We got to know 19-year old producer pluko earlier this year when he counted down his Top 10 albums for us. His list was one of the first I’ve seen that included artists I’d never heard of.
I was immediately interested to know more about him. How does someone so young and relatively new to the scene radiate pop star energy the way this guy does?
We decided to delve a little further with pluko and discussed his new album, collaborations, and positivity:
TC: How did you first get into making electronic music?
P: “I started when I was about 14 or 15. I was a fan of electronic music and, specifically, a fan of the new wave of future bass kind of stuff. I noticed that the people making the music weren’t that much older than me, so I thought I’d try it myself. I quickly became obsessed with making music and really fell in love with it!”
TC: You seem to draw influence from a lot of different sub-genres. How do you classify your music?
P: “This question is super difficul. As far as defining what genre my music falls into, I think it’s just a collection of the music that I love most. Obviously there is a lot of bass and electronic influences but there are also a lot of alternative and hip-hop influences. My best description of the music I make would be alternative electronic bass music, I guess. I really do love bass and trap and that whole scene too. It’s tricky to describe but I have a very mixed pot of influences!”
TC: What’s the significance of the title of the new record, COLOR BLIND?
P: “So I’m actually partially color blind. When I was in the middle of writing the record, I had no idea what to call it. I had been thinking about it for weeks and then, when I was on a plane one day, I woke up and just had the words ‘color blind’ in my head. I woke up, typed it, saw how it looked, and I thought it looked really cool. As soon as I landed I texted my manager and he was like “yeah, dude, that’s it, let’s do it.” There’s also a deeper meaning in the album, like being blind to the stuff surrounding you and just being in the moment with the music. I really want people to find their own meaning within the album.”
TC: I’m familiar with Nate Traveller from his collaborations with Brendan Bennett. How did you end up linking with Nate?
P: “My manager introduced me to Nate through one of his friends who had just signed him. I listened to his demos and I really fell in love with his voice. When I was in LA we got together in the studio for two days and went back and forth with ideas. He is such an amazing person and has such a fun energy. We got along really well and now we text all the time and are even working on some new music together for his projects!”
TC: Your music seems to have a relatively positive feel to it. What do you think contributes to that vibe?
P: “I think I’m just a relatively positive person! I like to think of everything in as positive a mindset as possible. I’m a glass half full kind of person. When you’re young it seems like you have all this time, but time moves fast and I want to make sure I don’t spend it being negative. I think my music reflects who I am as a person. It’s mostly positive but I do have a few sad songs. Everybody feels sad sometimes and you can’t pretend those emotions aren’t there. I just try to stay true to myself.”
TC: You got to do some great collabs this time around. Who else would you like to work with in the future?
P: “My dream collaboration would be Vampire Weekend or Tame Impala. More realistically, Amine or Ryan Trey, a really great up and coming hip-hop artist. I’d love to also work with Jai Paul or Frank Ocean.”
TC: Can you tell me a little about Splendid Society?
P: “Splendid Society is a clothing line/clothing brand as well as a label and a creative collective. My friends and I came up with the name ‘Splendid Society’ a long time ago and we had a vision of it being a collective for creatives and clothing. We wanted to influence the fashion world as positively as possible by making stuff that’s cool and affordable and not the in-your-face streetwear stuff. It definitely started with just clothing, but then as I started to release music independently, I decided I wanted to use that name for that as well. I’d love for Splendid Society to become a label eventually. I mean, technically it kind of is already, but I’d love to sign some artists in the future.”
TC: How do you harness your creativity?
P: ” I think I’m always getting more creative. I’m always reading more books, watching more movies, and listening to more music. I like to make sure that I’m always getting as inspired as possible. There was a moment recently that I had a lack of creative juices, but I quickly snapped out of it. Now I’ve really picked up my creative flow and the good vibes are rolling in!”
TC: Are there any other genres you would like to explore in your career?
P: “Definitely alternative music. I’d also love to start writing more house music as I think that would be fun. Producing for hip-hop artists is also a goal of mine. I’ve been focusing a lot on the pluko stuff but there are a lot of other genres of music that I would like to journey into!”
Listen to pluko’s new album, COLOR BLIND, below:
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