dig dis!cover: pølaroit

Nice that you could find the time. I saw that you have been in India for the last few weeks. How was it and what did you experience there?
Yes, India was wild. We played five shows in two weeks. That was a lot of impressions at once. But everything went great. It was our first show there and the people had a totally different relationship to the music. They really came for us and sometimes drove 200-300 kilometers. It was a very different atmosphere than we are used to. That was really cool to see and it was a very special experience.

During this period you also released your single "Ve". How was the response so far and can you tell a little bit about the making?
When the single came out, we were still in the middle of the India tour. It was totally funny because we talked to a lot of people about how to pronounce the track name exactly and the people were sometimes more concerned with it than we were. And the general feedback was very good. In India, the track was also very well received. A lot of people wrote to us afterwards and gave us feedback.
And how did it start? We released a track called "Re" last year, which can be seen as a counterpart to "Ve". Even from the sound of the track names, they complement each other well. With this track we dared a bit more and were a bit more experimental. We also got a lot of reactions to it, like: I really like this or on the contrary, we don't like this at all. And we thought, okay, this is obviously something that is contentious and for us this kind of thing belongs in music. So, that it triggers emotions in the listener. Also, the track was produced in Denmark and we were inspired by the country.

How did you come to start the label NORR and what were your ambitions?
The foundation of the label began during the COVID-19 period. As with many other artists, the gigs fell away and then we thought about what to do during that time. Releasing our own music on other labels sometimes takes many months and they often have a release schedule that is planned a year in advance. We didn't want to wait that long and get active ourselves. At that time we produced two tracks that were also different from the tracks we had released before. They were much slower, at 80-95 BPM. Most of our tracks are 30-40 BPM faster. We directly asked ourselves the question: Which label gives a platform to these tracks? Which label stands for this kind of music? We quickly realized that we had to start our own label and that we wanted to release these tracks quickly. We wanted to take care of the dates, the artwork and everything else ourselves. And we are also super happy with the decision, because these tracks have also been super well received and now have several million Spotify streams together. 
Since we started our label, more and more people are sending us their music and that's exactly what we wanted to achieve. That we encourage and push people who feel the same music. We think that a label is more and more also a base where artists meet and network. And everyone who has released on NORR, we try to connect with one another and combine these powers. You can see that this also works well. We think a lot of platforms are geared towards looking at what a label is releasing now and then they automatically use algorithms and stuff to link the music. And that's also something that we want to translate into the analog world, so that artists can meet here and there. We're super interested in really getting to know the artists and looking forward to making it more diverse. And to see which people are there that we can perhaps bring on board from Hanover or from other parts of the world, who can help make everything a bit more colorful and perhaps also more creative.

How did you find dig dis! and how could we support you with your label so far?
The first contact with dig dis! we had already in 2015 / 2016. pølaroit did not actually exist at that time. Back then we participated in various events and that's how we came across you. We then wanted to start the label "NORR" and give everything that surrounds pølaroit a real home. dig dis! has always been very supportive. The software works great. We are in close contact with Luca (from dig dis!) and if a release should come a week earlier or later, it was never a problem. When we wanted to push and focus on a certain release, which was super important for us, you also supported us with features and general support. We really like the personal approach you guys have. With many distributors, you don't have personal contact and don't know who is behind it. Sometimes it's even the case that you can't reach certain distributors at all. And this is nice here at dig dis!. What also works great is the label structure. You can work great as a label and still bill individual artists. Everything works. At dig dis! we can simply keep an eye on everything as a label and we like the structure very much.

Which role do instruments play in your music and how would you describe your sound to someone who doesn't know you yet?
Maybe as atmospheric techno. Or atmospheric, melodic and organic house / techno / deep house. The question would still be: How do you interpret techno? How do you interpret deep house? I would say pølaroit also moves very much between the boundaries. We are always evolving. Sometimes we’re working in the down tempo and electronica realm, other times we might have a melodic house or even something resembling more of an organic house vibe.
(That’s why we would say that our sound is always organically noticeable.) We usually work with the same instruments from track to track: The piano plays a super important role for us, no matter if we use it in a distorted context or as a clean recording. We also implement a lot of field recordings we recorded all around the globe and sometimes use unique percussion for tonal stuff. Of course we have our hard patched synths in the studio too. We think that’s why there’s always a feeling of organicness and that’s how our sound is composed.
We also noticed that NORR releases and everything we produce works well on the streaming platforms and that we are becoming more and more independent. At the same time you always ask yourself, how do you perform the music live? We also want to go more and more in this live direction. In India, we have noticed that it is quite well received and that has also encouraged us that we are on the right path. So it works in the digital world, but also in the analog world.

How do you organize the daily tasks?
So right now we're still doing a lot together, especially in the studio. We also do quite a lot of mastering jobs at the moment and we actually do everything together. We also discuss all the postings together, which will be published on social media. pølaroit is still something where we both have our fingers in the pie. We haven't split anything up yet, because there's so much going on at the moment where we have to coordinate well. We have handed over the booking to an agency. But otherwise it is important for us to have the strings in our hands, especially when it comes to the music. We have never produced a track alone, we always produce together in the studio. Maybe there is an idea from someone in the beginning to start with, but that pølaroit sound only comes when we both work on it together. The thing is that there is a lot going on in the background.  Also, we've been writing on our album for the last two years and recently released a sample pack. We also had a session at Cercle. We're both involved in the planning and it's hard to kind of split that up. 

You got a remix request from the French artist "Teho" for his and Joris Delacroix’ track "Fury". How did the request arise and what was the process like?
We've been in contact with Teho for a long time, especially on Instagram. We've always been a bit connected and have always been big fans of each other. And then he released his album, which of course we had directly on the screen. Then the request came from him, which of course made us totally happy, especially that we then also got the song with him and Joris Delacroix on it... That was really great. For us it was an exciting remix and we were also able to incorporate a few elements that are a bit different from a classic remix.
Music is always a matter of the heart, and we feel that very strongly with our current label. We meet people who are on the same wavelength and that creates connections that go beyond music. We are happy that the community around pølaroit is very harmonious and that we are friends with them as well. And that's the way it should be, in our opinion.

What other plans do you have for this year?
For one thing the Cercle release is coming out and we are also performing in the music video to the song. For us it's a visual milestone that we also show our live performance to the world. And then there will be an album coming out from pølaroit. As we said, a compilation from NORR is coming out at the end of the year or the beginning of next year. And a collaboration with Meute is being planned.

Thank you very much for the interview and the exciting stories and impressions from your music life. We are very excited about the future of pølaroit and the label NORR.