hope it won’t be the last.

The word ‘Gardyn’ is middle English. I wanted to name the track something real, but at the same time, I wanted it to be easy to find. Other names I considered were ‘Bluomo’ which is Latin for blossom, and simply ‘The Garden’ which I felt was terribly lazy and unappealing.

I pulled my mother outside one afternoon to interview her. I didn’t explain what it was for, but I’ve always been a very experimental chap, so this was nothing too out of the ordinary. For 10 minutes, I got her to tell me about her passion for gardening and her relationship with God.

With the vocal samples I needed, I ran around her property filming sights and sounds that I would later splice together with her voice to make music.  I wanted to capture the textures and materials. I’ve been a chronic rhythm tapper for as long as I can remember – always dropping beats on anything that sounds good. Doing this throughout the video made a lot of sense.

I spent a good three weeks painting with these sounds before I could call this creation a solid track. I was nervous about releasing it – I didn’t want people to think I was moving away from films. ‘Gardyn’ was the first real-world Pogo mix I released, and I had no idea how everyone would react.

Mother’s Day finally arrived, and ‘Gardyn’ gained a startling 100,000 views on YouTube in its first week.

I was in bed one night when this idea first struck me. I suddenly saw myself sitting with red Indian tribes, African tribes, visiting Shaolin monk monestries, traipsing through Egyptian markets – all the way making Pogo mixes out of my experiences. What better way for me to see the world? I could find no flaw with this idea other than the fact I’d have to seek funding that doesn’t entail deadlines and the advertising of some product or service. That would be the biggest challenge. It’s like everyone always says, start small and climb the ladder.

Filming and mixing my mother’s garden was a great experience. Mixing films will always be a passion of mine, but it’s certainly exciting to imagine running around the world with a camera, microphone and laptop. Now whenever I hear sounds and voices around me, my brain starts ticking!

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Hmm. I wonder if my music should really become a career. It seemed like a brilliant idea at first, but I think there’s a negative side to this that I’ve overlooked until now.

Since I started making music for money, I seem to have become less interested in making music for myself. As demands fly in and clients slap me with ridiculous deadlines, I’m starting to treat my music like more of a chore than a hobby. This is probably why you’re seeing less from me these days.

I know what you’re thinking, “you’re profiting from your music, you should be proud!” The thing is, once you start working for somebody else, you’re doing exactly that. I’m given a film to work on and a specific (usually minimal) amount of time to produce a track and video. Doesn’t matter if the film sucks. I’m getting paid so I need to make it work. This is usually the point where whatever passion I once had flushes right down the toilet.

This is how business and art collides. Again, I’m not sure if I should be mixing them together. They’re two forces of very different natures. I didn’t wake up one day and think “Right, I’m going to start a track called Alice and it’s going to land several million views around the web”. I sat down on my own time with my own enthusiasm, and happened to be in the right zone at the right time.

Making a stellar track is like having a conversation with a stranger, sometimes it merrily rolls along, other times it’s like pushing a square wheel up hill. When I’m making music out of my own passion and the juices go down, I just bid it a farewell and catch up with it next time. However, when I’ve got a deadline next Monday and a giant investor expecting gold, I need to get cracking. Ever tried continuing a dead conversation with a stranger? That’s right, it doesn’t get better.

So I say again, hmm! I’m not sure where things are going right now. I fear one day I’ll have to make a choice. Do I sell my passion for money? Do I stay at home and keep panning the gold? Time will tell.

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I’m often asked how I came about the name Pogo. I’m generally useless at explaining things on the fly, but when I put pen to paper, it’s like I’ve swapped brains with a real intellectual. Here goes!

When I wasn’t impersonating Jim Carrey or Robin Williams as a hyperactive child at school, I was tossing my school work aside to draw comic strips instead. I was fascinated by story telling and loved getting my friends to laugh, and I found myself with an emerging ability to express myself by drawing my own cartoon characters. I weighed the idea of becoming a mathematician or scholar with becoming a creative artist, and at 10 years old, the choice was already a no-brainer. Strike 3 for the education system.

(Above) Some early sketches exploring the shapes of Pogos.

One day during a math test, I began sketching balls with big round eyes. Next, I gave them little arms and feet. I colored them a cadmium yellow to represent what they were made of, ‘squatch’, a dry, flexible goo that allowed them to suck in their appendages and roll around at super speeds. I thought it would be novel if they could change shape for advantages in combat, like forming a ring to escape an array of bullets, or spreading out like paper to smother their foes.

Finally, for reasons I can’t remember and I doubt I ever had, I gave these monsters a name. Pogos.

(Above) Vector traces of drawings I made in my school books.

Months went by, more and more school books filled up with comics and drawings, and after finally discovering my sound in the music scene, it was time for me to give myself a name before uploading my tracks to websites like Acid Planet and Number One Music. Looking through my comic strips one day, it took me a matter of seconds to decide on the alias that everyone knows me by today.

(Above) Assortment of doodles, featuring the concept of a Pogo transport unit.

(Above) Acquirable abilities in a ‘Pogos’ video game.

I wish I could say there is some elaborate, inspiring meaning behind my name as a producer, but really there’s no connection to it other than these little yellow critters that took residence in my mind one day at school. It’s short, catchy, and sure, has some kind of association with rhythm if you seriously want to go that far.

And there you have it! The hype to actuality ratio isn’t very impressive, but I hope I’ve helped quench everyone’s curiosity. Thanks for reading!

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Trust
4356 Clicks

For Two
2107 Clicks

Morning Walk
1934 Clicks

Kippo’s Beach Party
1745 Clicks

Kippo’s Celtic Hop
1756 Clicks

Kippo Opens For Business
1561 Clicks

Kippo Misses His Girl
2279 Clicks

Some of you may have discovered my Kippo albums on my old artist page at Last.fm. Kippo The Sailor is a character I designed a few years ago, and around whom I composed a number of children’s tracks.

Kippo is a star that’s fallen from the sky and needs to make friends on Earth in order to get back home. The three albums I made comprise tracks that each depict one of his experiences or adventures. I suppose one writes what one knows – these tracks really represent experiences of my own that I wrapped up in the fantasy worlds of my imagination. They were a lot of fun to make despite their simplistic sound. Making them was kind of like paving pathways to the worlds in my mind. Listening to them was a very colorful, rewarding escape from the troubles of reality.

I’ve often contemplated making a CG short film to help pitch the idea to everyone. I did nothing but draw comic strips as a child, and given my extensive experience with Maya, I could certainly pull off a quality production. The only obstacle is time. I don’t have much of it in between current projects.

Like the world of Pogos, Kippo is a creation of mine that has always stood out in my head. He’s small, pudgy, and I think it’s quite novel that he’s a lost star stuck on an inhibiting planet whose brightness represents his emotion. I don’t know why, but I’ve always felt Kippo is a great character with whom I can educate and connect with the world. As a newcomer to planet Earth, Kippo could bring into perspective the very real issues we face today. Defining beauty in a plastic society, finding one’s self in a dogmatic ‘one size fits all’ education system, the loss of originality with a ubiquitous desire to conform, etc.

That, and Kippo just feels like a show I’d want to watch.

I’ve always pictured a Kippo series as having an inconspicuous focus on real issues, coated with a sneaky sense of humour, and wrapped in a thick layer of cute, colorful, warm cudliness. I wouldn’t be at all opposed to having Kippo get humourously drunk off his chops at an Irish pub after a fight with his girlfriend if it means reaching out to people in similar situations.

In March at the Union League Club in New York, I was honoured to give a 15 minute talk as part of the OnCopyright 2010 conference held by Bill Burger. My jetlag was at its worst and I was shaking about like an old laundry machine, but even so, I’m happy with how it went, and I managed to see a great deal of New York before crunch time.

The Union League building sits majestically on the corner of Park Avenue and East 37th street. The interior was even more impressive - I’d estimate at least 80% of it was either wood or marble. I suddenly felt very important, and the next day, I certainly looked it. I had to rock up in business attire. I must have been the flyest looking DJ in the city. It was ammusing for a little while, but after that, it just reminded me that I don’t belong in the business world. I felt very much not myself. It was as if someone had held a mirror in front of me and said “Nick, you’re not happy with your desk job. Get the hell out of it.” On the up side, I’m sure my appearance only aided my speech and what I had to say about today’s music industry.

The conference went exceptionally well. Throughout my talk, I played excerpts from some of my most successful tracks. In proving my point that music is a vessel for evolving ideas and emotions, I also played some of HomeStarRunnerTron‘s ‘Upular Tribute’ and the ‘Alohomora Drum Cover’ from SevenBlueSkies. Both videos were very well received, and helped demonstrate that remix culture is all about interpretation, not theft. It seemed my work was a hot topic throughout the proceeding panel discussions, and there was no questioning that what I’ve created here is helping to shine a new light on the collision between music and copyright.

I’m very proud to have spoken for today’s remix culture. I’m happy to report that the general consensus across the panels was that this is more an ethical issue than a legal one. While no definitive conclusions or solutions were reached, the conference did provide an essential voice for some very interesting and diverse opinions from lawyers, entrepreneurs and artists alike. Many thanks to Bill Burger for putting together such a successful, educational and entertaining event. Indeed, the collision of ideas is a topic that must be discussed.

OnCopyright 2010 @ Flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/oncopyright2008/