Poolside – Interview
Duo, Filip "" Nikolic and (Paradise Boys/) recently played here in Las Vegas. We got a chance to sit down with them and talk music, partying and day time disco.
The Nite Visions – Your newest releases have all been released from , why did you guys decide to release your music on this label?
Jeffrey – Our very first release was on this label, although myself and Filip had been making music for about 5 or 6 years before “Do You Believe” came out, we just never released any of it. “Do You Believe” was the first track we released to the public and as soon as we put it on Soundcloud we had all these labels contacting us. “” seemed to fit with what were doing, we decided to go with them.
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The Nite Visions – How much of your success can you attribute to that track?
Jeffrey – I would say that all of our success “quote unquote” came from that track, but it was the only song we had out, ha-ha, so where was it going to come from otherwise? We had no idea that people would respond to the song the way they have, but we’re very happy about it.
Filip – What’s even more interesting is how much attention the “Harvest Moon Cover” we did is getting. We kind of put it together really quickly and threw it on Soundcloud.
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The Nite Visions - I just recently heard that new track because it was on tracks she loved. What’s the story behind this song?
Jeffrey – Well the story behind the “Harvest Moon” track is that there were a lot of people at one point saying, “’s only a one hit wonder, don’t pay any attention to them... blah blah blah.”
Filip – Wait, who said that?
Jeffrey – Well you know, people.
Filip – Tell me who!! I’ll kill them!
Jeffrey – Ha-ha, yeah, so anyway, we had that one track and people were kind of hesitant to book us, so we decided to make a song that’s not going to be on the album. Well, do a cover and throw it out there to see people’s responses. Originally, we were going to do a disco version of a Ramones song “Baby I Love You” which we later found out to be a Ronnettes song, but it had too many chords, so we dumped that idea.
Filip – We analyzed the song and realized it wasn’t going to work. We like the songs to be linear.
Jeffrey – I had been listening to a lot of Neil Young, actually. We’re both really big Neil Young fans, and Filip had said he already knew how to play “Harvest Moon” on the guitar. That’s how the creation process started with that song.
Filip – My girlfriend at the time had broken up with me, so I taught myself how to play that song on the guitar as a way to get over her.
Jeffrey – Yeah he learned that song because he was sad, ha-ha.
The Nite Visions – “Harvest Moon” seems to go really well with the whole “day time disco” pool party theme. You said that your original choice was a Ramones track. They’re known for their “unpolished, garage punk” sound. Were you wanting to keep that same theme when covering the song?
Jeffrey –We’re both music lovers and we listen to a ton of music all the time, so if the music has feeling and it grabs us, then we’ll go with it. We’re trying to create a sound that’s not necessarily new, but it’s unique to us and I think you can incorporate a lot of different influences.
Filip - Think of it this way: I really like Jimi Hendrix, so if Jimi Hendrix was to play at a pool party, that’s how I would like our music to come off as. If it’s not just the right sound, then we can edit a track to sound the way we want for .
The Nite Visions – That makes sense.
Filip – “Harvest Moon” seemed to be a perfect song to cover. We figured “Do You Believe” was doing really well, so then at one point we decided to invest in a Soundcloud account for and throw “Harvest Moon” on there for people to listen and download.
Jeffrey - Everything we’ve done so far as a band has been real casual, there’s never really been a lot of technical planning. It’s more of the spontaneous ideas that work for us really well.
Filip – Although, our manager doesn’t like that way of working too much. We’re like, “Hey, we’re going to put this new song on Soundcloud,” and he’ll say “NO! It doesn’t sound finished, I don’t like it.” Then I’ll put it on Soundcloud anyway and it gets really good responses.
The Nite Visions – Jeffrey, you’re from San Francisco, and Filip lives in Los Angeles, how did you guys meet?
Jeffrey - I’ve known Filip for about 10 years. Filip lived in Denmark at the time, but I met him in San Francisco because I used to throw a party called “Frisco Disco” and I had booked when they were still new to the U.S. They came to DJ, and it was just and , which Filip is neither, and while they were djing Filip comes up to me and says, “hey, I’m a much better DJ than both of them.” I laughed and immediately I was like, “I like this guy, he’s kind of funny.” I took him to an after party and he won a beer drinking contest against San Francisco’s best beer drinker. Filip was kind of shy at the time and he didn’t speak English as well as he does now, so all these people kept losing to this beer drinking master and Filip says with a thick accent, “I’d like to enter.” Filip just crushed the dude.
Filip – Yeah no ones ever beat me in beer drinking since.
Jeffrey – So after that I was like, “Wow, this dude is pretty awesome” but he lived in Denmark at the time and I figured I’d never see him again.
The Nite Visions – Ha-ha, how long ago was all this?
Filip – About 9 years ago when from and I were in LA on a visa and we had like 6 months left and we had just finished our tour.
The Nite Visions – What did you guys think of ? And was that first big gig that you guys played as a group?
Jeffrey – That was our 3rd DJ gig as a group. We kind of went into it thinking it would be empty for our set given the dirt location and the set time we had, but after the first song there we like 600 people and then 700 people. It was just an amazing time.
The Nite Visions – Jeffrey, you’re somewhat of a San Francisco aficionado, how long have you been doing your party “” there now?
Jeffrey – It’s been 7 years now.
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The Nite Visions – When you started “Blow Up” 7 years ago, was there a need for dance music in San Francisco at time?
Jeffrey – Well, first I threw a party called “Frisco Disco”, and that was when I began DJing. It was really small: just friends getting wasted. The stuff we played was an anything goes kind of sound from Soul, Disco, 80s Electro, Electro Clash, Rock and Acid House all in the same night. Meanwhile all of San Francisco was very stuck in genres niches, like a house night with house heads only, or a techno night with all the techno boys in the city, or a scratch night where you'd go and watch dudes scratch for hours, hip hop clubs only played only hip hop and only hip hop crowds went etc. Then all my friends that were DJing Frisco Disco started blowing up and I needed to move from a 150 person venue to like a 500 person club, and I just called the party “”.
The Nite Visions – Filip, how is the dance music scene in Denmark?
Filip – It’s really hard to say. For certain music, Denmark is really behind, but when it comes to Nu Disco and good dance music, I would say they’re ahead.
The Nite Visions – I notice that Europe still refers to electro or even some disco tracks as “techno”, whether it be Boys Noize or Todd Terje.
Filip – Jeffrey and I have this conversation every time we’re compiling tracks for DJing. I like more of like deeper techno or house, and Jeffrey likes the chiller disco stuff. But yeah, the genre lines kind of get blurred depending on what you’ve been influenced by.
The Nite Visions – Who came up with the name “”?
Jeffrey – It was when I was living in New York and Filip came out to DJ as “”. We hadn’t hung out in a while, but we got to talking about this song that we started and never finished. This was before “Do You Believe.” We wanted to make a silly music video for the song, so I flew from New York to LA and we ended up writing “Do You Believe” in Filips pool house. When we were done with the song we were like, wow, this is really special. That’s how we came up with the name “”.
The Nite Visions - You recently finished touring with . Do you guys have any fun stories you’d like to share?
Jeffrey - There were a few crazy incidents. From the bus breaking down and getting stranded in Palm Springs, to playing a show in San Diego and doing mushrooms on the beach with some friends. But one thing that was really awesome was the last show we played with them- everytime we finished playing a song, the guys fromwould come out and give us a shot of tequila. And it wasn’t just a small shot, they were fucking huge. We couldn’t say no, you know we had been on tour with them for a while and this was our last show together and we felt obligated to drink, so they ended up getting us super wasted.
Filip - We ended up getting them back for that, though. We stole Gabe’s cowbell for the song “House of Jealous Lovers”. Ha-ha, so we were like, yeah, we got these guys, but Gabe had a fucking reserve cowbell, so our plan was foiled.
The Nite Visions – Ha-Ha, you can't pull off "House Of Jealous Lovers" without a cowbell. I'm sure he had like 20 of those stashed somewhere just in case.
Jeffrey - We played a lot of really awesome shows with them and just being offered the tour was an honor.
The Nite Visions – What did you guys think of tonight and how your set went?
Jeffrey - It was really mellow tonight, we don’t really play crazy hard club bangers and nobody seemed to leave, so that’s good. There’s nothing that keeps a crowd interested unless they’re already interested in the first place. The drinks here at are really good too. Its been really fun.
The Nite Visions – Wednesdays at are more of a local thing, especially for the specific Wednesdays that cater to the indie, dance, nu disco vibe. If you’re here, then you’re definitely here for the artist on the roster and not a top 40 selector. We’ve been really excited all month to have you guys come down and play.
The Nite Visions - What do you guys like most about Las Vegas?
Jeffrey - I think it’s a town where anything’s possible. You could be stuck somewhere you hate and be like, tonight was the worst night of my life, or you could wind up doing the craziest shit where you could only do in Las Vegas. I’ve had some really amazing nights in Vegas.
Filip - I really like Video Blackjack.
Jeffrey – He loves the male hookers!
The Nite Visions - Any strip clubbing for you guys tonight?
Filip – No fuck that shit, although I do enjoy that you can smoke anywhere.
The Nite Visions – Well I’m honored to be on the bill with you guys tonight, it’s been a good night. Thanks for the interview guys.