Pogo (musician)

Christopher Nicholas "Nick" Bertke (born 26 July 1988), better known by his stage name Pogo, which is symbolized by an icon of a rabbit, is a South African-born[4] Australian electronic musician. Much of his 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 genre also known as plunderphonics). A number of Pogo's works consist almost entirely of the sounds he samples, with few or no additional music or sound samples.[5]

Pogo
Birth nameChristopher Nicholas Bertke
Also known asPogo,[1] Fagottron[2]
Born (1988-07-26) 26 July 1988[3]
Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa[4]
OriginPerth, Cape Town, Cape Town
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Years active2005–present
Websitepogomix.net

Music

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).[6]

Bertke is best known for his use of video sampling to produce music videos, which he uploads on the video-sharing website YouTube.[7] 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 30 million views.[7] 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.[8] On 29 September 2016, Pogo released a song called "Trumpular" on SoundCloud which consisted of quotes from Republican nominee, and later President, Donald Trump.[9] Later, in 2019, he made a music video called "Homarge", based on The Simpsons (mostly from the episode "Simpson and Delilah"), which gained over a million views. On August 27, 2021, Pogo released a remix called "Strangerous", taking voices and sounds from Stranger Things, which has become Pogo's second most viewed on SoundCloud, and on November 5, 2021, he released "Cabin Fever", which samples Muppet Treasure Island.

Pogo's music is used on the conservative YouTube talk show Louder with Crowder, hosted by Steven Crowder, and is used as bumper music to transition in and out of commercial breaks.[10]

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 was prohibited from re-entering the United States until 2021.[11][12]

In January 2020, Pogo's YouTube channel was hacked and hijacked by an unknown user, who renamed the channel "Ethereum 2.0 Foundation" and deleted all the videos on the channel. The hacker then started a scam livestream promoting Ethereum cryptocurrency, and claiming that any amount of crypto sent to them during the stream would be multiplied and sent back. Pogo took to Twitter to let fans know that he was aware of the hack and has contacted YouTube for help.[13] The hacked channel was terminated by YouTube on January 17,[14] and Pogo remained without a channel for four days while fans created accounts hosting temporary re-uploads of his videos and music. On January 22, YouTube restored the account, including his view counts, subscribers, and comments sections.[15]

Controversies

Bertke was criticized for a 2015 video that derided feminists as gold diggers and "making misogynist arguments against women's rights".[16] He later claimed that it was made "to impersonate the radical right".[17]

In a YouTube livestream that was uploaded in 2016, Bertke stated that he has a "fairly robust resentment of the gay community".[18] In the same video and 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".[19][20] Bertke later claimed to not have any hate for the gay community and also claimed Asperger syndrome and bipolar disorder as contributing factors.[21] He stated that the video was made in bad taste and that he never intended for it to go public,[21] 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.[22] YourEDM compared his "homophobic rhetoric" to the 2015 video, which he similarly tried to explain as a social experiment.[17] Writing for The Verge, Megan Farokhmanesh saw this explanation as a transparent attempt at plausible deniability.[16]

Discography

Albums
  • Texturebox (release date: 30 December 2010)
  • Wonderpuff (release date: 27 June 2011)
  • Forgotten Fudge (release date: 2 November 2013)
  • Star Charts (release date: 22 December 2014)
  • Kindred Shadow (release date: 11 June 2015)
  • Weightless (release date: 30 December 2016)
  • Ascend (release date: 22 February 2018)
  • Quantum Field (release date: 29 December 2018)
  • Valley of Shadow (release date: 4 March 2020)
  • Cultures (release date: 28 December 2020)
  • Cosmoluxe (release date: 7 January 2022)

EPs
  • Wonderland (release date: 28 May 2007)
  • Broken Beats (release year: 2008)
  • Table Scraps (release year: 2008)
  • Weave and Wish (release date: 22 March 2009)
  • Deeper Down the Rabbit Hole (release date: 30 November 2010)
  • Fluctuate (release date: 5 January 2014)
  • Perfect Chaos (release date: 21 May 2014)
  • Younghood (release date: 8 June 2014)
  • Unity (release date: 18 February 2020)

See also

References
  1. "Pogo's 'Pulp Fiction' Remix". Huffingtonpost.com. 21 June 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  2. "Disney musician Pogo celebrated Pulse massacre because he 'hates faggots'". Pinknews.com. 1 June 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  3. Pogo interview on ComfortComes.com, archived from the original on 3 March 2016, retrieved 11 May 2010
  4. Pogo Interview on BrainsQuestionmark.com, archived from the original on 26 February 2012, retrieved 11 May 2010
  5. "Nick Bertke : The Story of Pogo and His Ideas of Music". SVANAPAPER. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  6. Emami, Gazelle (6 December 2011). "'Kadinchey': Pogo's Latest Remix Mashes Up Bhutan (VIDEO)". HuffPost. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  7. 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.
  8. Smith, Roberta (21 October 2010). "The Home Video Rises to Museum Grade". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  9. 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.
  10. https://www.facebook.com/stevencrowderofficial/posts/im-constantly-asked-who-does-the-music-for-some-of-our-bumps-its-pogo-a-musical-/10154476782121163/
  11. "Australian Producer Pogo Arrested". Archived from the original on 30 November 2011.
  12. "Aussie music producer jailed, banned from US". NewsComAu. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  13. Hill, Elliot (15 January 2020). "YouTube channel Pogo hijacked to promote crypto scam". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  14. "Channel gone now!". Reddit.com. 16 January 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  15. @officialpogo (22 January 2020). "Register" (Tweet). Retrieved 18 August 2022 – via Twitter.
  16. Farokhmanesh, Megan (1 June 2018). "Disney remixer Pogo can't walk back his homophobic comments on YouTube". Theverge.com. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  17. Meadow, Matthew (31 May 2018). "Electronic Producer Under Fire For Disgusting Homophobic Comments [WATCH]". Youredm.com. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  18. "Why I called my channel Fagottron". 2 May 2018. Archived from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018 – via YouTube.
  19. Farrell, Paul (31 May 2018). "Pogo aka Nick Bertke: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
  20. Riley, John (31 May 2018). "Video emerges of Australian EDM musician Pogo explaining how he hates gays". Metroweekly.com. Metro Weekly. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  21. "Nick Bertke apologises for offensive video and shares he is bi-curious | OUTInPerth – LGBTIQ News and Culture". Outinperth.com. June 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
  22. "Nick Bertke: Twitter Reacts As EDM Star 'Pogo' Fist-Pumps Over Pulse Massacre, Calls Gay People 'Disgusting'". Inquisitr.com. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2018.
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