Jun 19

Pôngo: "Today the music market is experiencing a phase of continuous acceleration"

Pôngo is the electronic music project and live act of Giovanni and Daniele Bruni, two brothers and composers born and based in italy. Their strong influences blending electro, soul and techno have created this new way to approach the electronic music scene, with the combination of evocative songs and a powerfully refined set.

Your recent EP on UPPERGROUND, ARTBAT's label, has garnered a lot of attention. Can you tell us about the creative process behind this project and how the collaboration with UPPERGROUND came about?

Our production process is always aimed at enhancing our live performances. Each track we release is a piece of the puzzle that makes up our live show. When we rehearse, if we feel the need to add a more dub instrumental track or one with vocal parts, we stop and start producing it. Normally, we work in two separate studios: I (Giovanni) follow a more creative flow, developing many vocal and melodic ideas, while Daniele, my brother, is a great beatmaker and arranger. Over the years, we've learned how to work together as a team.

Our relationship with UPPERGROUND started with a friendship with ARTBAT back in 2017, the year they remixed our single "Lose My Mind" released on Connected, Stereo Mc’s label. At the end of last summer, just days after our performance at Decibel Open Air 2013, we posted a series of unreleased videos of us playing "Rotowash" and "Believe." Batish contacted us shortly after, being very impressed by the tracks, and from there, we decided to sign them with UPPERGROUND.

You are currently performing all over the world. How has the international audience reacted to your music, and which performance has left the most memorable impression on you so far?

There are places like festivals where a project like Pôngo can give and receive the most from the audience. At many festivals, unlike clubs, the crowd is a mix of people who are more open at that moment to experiencing a 360° event, not just listening to a single genre or artist. Pôngo's live show is much like a festival audience, a mix of various sub-genres of electronic music that we believe can intrigue not just fans of a specific genre.

If we have to remember some of our most cherished performances, I would definitely put on the podium our first live show in the summer of 2016 at Tini Soundgarden with Tale of Us, the opening of Blue Marlin in Dubai in 2019 before the pandemic, and the last edition of Decibel Open Air in Italy.

Your musical style is very distinctive. What are your main influences, and how do you manage to incorporate unique elements into your tracks to keep your sound fresh?

I believe Pôngo is a mix of many musical genres that have always been part of my life and Daniele's. Hip hop, electro, and black music at 360° have always been my roots. Daniele has much more rock influences, having been a singer and bassist in various projects when he was younger. Electronic music entered our lives thanks to MTV in the early 2000s and an adolescence spent in Tuscany, where we still live, a land with a rich clubbing culture since the '90s.

Listening to a lot of music, even from different genres, helps us as producers to always be stimulated by new sounds. Curiosity is definitely a winning weapon for finding new skills in the studio and alternative ways of expressing an emotion in a track. But I also believe it's necessary to learn to take risks, stepping out of the patterns that everyone is used to, to return to a different and original sound. It doesn't necessarily come on the first try, maybe not even the second, but that's always been the right path for us.

The music industry is constantly evolving. How do you see the future of electronic music, and what strategies are you adopting to stay relevant and innovative in such a dynamic landscape?

Today the music market is experiencing a phase of continuous acceleration, where major platforms like Spotify and iTunes offer such a vast catalog of tracks that it's often difficult to know what and who to listen to. This won't change in the short term, so we have to adapt. If 4-5 years ago it was common to release an EP of 4-5 tracks every 3-4 months, today's trend is more about producing EPs with 2 tracks or singles every month and a half. Being open to collaborating with other artists for remixes, features, is definitely another good way to get noticed on multiple fronts.

What can your fans expect in the coming months? Do you have any new projects, collaborations, or tours planned that you can give us a sneak peek into?

There will be several collaborations in 2024 with artists we greatly admire, with whom we are working on completing some very interesting projects. We also have other EPs scheduled and others we are finishing for the second half of the year. We are eager to perform all this new music in the coming months and hope to be on tour in new cities where we haven't been yet.