Goon Of Doom

Sampology, or as his mum better knows him Sam Poggioli, is rightly famous for the hyper-real visual feasts that are part and parcel of the Sampology DJ show. Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis and other random flotsam of the op-shop VHS kind are sewn together artfully on the big screen: they dance, jump, laugh and even take a punch in rhythm, a complement to each track Poggioli plays. What makes this more than just a gimmick is the B-film love, humour and one might almost dare say originality Poggioli brings to the idea. Festival crowds flock in their thousands for a serve of Sampology and are rewarded each year with a different theme to his show. This year, Poggioli and cine-star Bruce Willis (who doesn't love 'the Bruce' when he's saving the world?) take us on a tour of the apocalypse. He forecasts: “This year I've created a show with the theme of 'apocalypse'. It's basically about the end of the world.”

In case you feel Poggioli may have spent too much time in a dark room editing explosions and has lost his sense of fun, don't worry: this is a 'fun' apocalypse. “My view on the end of the world as a theme is not about doom and gloom. It's more uplifting. It's about making the most of things – of the time you have. That is the feeling behind the show.”

To take us to the end of the world (in a happy way) Poggioli chose no ordinary soundtrack. There's no The Final Countdown or It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). Instead, he came up with his own soundtrack. In fact, he has written a whole album about the 'Joypocalypse'.

“Everyone seems to be stressing out about the end of the world. It's something that shits me a little bit. People are stressing out for no reason, stressing out about life in general when you could be enjoying it. I'm guilty of it, stressing out so you don't enjoy what you've got in front of you. That's the feeling behind the album. All the sounds I was digging at the time were big and uplifting. I was working on the AV show at the same time as the album, so was thinking about the same things when writing songs as I was when sourcing video content.”

It may come as a surprise, but Poggioli has always thought of himself as a producer as much as an onstage genius-entertainer. “To me production is something that I've always done,” he mildly observes, “but I've been better known for the AVDJ thing. Last year I released an EP on the Helsinki label as well as doing the AV show and I was proud of both things, but for me they were separate. Whereas when I started working on this project, I wanted to combine my DJ life with the album thing. I made it a soundtrack to the show, in a way.”

To concoct the album, fittingly titled Doomsday Deluxe, Poggioli once again combined his own talents with others, but this time they weren't a dancing Tom Hanks or Bruce Willis saving somebody from this week's baddie. Poggioli teamed up with, among others, Spikey Tee and Danielsan from Koolism. He explains that just like in zombie B-movies, two brains are better than one.

“For the most part, writing music starts at home, working out chord progressions and beats. Then I'll take that to the person I'm writing with, and see what happens. For example, I went down to Melbourne and hung out with Danielsan, and he jumped in on an instrumental track I had and needed to put something down on. It's a cover of Aretha Franklin's Save Me, which is quite apocalyptic – it could be about the end of the world or of a relationship. He laid down an awesome Vocoder part over the top.”