Brisbane's own curly-haired producer Sam Poggioli, aka Sampology, overwhelms his audience with incredibly vibrant visuals while performing live.
He has made a name for himself as Australia's leading audio-visual DJ by splicing film clips with song samples to make music that moves and entertains on the big screen. “I didn’t come from a video background at all. Current technology allowed me to take what I was doing with audio and juxtapose video with it. It was fun to find things from TV and films and construct a video mixtape. I jumped on the idea straight away even though I might not have had all the technical know how,” he laughs.
“I love the hip hop ethos of re-contextualising something. Reinventing is not my complete ethos, but it definitely is with my live visuals.”
Sam's live shows over the last couple years have showcased his technical brilliance. Where most DJs are focused on the audio, Sam is busy manipulating video through two turntables while triggering animations from a drum machine, projected live onto a screen, all the while smashing out his signature tunes.
He‘s also known for his jaw dropping reworks of some iconic classics and new releases. “It’s different every time I remix a song, I select it because I love listening to the song, so I want to change it up to be played in new situations where I couldn’t have played the original.
“There are other times where I will hear a song and I will like it so much that I won’t want to touch it. You want to keep the same spirit of the song, but give new life to it to shine in new situations — a nightclub or a festival.”
Sam’s entry into DJing first started aged 15. But when you ask about his most beloved album in his record collection, it’s clear that there is one, among all others that plays an important role in his musical direction. “A lot of people can relate to what I am saying when talking about listening to classic albums; around high school when you are into music and you reach this point where you find your identity, maybe through a specific artist or album. For me it would have to be The Avalanches album — ‘Since I Left You’; every time you listen to it you find a new angel.
“I wouldn’t expect someone in high school nowadays to listen to that album and have the same response that I had then. I think everyone, no matter what age, knows that when they hear something special they can always travel back to it.”
Having travelled the world extensively — from Germany to China to North America in the past year alone — Sam’s schedule has been rigorous. Late last year he ventured over to India searching the ancient city of Bangalore for vinyl made for cult Bollywood movies in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He also found time to put together a mini documentary that highlighted his experiences.
In between the constant touring and travel Sam has been working tirelessly in studios in Berlin and Los Angeles to splice together his latest single as well as possible tracks for an upcoming album. “I build my songs normally while I’m travelling. I had a couple days downtime in LA and managed to catch up with Daniel Merriweather who I knew through mutual friends. We had a coffee and I played him the track [‘Shine A Light’] as it was at that time. He was keen to record on it. I scrambled a studio together at The Mad Decent Studios, it all came together really nicely.”
For a DJ who exudes frenetic energy and an incredibly fast-paced approach to music and mixing, his own creations take a much more patient route, like the new single, ‘Shine A Light. “I got the core of the song started in Brisbane and worked with Hannah Macklin [MKO] who is a fantastic female vocalist to get the gospel/ choir sounds; I then met up with Daniel in LA to piece together the vocals before heading to Berlin to piece it all together.
"I like to take my time to let tracks evolve,” Sam explains further. “Not a solid date but hopefully the middle of next year I will have a full length [album] out.”
Sam will debut his new live show at Australia's largest music conference and showcase event, Bigsound. He will team up with some life long friends to produce a truly unique live experience. “My visual tour will be in November, hyping the new single. I feel really strongly about this track and I personally love it and will be celebrating it with a really cool visual show.
“For Bigsound, I will be putting together a new live show with Jordan Rakei on keys and vocals; Tom Thum on vocals and crazy looping; there will be a really cool custom component sitting behind us on screen — that will be a really special show, almost a one-off before I head over to the States.”
Sampology plays Falcona Bigsound Party at Oh Hello on 9th September, debuts his new live show at the Woolly Mammoth (previously Coniston Lane) on 11th September (11.30pm) as well as a DJ set at Purple Sneakers Bigsound party at TBC Club (formerly Bowler Bar, at 1am) on the same night, and then a DJ set at the Brisbane Festival’s Spiegeltent on 12th September.
