Born on the eastern shore of St. Lucia and presently residing in London in the UK, bass-rich producer Poté is a key player in the development of global bass' most intriguing movement. But, with the release of "Corina's Song" today on Black Gold Records, he–similar to so many others in his creative circle–expands the thought process for fanatic followers of their progression from being more tropical bass-oriented to the idea that these are all flat-out great producers making some of the world's most intriguing sounds. I had the opportunity to chat with Poté regarding the release of his latest, jungle, drum and bass and break-beat driven production, as well as thoughts on dance music overall at the moment, his creative inspirations, and St. Lucia's love for of all things, country and western music.
Where did the influence come from for "Corina's Song?"
I didn't want people to see me as a tropical bass producer. I wanted to be seen as someone who just makes good music. I made that track two years ago after watching the opening for the Olympics, and I wanted to re-create a Breakage tune. That's why it has breaks and stuff in it. It didn't really work out. The main element I wanted to take from the Breakage stuff is that his more recent stuff has more of a trance-like element to it, , where he can repeat 16-bars of one thing, and you love it. That's what I tried to do with the synth bits, and with the rest of it, I went wild a bit.
I wanted to take you back to when you first realized that music was "a thing" that you were into. Who was the artist or what was the song that made you decide to really get into music overall?
[Rapper] Bow Wow. I can't remember my favorite song. I would have been really young then, but that was the first album my dad bought me.
So, let's move from songs into production. There's always a moment when a music fan decides, "I want to know more, I want to know why the music sounds like it does?" When was that moment for you?
Justice. Yeah, I watched the tour movie for A Cross The Universe and it was crazy. I listened to the album, too. How much distortion was used, how they disobeyed music laws that were there before, they did whatever they wanted.
So, when did you actually start producing and what were you making?
I started making tracks at the age of 15 or 16, maybe around 2009? I was trying to make electro back then. Trying to make more Justice-style stuff.
Intriguing. So when did the crossover with your roots from St. Lucia take more form within the basis of your sound?
That occurred two years ago. It was my dad's influence. I was making "dubsteppier" stuff, and my dad was trying to get me to listen to some of the more [roots-driven] stuff to influence my music. So, I thought I'd try a few, and it ended up that I started making [more roots-tinged music]. Soca's actually one of my dad's favorite genres of music. He's always trying to pull me over and say "Listen to this, listen to this! You should make something that should sound like this!" He's always finding new stuff and sending it to me.
