#MusicInTheAir Podcast hosts this week :
POLYRHYTHM

The artist protagonist of this week’s MusicInTheAir is PolyRhythm, a producer/DJ duo consisting of David Jonez and Val Carrique, both born and raised in the United States and currently living in New Jersey right outside of New York City. They are both of Latino heritage, David’s background is from Cuba and Val’s background is from Uruguay.

PolyRhythm started its musical journey at 14 years old by DJing local parties and learning the craft of music selection. Their musical influences were sharpened by growing up in a Latin culture where drums and rhythms were prevalent.

They met in grade school when they were about 11 years old: they are lifelong friends. The New Jersey based duo mostly played mainstream, Hip Hop and Salsa until discovering New York’s vibrant underground club scene at the age of 18, where they immediately fell in love with House Music.

This discovery led them to create an event by the name of “PolyRhythm” which allowed them to explore many rhythms and sounds throughout New York City.The name stuck and they became known as the “PolyRhythm boys” by their supporters.

Their varied musical influences naturally led to their progression as music producers with countless releases over the years. Currently they are now embarking upon a new adventure, their own signature label, PolyRhythm Music.

Their musical style, greatly influenced by their origins, is mainly focused on drums and percussion: a blend of Afro House and Latin House. The Latin musical genres are probably the biggest influences in their musical style, but where they live they are always exposed to many different musical genres, because over there, music is just music with no distinction of genre: Jazz, Soulful House, Hip Hop, Reggaeton, Rock.

They are now embarking upon a new adventure, where they are very focused: their own signature label, PolyRhythm Music, which they launched in January this year, with music ranging from afro house to Latin house.

Where you were born, where you raised and where do you live?

We were both born and raised in the United States and we currently live in New Jersey right outside of New York City. We are both of Latino heritage. David’s background is from Cuba and Val’s background is from Uruguay.

How would you define your musical style today? And were there any differences with the past, an evolution over time?

Our musical style today has a primary focus on drums and percussion. We would define it as a blend of Afro House and Latin House. Being Latinos, we grew up listening to traditional Latin music such as Salsa, Merengue, and Cumbia which all have percussions as their main element. It is very easy for us to transition between Afro House and Latin house and we use that to our advantage to create interesting journeys within our DJ sets. Our productions all begin with percussions and we use them as the basis of our groove. Lately, we have started to embrace the techier and melodic side of things as well. We are always looking to evolve while staying true to our “PolyRhythm” sound. 

What music do you listen to when you take off your DJ headset?

The Latin musical genres are probably the biggest influences in our musical style but since the area we live in is so diverse, we have always been exposed to many different genres of music. We listen to Jazz, Soulful House, Hip Hop, Reggaeton, and even Rock. It is not uncommon to have a car driving by playing Salsa and then one right after it, playing Hip Hop. Over here, music is just music with no genres attached.

How did you meet and how did you decide to become a duo?

We met back in grade school when we were about 11 years old. We are actually lifelong friends so we both grew up together and when we reached our teen years, we started becoming interested in music. We both started DJing at an early age and we would do our school dances and private parties from the young age of 14. Once we were old enough to start going to clubs, we found House music and everything changed from there. About ten years ago, we decided to formally get together as a Duo and we started by doing an event in New York City, called PolyRhythm because we wanted to showcase different aspects of House music. The name was unique so we just adopted it as our own and it just stuck.

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What are your plans for the present and the immediate future?

We recently launched our own music label, PolyRhythm Music, in January 2022 so our plan is to keep growing our sound with the label. About 90% of our releases are of our own music ranging from Afro House to Latin House so that has kept us pretty busy presently. However, for the immediate future, we are hoping to keep pushing our sound and also release on other labels to widen our exposure.