Sampology on his new Ep ‘Mt Glorious’

Sampology, aka Sam Poggioli, has just released the title track to his new EP Mt Glorious and it’s a catchy collection of beats and field recordings that have been melded into fabulous tunes.

The EP is out in early August. We’ve had a listen to it and instantly fallen in love with Sampology’s newest offering. He’s playing  alive show at Jack Rabbit Slims on Saturday night which will feature some stunning visuals he’s created to match his music.

Graeme Watson chatted to Sampology from his home studio in Brisbane ahead of his show this weekend, where he was running through tracks and tweaking visuals.

When you haven’t been out playing live for a while, how does it feel to be getting ready to head out on the road?

It feels good! I’ve done some DJ shows and had a few support spots at the start of this year, but it cool to add lots of new bits.

I’ve had a listen through your new EP, it’s a great record I can’t wait to share it with everybody. 

We’ll be announcing the full track listing in a few weeks and the pre-sale for the vinyl. I’ve just done the artwork for the vinyl and it’s getting pressed and put together at the moment.

What was it like putting these tracks together, where did the journey begin?

It was kind of like going backwards and forwards at the same time. It’s a bit like going back to what I was doing when I first started making records, sampling and getting all kinds of tones and colours and then putting everything back together.

That’s what I was doing when I first started making music as a teenager, then I started getting into making more electronic music and which is bit more in a computer. One thing that has influenced me a lot in coming back to my roots a little bit, is that over the last couple years I’ve been doing a lot more work as a recording engineering in Brisbane with live musicians and vocalists. Actually pointing microphones and whole bands and all of that kind of stuff.

In that process I’ve built up my own library of sounds and recordings of me playing instruments, and I’ve sampled these. There’s only one track that has a vinyl sample on it. The rest is all recordings I’ve done in my home studio.

I have a friend who is a conductor at the Australian Voices Choir, I did him a favour for him –  recording his group, and in return  they sung some material for me. It’s all live instruments like Piano and Glockenspiel .

You also got out among nature for this as well, and incorporated field recordings of birds and nature into the work.

Mt Glorious in the hinterland south of Brisbane. Its a national forest, and I’d just been there for the first time. I’ve lived in Brisbane my whole life.

A couple of days after coming back from recording some vision with Tom Thumb, and recording some audio. I was just making music randomly with no real purpose I had a drum machine and a piano and that track just came together really fast. There was kind of a mood to it, it was different to what I’ve made before and I think that the trip informed it, so I named it Mt Glorious.

There is an image of electronic artists, that they’re stuck in their bedroom studios making music and not seeing daylight.

I have to pull myself away and remind myself that there’s nature out there. I need to remind myself that there is inspiration to be found outside. It is a reality, but I’ve been trying to get out a fair bit more.

There’s a mix of sounds on this EP, at times it’s a little jazzy, it has some funky moments. Does that diversity reflect your musical tastes?

Definitely,  when I get asked about influences, there are definite key genres influences for me. One of the biggest things for me was I used to work in a record store, I worked there for four years. It sold new music, but it was mostly second-hand vinyl. That was my biggest musical education.

I was working five or six days a week and I’d get an employee discount, but I was still spending my whole pay check on buying records. I wasn’t really walking away with anything. I think the DJ gigs on the weekend were paying my rent.

You also create the artwork for your music. Is that something you’ve always done?

No, not at all. My Mum’s an artist and my Dad’s a musician. My Mum did the cover for my last release Natural Selections which was her recreation of an early 20th century French painter. I’d use the archive of her 40 years of painting, prints and linocuts. Now I’m using a lot of my own stuff, so I basically had to fire her – sorry Mum.

I’m currently to looking at a mock-up of the cover for the vinyl release, we’ve put it up on the shelf and it looks very colourful. So this year and heading into next year all the artwork will be in my own hand drawn style, and you’ll see it in live show too. The live show has lots of animation and hand drawn art and little bits of film that go along with the tracks.

Sampology is playing at Jack Rabbit Slims on Saturday 23rd June. Tickets are available from Ticketbooth.

Graeme Watson


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