Poolside's New Album 'Heat' Delivers Relaxed, Daytime Disco

The Los Angeles-based duo Poolside has been described as "daytime disco" — relaxed beats, high vocals and a wash of smooth electronics. It's the kind of music you might expect to hear while lounging by the side of a pool.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with Poolside duo Filip Nikolic (@FilipNikolic) and Jeffrey Paradise (@JeffreyParadise) about their latest album, "Heat."

On where their sound comes from

Jeffrey Paradise: "It was a bit of a reaction to the music at the time, [it] was very dubstep in early 2011, and Filip and I were kind of at pool parties around LA hearing like that kind of dubstep sound that's very aggressive."

Filip Nikolic: "The thing is it has its own place, but we just never felt that you should play really energetic, aggressive, pumping music at a pool party where, that's where you wanna really relax and not be hyper. So that's definitely also a factor."

On the story behind "daytime disco"

JP: "That's us, we kind of coined the phrase. For me, it was disco in general is, if you listen to it much, it's all about the nightlife, and the disco ball, and the crowd and Studio 54-type tropes. However there's kind of a few disco-soul songs that are very much suited for daytime chilling, but they don't really get a lot of time where you can play them as a DJ. So we set out to make music that kind of fit with that: Sound that doesn't really get a lot of airtime or credibility, or it's not its own genre."

On their audience

FN: "That's the cool part is that, there was a time in dance music especially where everything just got faster and harder and more aggressive, and all of sudden, for example, like Jeff's parents love Poolside, and that's new to him, because he's been in various punk bands and stuff. So we have, the age group for our music is really spread out, and we had, there was like a lady that came to one of our live shows in [Costa Mesa, California,] that was probably like 70, 80. She drove far and she bought our T-shirt. And for some reason that felt way more awesome than, like, some teenagers or whatever."

JP: "Yeah it's pretty cool, that we're playing like hippie festivals, and that's really cool, and then we play like a cool house club one night, and then a big, wide-ranging festival that has all ages. It's cool."

On what music they listen to

FN: "I'm super obsessed with Spotify, and I kinda just keep building this one big playlist. I like to put it on repeat. It's funny because I actually listen to very much disco, at home at least. That's kinda like a different world. I listen to Scott Walker. Me and my girlfriend like to listen to Broadcast and Stereolive. But yeah, it's endless."

JP: "I mostly listen to records, and I would definitely say my most played record is Neil Young, 'On the Beach,' which I've listened to many, many times. I just have like a set of maybe five or 10 records I listen to a lot, like T. Rex, 'Tanx,' that album I really love. Those two, and then Kraftwerk I listen to a lot. I don't know, it's sort of, those are just what I enjoy listening to when I'm in listening mode. And then there's a whole other mode of like, 'OK, I'm gonna DJ, what do I wanna hear?' Or things like that where it's a different space where I'm on my computer listening to music."

On the most amazing moment over the course of their success

JP: "When we started the band, we were in our 30s, and we kind of both thought our career as artists that perform was most likely coming to the last chapter. And Poolside was very much for fun. We had no expectations it would catch on. And I think for me, and something Filip and I speak about often, is that we're just so grateful that by just some random chance that this project kind of had a lot of legs, and it's taken us all over the world, and we've gotten a chance to kind of do a lot more than we were expecting."

FN: "I have a specific addition to that. That story is like, for me personally, when we went on our first tour ... I've always been playing in bands and stuff, but I've never been able to sing and play an instrument at the same time. And I had to learn to play bass and sing at the same time. If you ask most musicians, it's like, it's a weirdly impossible thing that all of a sudden clicks. But being in complete panic mode because I didn't believe it was gonna work out — but I had a deadline, I had like a little over a month — was one of the most amazing feelings. Because the older you get, the more you think you're not gonna learn defining things in your life. You're more kind of like sitting on whatever you learn through your life. So for me to learn something that was that groundbreaking, for me personally was, I felt like a teenager. It was awesome."

"And The Sea," Heat (2017)

"Harvest Moon," Pacific Standard Time (2012)

"Feel Alright," Heat (2017)

"Which Way To Paradise," Heat (2017)

"Hot In The Shade," Heat (2017)