Interview with pôt-pot

September 27, 2025

Mark Waldron-Hyden of pôt-pot answered a few of Peter's questions regarding the band’s debut album, Warsaw 480km, which was released on September 19 via felte. Check out the Q&A below to get a deeper understanding of pôt-pot's first LP, the group’s Ireland-Portugal connections, and the intersection of funk and krautrock.

You can also read Peter's accompanying written piece about the record itself on pipjr3927.com.

Q: First off, how are you?

I’m good, album is out in the world, which is surreal, but very satisfying.

Q: Your debut album, Warsaw 480km, is upon us. How was the overall experience of making the album? Are there any highlights that you can speak on?

Making this album was definitely a journey. It started very unintentionally, just writing songs as I was travelling, but not thinking about a body of work as a whole. It’s bizarre, as the demos for these songs seemed so separate and inconsistent, as I was in such different spaces and even countries when I was writing them. It was only when I brought the tunes to the band and into the studio that I began to see the cohesion and the songs as parts of one overarching project. So, mentally, it’s been very tumultuous; “What is the point of this song?” / “This song sounds totally different to this one,” to “These songs sound too similar,” to “Okay, these are starting to flow now and make sense.”

The overall highlight for me would be the days we spent together as a band jamming these songs out in our practice space in Lisbon and spending days recording them. The band are some of my dearest friends, so these times are so special to me. To have it captured on wax is beautiful and I’m very grateful; it sends me right back to the late nights, recording studio delirium, and the support we all had for each other back then.

Q: What have you learned from the process of making the album?

I’ve learned a lot, mainly about myself. I’m not a perfectionist, and this is both good and bad. Sometimes our best traits are also our worst, and I guess it just depends on which end of the spectrum you lean into. My impatience and lack of perfectionism were great for utilizing what little time we had together to just smash out 10 tracks in five sessions. But also, you know, if we had all the time in the world, maybe you’d build the tracks even more and progress them into something else. Ultimately, I’ve learned that the music I make in a moment in time is good enough as is. As long as it’s authentic to me and a reflection of how I was feeling at the time, it doesn’t necessarily need to be picked apart or dressed up very fancily.

It’s also been a good lesson in keeping the faith, moving through discomfort, and being OK with flowing between one’s own stubbornness and openness to change.

Q: You've mentioned in the album's press release that the title [Warsaw 480km] came out of a fairly sombre situation in your life—a story told en route to collect and deliver your Father's ashes. I send my condolences. Do you feel like life is trying to tell/teach you something, or are you actively searching for relief/meaning at a time like that?

I appreciate that, cheers. A bit of both, I guess. I remember during one of the worst of those times with my father, I was at a point of complete shellshock and emotional destitution, sitting outside staring at the sky just trying to find a silver lining, trying to find any light in this shitshow. One thing that came from that search was an understanding that even though the experience was horrifying, I was going through something that is essential to the human condition, and after going through it, I can relate to more people in the world who’ve gone through something similar. In that moment, I felt oddly more connected to my own existence, and my own humanity was palpable. It’s terrible, but it’s shockingly real in a materialist and esoteric way.

Q: What's the reasoning behind the opening track title "132 Spring St.?” Was the intro recorded there, wherever it may be? I’ve found many 132 Spring Streets on Google Maps: Connecticut, Maine, Buffalo, NY. Considering you're based in Portugal, have Irish connections, and the album has Warsaw in the title, I doubt it's a Stateside street.

Your first inkling was correct! It was a voice recording taken while walking through a NYC street in late 2022. The location was saved as the name of the voice note and I loved it. Outside of the band, I do a lot of work with field recording composition and am fascinated with naturally occurring or non-intentionally musical rhythms and sounds, and how we can recontextualize everyday sounds and make our own composition in real-time just by turning our ears on.

Q: Where does the Ireland (Cork) and Portugal crossover occur? Is there a story behind the IE/PO connection?

Yeah, so, I moved over to Lisbon and have been going over and back since 2021. In 2021, I did an art residency in a space outside of Lisbon where Ollie (guitar) and Joe (bass) had been living. We hit it off straight away, and I asked them to help bring the band to life. I had been working with Elaine in Ireland for years prior to this; we’ve recorded and collaborated on loads of music, so bringing her in was a no-brainer. Sara, also based in IE, had been playing in loads of excellent bands, and I was always such a fan of her playing, so it was also a dream to get her involved. The recording studio is in Lisbon, and we just kept bouncing over and back.

Q: "Fake Eyes" sounds like something of a reworking of a track of the same name that appears on your 2020 project, The High Civilizations. What was it about the original track that spurred you on to bring it back to the forefront?

Honestly, I just always felt like that track and I had unfinished business. I recorded it very scratchily on that 2020 record and had also recorded a demo of it with drum machines and the guitar line you hear on the record. It had been floating around in my head for a long time and I wanted to give it the respect I thought it deserved.

Q: There's a heavy Krautrock-y, psychedelically tinged, hazy air that hovers out of Warsaw 480km. Can you shed some light on the album's influences and where the heavy, kinetic haze comes from?

Yes, for sure, I am indebted to the psych/kosmische genre. However, the main influence—in a high-level conceptual manner—is actually the work of funk pioneers James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, and the like. They were doing what I wanted to do, and what I think psych/kosmische does a lot of: repetitive, simple beats that were incredibly infectious, lots of bassline-driven composition, rhythm guitar taking the forefront, and guitars as an accessory instead of the main event. What’s different with Funk though, yes, it’s still about artistic expression, but also incredibly motivated in people having a good time, feeling good about themselves, and dancing. This is something that I really felt was important to my music, too. I think my taste and love of Neu!, CAN, VU, etc., gave me the colour palette that I wanted to work with, and Funk gave me the framework.

I work a lot with experimental composition and sound art outside of the band, so bringing in those layers of haze, drone, and feedback were something I was always really passionate about fusing with more “music-y” music.

Q: What's the plan for pôt-pot going forward? Are there any future endeavors that you can let us in on?

I’m about 20 tracks into writing for Album 2, so this will be what I’ll be spending most of my days figuring out, whittling down to hopefully around 10. We’ll also be hitting up some US and EU dates early next year, which we’re incredibly excited about!