I can remember listening to a remix of Felix Da Housecats 'Kickrdum' a few years back when I started out producing, it was completely different to all the music I listened to at the time and yet I couldn't stop listening to it. This was one of those 'I got to make this stuff' moments that made me run to the studio. Off course the creator this remix was Polymath. The Invernessian DJ/Producer has come on a lot further since then to become part of the backbone of the Inverness scene.. in fact hes gone a lot further, receiving plays from Wolfgang Gartner, Don Rimini, NT89, Punks Jump Up and many a like, also becoming a favorite of Kissy Sell Out with his tracks being played almost weekly on his Radio 1 show! His tracks are a fusion of glitch disco to electro acid making them very popular with DJs who know how to get people on the dancefloor. So when it came to names I could ask for our 'Introducing' interview, it was obvious Polymath was a must. Challenge accepted now shoot..
Q: If you had to describe your sound without saying what it is what would you describe it as?
Something with depth, a colourful personality, lots of extreme editing and maybe a little sense of humour thrown in there too, and bass, lots of that.
Q: If people come to see you dj what sound should they expect to hear?
Hopefully a lot of stuff they havent heard before, i like to mix it up quite a lot and my sets and i play stuff from plain old house music to some of the biggest techno bombs you can find, i also like to get a bit silly and throw a few curveballs in from time to time, my #1 curveball party tune at the moment is Duran duran - Girls on film (Richmanu carnival rework) it works everytime and even mixes well with Green velvets timeless classic La la land, found that mix out by accident at a recent gig in glasgow, was an amazing surprise to me that 2 very different tunes like that worked together.
Q: What was the first track that got you into electronic music?
Not an indivual track but probably The Prodigys very first and still best album 'Experience' Naturally moved on to more 4/4 stuff after and went from hardhouse to techno to electroclash and then to really whats shaping my sound at the moment, having 2 older brothers helped shape a lot of my musical inspirations.
Q: What is your production setup?
Nothing too fancy here and it usually surprises a lot of people but all i use is my laptop with FL Studio 9 & Ableton 7 for everything, of course aswell theres a lot of great vsts i use too, my current favourite at the moment is D-16 Phoscyon, its like a Roland TB-303 emulator but with a lot more to it, so good for getting those liquidyacid basslines, i have also gone back to a lot of the basic vsts that come with FL Studio, mainly because of they're ease of use and the fun factor.Im also finally getting my finger on the whole sound of my tracks with my own mastering, before i used to stick about 5 multiband compressors on my master channel but now i only use one if i can help it and that only goes on my kickdrums, from now on im going to try and master all my own tracks myself, when i was supporting Kissy sellout last month in Glasgow an amazing thing he said to me was that i can get the whole sound of my tracks absolutely spot on and pretty much said i should master myself as thats what he does, always great to hear that from an established producer and dj like Kissy, very overwhelming.
Q: What is your dj setup?
I can use any dj setup naturally from learning on those things called turntables, they seem a bit out of the loop at the moment but usually when it comes to it i just use a standard Pioneer Cdj and mixer setup, i would really like to get into the whole traktor/serato movement and use 1210s for all my sets but at the moment i dont have the luxury of having a laptop to take to gigs and my only laptop i use to make all my music on so naturally im terrified to take it into a club, especially some of the horror storys i hear about laptops in clubs, hopefully one day though.
Q: What is the best night you have ever played and why?
Hmm, there has been a lot of great nights i have played at in the last year its really hard for me to put my finger on one, although cake has given me a lot of great nights since it opened as a dj and a punter and of course just recently when we had Ado up for our clubnight' not that long ago was a good one, what i like about our night is the solid music flow, i think me and Mykol Blyth who i run the night with made and excellent decision choosing our residents Boomshank redemption and Abraham Thunderwolf as they know how to work the crowd really well and of course they boast the coolest dj names in Inverness.
Q: What are your views on the Inverness music scene (specifically electronic music)
If you asked me this a year ago you might have gotten one major epic rant but the scene in Inverness is getting a lot better and i think it goes down mostly to Cake being there, at first when it opened a lot of people were quick to slate it which baffled me as its the only club in inverness that plays quality underground electronic music all weekend and people were screaming out for it before it opened, but now theres a really good community feel about the place and its always a very nice friendly vibe in there and theres hardly any trouble, just good shiney happy people out to enjoy themselves and out to enjoy some good music which is what its all about.
Q: If you had the power to change one thing about Inverness nightlife what would it be?
To get rid of love2love, haha! But in all seriousness it would be to make the scene a bit more like Glasgows which of course thrives on the student population there, i think once Inverness gets this supposed University it will create a lot more buzz about the town. I played a gig at 520 in Glasgow not too long ago on a Sunday night and the place was packed out and the crowd was amazing, so enthusiastic, you would be struggling to get that in this town sadly but hopefully one day.
Q: So you're playing Rockness, what sort of set should we expect to hear?
Yes! I am delighted with this as its my hometown festival and ive wanted to dj at it since the first one and its great that myself and my other dj comerades from inverness are finally gettinga chance to play there. Hopefully next year they get a whole tent dedicated to the local talent that Inverness has to offer. My set this year? i wont be holding anything back put it that way haha!
Q: What do you plan on doing in the next year?
Theres tons of exciting things happening soon, i have 3 EPs coming out 2 of which are pretty much finished, one of them will be released on Glasgow label 3rd Abstract records in the summer and the other 2 are on 2 cool new labels ran by some very cool people im very excited to be working with, cant say much more about it at the moment but its big! On top of this theres tons of remixes which will be released soon aswell, ive been on a bit of a roll recently with my remixes and its starting to pay off with some great remix offers from some very well known producers. Also gig wise aswell as rockness i will be playing the Reading rooms in Dundee not long after Rockness and hopefully some more gigs across Scotland and beyond for the rest of the year, the future is looking good.
Q: Whats your favourite milkshake?
Easy question, Banana.
Courtesy of Polymath is one of his new tracks 'Roast' which you can download FREE from this link!
Plus this 45min Mixtape mixed by Polymath including some of his newest tracks! Don't say he aint nice to you! Follow the link below to see the track list and remember to follow if your a soundcloud user.
