Nu-disco and chillwave band Poolside is back in San Francisco this weekend performing at Stern Grove on Saturday, August 24th with electronic pop duo Sylvan Esso for the festival’s Big Picnic Weekend.

Formed in 2011 by Jeffrey Paradise, who started the project in San Francisco when he began creating a laid-back, electronic-indie sound perfect for a relaxing afternoon by the pool or a backyard get-together with friends. For the last year and a half, they’ve been touring with a live band, offering multiple musical dimensions of groovy sounds.

Their latest album, “Blame It All On Love,” released in October 2023, continues a tradition of daytime disco and collaborations with artists like Munya, Panama, Vansire, Slenderbodies, Mazy, Ora the Molecule, and Life On Planets. Although the Stern Grove show is sold out, tickets are still available for their afterparty on Saturday night at The Great Northern.

To preview their upcoming performances, we spoke to Jeffrey about his time in San Francisco, his musical inspirations, and Poolside’s plan for Stern Grove.

What was it like going to school at SF State University and living in San Francisco?

I grew up in the suburbs of San Diego. It was a fine upbringing, but I was excited to move to a real city with culture. San Francisco was kind of the only option. New York felt far and scary. San Francisco felt an arm’s length of San Diego.

SF State was the one college I applied to and I moved to the dorms in SF. It was amazing. I loved it from day one. It felt so much more me. I moved when I was 19 and became an adult. I spent four and a half years in college and [lived in San Francisco] four years after college. About a decade in SF. It’s a very important city in my upbringing and my life. It was hard to leave, but eventually felt to keep doing music, I felt a bit of a desire to do something new. San Francisco is an amazing city to see music. To be a resident of San Francisco, so many good venues and bands. As an artist in San Francisco, it’s a different story. Once you reach a certain ceiling, there’s not an obvious way to grow. To compare San Francisco to San Diego is weird because they have nothing in common but being in California. I have nothing but fond memories.

What has been inspiring your most recent music and what makes it different from previous sounds?

I’m always working on music. We’ve been on tour the last year and three months or so. I’ve mostly been doing remixes. But I did most recently start working on the new album in the last four of five weeks. Some albums, especially the early ones, had a definitive inspiration. It was like a blank canvas so to speak. As time has gone on, it’s become what’s inside of me. I just write now. Before, I would say I want to make slowed down disco with a house beat. That kind of idea really inspired me. You can’t do those four albums in a row. Perhaps you could, but it would be boring as an artist.

Now I just sit down and write and see what comes out. If I like it, it goes into one pile, if I don’t I toss it. I guess in some ways playing live music inspires me a bit. In the first two albums, I wrote a whole album before ever performing or DJing. I’ve been inspired by life experiences, travels, meeting other musicians, seeing other DJs, playing on bigger stages. We went from playing small clubs as a DJ to pretty regularly playing in front of thousands of people. That can change your perspective on why you’re writing a song or how it will be played. It’s below conscious level.

How do you decide which tracks to do remixes?

People ask me to do remixes. If I listen to a song and think I can do a good job, I would say yes. I turned down a lot of songs. My sound wouldn’t work for their song. It’s not whether or not I like the song, there’s plenty of songs I like that I don’t remix. People solicit me, I don’t really choose it. I do edits and stuff like that as well. When I find an edit, I either do DJ and it needs to be a little different, and I want to DJ and know that it was bomb in an original state. Some are released, some are DJ and I play them in my set and that’s the only time you can hear them. The daytime disco sound is what I’m after. It makes it different to pull songs from different genres to fit the vibe.

Are there any artists that you wish you could collaborate with or you want to collaborate with?

There are tons. It just sort of depends. There are tons I’m inspired by. There’s some that are dead that will make it improbable. Sly & Robby, Jamaican producers I really like. If that could happen that would be amazing. There is a lot of that classic dad rock americana soft rock that very much inspires Poolside that would be amazing. Someone like Neil Young, Michael McDonald, any of those real classic songwriters. Late 60s to early 80s is my sweet spot for songwriting for what I admire about songs. JJ Cale is my favorite guitarist. He passed away a couple of years ago. Apparently, he was living in San Diego at the time of his passing. Perhaps it could have been conceivable. There are so many people I love in music. It’s hard to say. The more modern, the Poolside sound is what I do. Modern producers I admire them but usually it’s singers or songwriters I want to collaborate with. Grace Jones, that would be amazing. There are so many cool, iconic people I would like to work with. If I ever had the chance. Bucket list kind of things.

How do you plan to adapt your set list for a daytime live show this weekend at Stern Grove Festival?

I was just on the phone with my drummer who I met in the dorms at SF State. We’ve met and played music off and on since the dorms. We talked about that this morning. We were going to play some slower songs. A lot of our songs are already slow. We are going to play some that don’t normally fit in the live shows. We’re playing a 75-minute set. When we play a headline show it’s like 90 minutes. Festival sets are around 1 hour or less so you have to pack in the punchier songs. We’re playing slower songs. We’re a six-piece band. Lot of instruments and multi-instrumentalists. A lot of music happening on stage. We just added more percussion heavy, hanging out in the park, laid back percussion songs. To feel more relaxed in the daytime stretching out in the grove. It’s a very good question.

• Tag: Disco, interview, Poolside, sf state, Stern Grove, the great northern