Poolside

About

Poolside began in early 2011 as the recording project of Los Angeles musicians Filip Nikolic and Jeffrey Paradise. Nikolic was a Danish-born producer and DJ who spent some time as the bass player in Junior Senior before relocating to L.A., and Paradise lived in San Francisco playing out as a DJ and as the frontman of hardcore band the Calculators before also moving to L.A. Duo members Nikolic and Paradise began honing their collaborative creations in a pool house that they converted into a makeshift recording studio, producing sunny tracks of subaquatic indie dance music. The group surfaced first in the form of a YouTube video for the catchy track "Do You Believe?" Poolside were soon gaining local and national attention, with underground DJs spinning their tracks at events and a growing online following. Throughout 2011 they made waves with the sound they were calling "daytime disco" through tracks like a reworking of Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" as well as original tunes. In 2012 Poolside worked on a remix for longtime disco punks the Rapture and held fans over with a new single and video for a song called "Slow Down" as they prepared to release their debut album. That album, Pacific Standard Time, was released in July of 2012 on their own Day & Night label. After the album's release, the duo kept busy in a variety of ways; doing remixes for artists like Matthew Dear and Fool's Gold, rehearsing and touring with a live band, and doing DJ sets around the world. Eventually, as thoughts turned to a second album, the duo felt they were burned out enough that a short break would do them good. Poolside went on ice for a year; then they began work in earnest on another album. While still revolving around the sunny, laid-back disco sound of their debut, they also added in some uptempo dance songs and more guitars, and generally pumped up the arrangements with more instruments and sounds. They surprise-released Heat in June of 2017 on Day & Night. ~ Fred Thomas