More magic from down under: Pogo's 'Upular'

So here's what I know about Pogo. His name is Nick Bertke, he's 21, was born in Cape Town, but now lives in Perth in Western Australia. He first started making music when he was 12, using the Playstation game ‘Music 2000′ before moving up to samplers and sequencers. His first released track was released a composition of sounds from Disney's Alice in Wonderland. He told the Perth film blog Brains?:

Alice began life as a product of my hobby and free-time. It existed only on my iPod, and the only person who ever listened to it was myself on my bus trips to Perth and back, long before I even considered making a video for it. I could listen to it over and over again without becoming bored or irritated. I enjoyed listening to a lot, and I think the ability to do that is critical for any composer.

He released it on You Tube in early 2009 and got 4 million hits. He followed it with songs composed from scraps of ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘The Sword In The Stone’, ‘Hook’, ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’, and now ‘Up’ which is the first produced in collaboration with the studio in question, Pixar.

Because I compose my tracks using sounds that I record from various sources, it’s very rare that I have something in mind to begin with. This is why it’s critical to find sounds that I love individually. I don’t think it’s sufficient to just find sounds that I deem usable, like a single note, or a distinct chord. They have to be sounds that I really like and find inspiring. I think that’s what sampling is all about – hearing something you love, no matter how short, and forming it into something bigger, more inspiring and more enjoyable. In the case of sampling from a single film, it’s about capturing what I love about that film as well.

This man is going to be a star.