Portyl‘s goal with music is to create niche electronic music that can still be considered electronic, but has a distinct difference that sets it apart. He looks at music as a listening experience, so with “Horizon” in particular, he combined electronic elements with really unique vocal samples and organic instruments. This helps formulate a listening experience that is much more than just a standard electronic track!
Portyl’s sound is very adventurous. He tries to make his music uplifting and liberating. His sound is heavily influenced by ODESZA. They are the reason that Portyl exists as a musician. He is a superfan of the duo and dreams to be able to collaborate with them some day. However, he would love to be involved with any artist from Foreign Family Collective. He also looks up to other artists such as Fakear and Tourist, taking notes when listening to their songs.
He believes that music is half the adventure. Any time you go out to do something you love, music is always with you; it accompanies your adventures. Everyone has their own definition of an adventure, and to each their own music. Portyl strives to be a part of their travels and excitement, and to correlate his music with those special memories.
Snowboarding is really important to him, so he loves taking sounds from that part of his life and incorporating them into his music. The artist said: “Taking the sounds I love and having them be my own and listening to them in these beautiful landscapes is pure bliss”.
Portyl prides himself in the fact that all his music is completely self-produced. Since he is a new producer, his growth has been substantial as he pushed through all the learning curves on his own. He is looking forward to doing collabs with different artists, but the foundation of ‘Portyl’ was done solely by himself.
He makes his music on Ableton, which makes resampling easy. Taking samples and manipulating them, resampling them, and just doing some crazy effects is the fundamental aspect to how he makes his music. He starts with percussions and builds on top of that. He programs every piece of percussion himself because he dislikes loops. He believes that when you put down every piece of percussion, it makes the track so much more intimate and flexible.
Portyl’s music is centered around vocal chops, rather than legitimate vocals. He plans to do some tracks with vocals in the near future, but for now, each song has its own unique vocal sample. He tends to make non vocal music because you are able to dictate your emotions while listening to it. There’s nobody telling you how you should feel when the song is playing. Everyone interprets the vocal chop differently and that makes the connection to the song so much more powerful.
Portyl has released 23 songs in less than a year. His latest album “Things You Can’t Explain” was released on May 27th, 2021 and this album will be the newest material for a little bit while he works on some remixes and gets more involved in the live music scene. The artist recently had his first set in NYC with a live audience just this past week.
He considers social media to be an important platform for him since he wants to build personal relations with everyone who supports his music; his goal is to have an effect on others like ODESZA did for him. Portyl loves to do design work and makes all his art. With his Instagram account, he tries to make visuals and things that you don’t usually see on other pages. He wants his account to be a fresh and engaging place for everyone!
As a message to his fans, the artist said: “I was and still am just a kid with a laptop and dream. I am a huge advocate for chasing and pursuing your wildest dreams and passions and I just want to thank everyone who has helped me become who I am today. My goal was always to make music to help someone in one way or another and that wouldn’t be possible without everyone who shares their love and support”.
Listen to ‘Horizon’ by Portyl on Spotify.
