Pomomofo are my latest discoveries direct from the epicentre of the electro wars – Sydney, Australia, and they simply RoCK! an amazing electrogrungepop outfit Pomomofo,are fresh from collabs with Boy 8-Bit, The Toxic Avenger and SymbolOne, and most recently in the spotlight for their screamotech cover of ‘White Horse’ which earned them 200 000+ downloads .

High on the release of their 2nd EP “In Super VGA”, Pomomofo channel a mid-1990s pop aesthetic through teen jam guitars and slamming electro basslines. This year they’ve played with the Presets, Cut Copy, Cassius, The Faint, Hadouken, Cornelius and the Midnight Juggernauts but they’ve still found time to dress up as wolves and go rollerblading for the film clip for their new single “Island”. They also put the headphones on regularly and recently DJ’d for Jamie Oliver at the opening of his new restaurant in Melbourne, Australia – but Oliver wasn’t too happy when they dropped “Hangin’ Tough” by NKOTB. Here we have Niko from Pomomofo on kicking the label manager in the face, playing tennis on stage ,authentic disco and more..

What was your first big breakthrough as an act? What would you rate as the best experience that you’ve had in the music scene so far?
Our first breakthrough was straight after we started: we won the final of the national campus band competition. We’d only written 4 songs and somehow we ended up winning. We came back to Sydney to find about a thousand gig offers waiting for us.
Best experience in the music scene so far: Most recently I would say being onstage in Tokyo with my idol DJ Funk when he dropped one of our tracks at 160bmp and rapped ‘Perculator’ over it. Doing the Good Vibrations tour around Australia with Cassius, Beastie Boys, Cut Copy, etc was pretty good too.

What’s the first record you bought?
Cassingle of Severed Heads ‘The Dead Eyes Opened’.

What have been up to lately and what can we expect from you over the next couple of months?
We just – literally, yesterday – released our 2nd EP, “In Super VGA”. We recorded it with Chris Townend who did the Presets first record. We did a film clip for the first single “Island” with a director called Beaufort, which involved being made up as wolves and playing basketball, going rollerblading at night, and other very mid-90s things.
Next couple of months is gonna be solid touring and collabing with animator Dave Carter on our next film clip. He just got commissioned for a short series by Mike “Beavis and Butthead” Judge.

What can people expect from your live show?
Anarchy! When we started we used to be all about antics, like playing tennis on stage, riding exercise bikes, running through the audience with a coffin out of which one of us would jump, that kind of thing. These days the anarchy is built into the songs a bit more – plenty of unison shouted vocals, megaphones, instrument swapping mid-song, ridiculous percussion. We still run through the audience and climb up speaker stacks but we stopped lugging an exercise bike everywhere for obvious reasons!

Who or what has been the biggest influence?
Nirvana, Blur, Daft Punk and the Avalanches, and the novels of Bret Easton Ellis.

When and where was your best gig?
Funnily enough I think our EP launch party at Club 77 in Sydney on Saturday night was our best ever gig. A packed house at our favourite club in Australia, and our set was the tightest and fattest it’s ever been. Good times.

Who is your all time musical hero?
Damon Albarn

Worst Gig?
We played live on MTV last year. They got us so drunk that by the time it was our turn to play, we could barely walk. The cameras rolled, and I jumped around with the guitar a bit too much and it flew into the crowd, before I’d even struck the first chord. I looked at all the cameras and made the “time out” sign. The director yelled “it’s live!” So I went hunting for my guitar while Mike and Tim continued playing the track. Later in the song, after I’d found the guitar, I jumped on the bar and accidentally kicked our label manager in the face. It was an absolute shocker, easily our worst performance ever. But we got thousands of friend requests after it aired so I guess people dug it.

Ouch!! Then what makes a party good?
Requirements for a good party: The bands should play no earlier than midnight. If they have to play earlier, then the drinks need to be free. It should be on a Friday, not a Saturday. At least one of the DJs should play “Around the World” even though we’ve all heard it before. No Uffie should be played.

Highly agreed, especially No Uffie part! What’s your current take on the dance scene?
Will authentic disco is going to replace electro. I don’t think it will. Electro will take a turn towards techno because we’re all going to get angsty, as the economy is collapsing. Yeah!

What’s the biggest crowd you’ve played to?
No idea how many people saw us at Good Vibrations but they sold 40 000 tickets!

What’s the most ridiculous promotional thing you’ve done?
We once pressed a whole bunch of demo CDs, printed out our bio on glossy paper and sent the package to a whole bunch of labels. That was utterly ridiculous. Has any band ever got a deal doing that?!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Pomomofo will become a “cool dad” band like the Beastie Boys that people still dig.

Is there an all-time favourite track you wish you’d produced?
The whole of Since I Left You.

Who’s been your favourite musician or producer that you have worked with over the years?
Anything to do with Beaufort is a pleasure. He remixed our track “Back at the Club”, as well as directing the clip for “Island”, and he has a real ear for where a song could go, whenever I play him a demo or a snippet of something.

If you could have anyone remix any of your tracks, who would it be and why?
Koji Kondo, the guy who wrote the original soundtracks for Mario and Zelda on the Nintendo.

What is the biggest amount of drugs you’ve ever been offered?
When we played in Bali, this girl at Denpasar airport asked me if I wanted to look after her bodyboard bag for a while.

Which is your personal favourite track that you’ve produced & why?
“Island” is my favourite because I think it’s the first time we’ve really, properly, combined dance elements with pure pop. When we play it live, everyone sings along to the choruses, and then busts out when the kick drops in halfway through. It’s the best of both worlds. Hopefully it’s a sign of things to come.

Download Pomomofo Tracks Here

And Check Out Their Exclusive Top 10 for DJdownload.com