KRAAK FEST 2024 HIGHLIGHTS: Horacio Pollard

There’s a pretty good summary of your life at the end of your It’s Psychedelic Baby interview. How’s life in Berlin nowadays, and what have you been up to since you were last with us KRAAKers at KRUT Fest 2020?

Ye I gave him a step by step run through of my very modest musical journey, whether he liked it or not.

How’s life in Berlin nowadays, and what have you been up to since you were last with us KRAAKers at KRUT Fest 2020?

You already heard me moan about this a lot gg, but soon after Krut festival I got sick and took a few years off from doing concerts. It was grim, although having a break from playing was quite refreshing. I did manage to record a lot of music at home and put a few tapes out. I’ve gotten obsessively into playing tennis since then too. Basically just trying to stay sane but in a posh sporty sort of way.

Your music feels incredibly chaotic and it doesn’t always take the most obvious routes. Do you feel it’s evolved over the years?

I wouldn’t say it has evolved all that much, but I have tried to keep it moving forward. Regarding chaos, I like stuff sounding like it’s falling apart or like the sounds were slapped together without too much consideration and not being overly formulaic or predictable. There’s also some inherent chaos (nearly all of it in fact!) arising from my purely not being able to keep things under control very well.

What’s your process like when you compose or jam or whatever it is for you?

I spend a lot of time sequencing drum and synth patterns and working out which way to configure the 10 trillion fx pedals I have. Once that’s done I’m into jam territory… and that’s about the extent of my composition making process.

I’m only interested in doing music that can be played live and so dealing with all the practical limitations that involves. If I’m confronted with too many options my brain conks out so limitations, as we all should know, are key.

Was the golden mic always involved?

I found the mic in a 2nd hand electronics shop in Osaka in 2016. In fact there were about 20 of them to choose from..seems gold mics were very popular in Japan at some point. At first I was drawn to its goldness but then discovered it also had an on/off switch which is really useful. I take it there’s some buzz in Brussels now about whether or not I’ll be using it at KRAAK this year?

Your video work doesn’t get talked about enough, yet it seems to be a big part of what you’re about. Is this something you tie in with your music as well, or do you approach it as a different practice altogether?

Indeed I like to frolic in videoland. I used to project my stuff at shows and I think it worked well, the two complementing each other nicely. I found that people who couldn’t tolerate my music at least had something to grab onto with the visuals. That’s the feedback I often got anyway. But they were so laborious to make, it being mostly animation stuff, I couldn't make enough of it to keep things fresh. I should get back on it. Maybe use static shots of mundane occurrences next time, way less time consuming.

Do you have any endeavors of note coming up, whether it be musically, artistically or otherwise?

The only exciting thing on the horizon is KRAAK festival and one show in Paris the day before. Hopefully get my poop together and make a record soon too.

Or book/youtube recommendations, if nothing else.

I read Stoner by John Williams recently. Think they read it in American high schools. Might be wrong. That was really good anyway.