The Magical Music of Pogo

One day, I was browsing on YouTube for an entertaining video to watch (as one does when we're bored), when I stumbled upon something beautiful. A mix of sounds and voices from various clips that are turned into music. That is what Pogo does, and he does it beautifully. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's one of his videos below:

"The Trouble" is one of my favorites. The mix of those delicate voices from Disney films such as Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Mermaid, and Marry Poppins come to together in the ultimate remix. That's probably why it received over five million views on YouTube. He has put his hand on other movies such as The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Hook.

So who is Pogo?

Pogo's real name is Nick Bertke from Perth, Western Australia. He works as a music producer and remix artist. He describes what he does as "chuck(ing) weird sounds into a blender and blast them into a funky frappe for your earholes." His videos on YouTube has attained over 110 million views and grabbed the attention of major studios and agencies such as Nickelodeon and Pixar. Nick has also performed live in cities all over the world, including the Guggenheim Museum.

Major Collaborations

Pogo has been hired by those major studios and agencies to help promote their products. For instance, Pokemon appointed him to create a mix of their games and TV series with an original dance track added in. "Catchatronic" premiered live on the Pokemon website.

One of his other videos, "Alice," caught the attention of Disney and Pixar. So, the film studios asked Pogo to create a remix for Up. He sat with Pixar producer, John Lassiter, and came up with "Upular" which got up to nine million views on YouTube. After that success, Pogo remixed another Pixar classic, Toy Story, to help promote the next installment in the film series (the remix is called "Toyz Noize").

Pogo doesn't just work with film studios. Different companies commission him to help create advertisements for their services or products. Brownes Dairy in Western Australia used Pogo to help sell their SupaShake milk. Sights and sounds from the city of Pogo's hometown, Perth, was part of the forefront. He has also worked with the Great Southern Rail, M&M's, and even HBO's Dexter.

To top it all off, guess who else included Pogo in their advertising efforts? YouTube itself! That's right, the very site that made spring boarded Pogo into the spotlight. The video was used to promote the music of YouTube. Even Pogo was featured in the video, along with Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine.

To express even more of his unique talent, Pogo has also composed and produced original music. By original, I mean that his sources are not solely from movies and television. He has released nine full albums on various streaming sites like YouTube and Spotify. Some albums, like Ascend (2018), have a mix of original tracks and Pogo-fy tracks like. Here above beautiful song called "Glowflake" from his latest album, Quantum Field (2018).

So aside from the Disney movies and random commercials, Pogo's remixes can be put into a miscellaneous category. This ranges from President Donald Trump to even his own mother. It appears that Pogo has been inspired by his hometown, video games, and oddly, televangelist Robert Tilton. There's nothing this guy can't remix.

Another great thing about Pogo is that he lets his fans take a look behind the scenes. He posts video of his editing and mixing production on YouTube. It is interesting to see what his thought process is when making his music. One could also appreciate how much work and time goes into his craft. He even gives pointers on the best way to produce and create great music. How nice of him!

Love what you hear? You can check out Pogo on his official website as well these social media and streaming sites.

• PogoMix
• Facebook
• Twitter
• SoundCloud
• YouTube
• Spotify
• iTunes