We discuss origins, influences from Mexico, New York and Miami and how Rigopolar arrived at his disco-tinged sound
If Disco was around during the acid test, that is where you’d find Rigopolar’s sound. Progressive syncopated beats in the lower registers and lysergic melodic lines define his music, falling somewhere between the breathy exuberance of Disco and the dirty rhythms of DFA.
Rigopolar is a Mexican artist based in Miami and for over a decade his records have found the ears of some of the world’s best DJs and tastemakers. Channelling influences from Rock & Roll to Italo Disco to Mexico’s electronic/rock scene, his music is hard to pin down beyond the usual Disco nomenclature. Slow and gradual yet determined in its pursuits his tracks, EPs and remixes stand on their own and as an artist this makes Rigopolar unique.
As a DJ, he takes this to the next level in his efforts to connect with a crowd. It’s in that context he comes to Jaeger as part of an extended European tour. After and introduction via Ora the Molecule he makes a stop in our booth and before he takes his place in our backyard, we sent out some questions to find out a little more about the artist and DJ.
Hello Manuel, thank you for taking the time to do this Q&A session. What’s your first memory of a piece of music?
What I remember from that time is my mom singing me to sleep. There was a song she used to sing to me, one her grandmother had sung to her, and I don’t know if it’s my first memory of music, but it’s definitely the most vivid: a tango called “Cariño Verdad.”
I’ve read that you come from Rock n Roll. What were your first attempts at making music and what did it sound like?
I listened to a wide range of music growing up, but my biggest influence, the one that stirred the most emotion in me as a kid, was rock and roll. My first attempts at making music were with toys, trying to imitate the sounds I heard. Around 11 years old, I picked up a guitar and started trying to actually play the songs I loved, recording guitar tracks onto cassettes. Later, in high school, my friends and I would write joke songs about things happening at school, full lyrics, full melodies and sing them at parties. It was our thing, and it was a lot of fun.
You mentioned the guitar and joke songs, but what was the instrument that got you playing and into making music seriously?
The first instrument that really pulled me into music, the one I loved most was drums. As a kid I’d build drum kits out of shoeboxes and soda cans and record myself on a little cassette recorder my parents gave my sister and me. Drums were always my favorite. Later I picked up some very basic piano, and then, at 12 or 13, guitar which ended up sticking with me the most, probably because it was the hardest, more of a challenge. My love for drums never went away, but those three instruments together are what really shaped my start in music.
When and how did electronic music start to make an impact in your music making?
Electronic music started having an impact on me around 20 or 21, in 2002–2003. It had always been present, but more in the background. The shift happened gradually, I didn’t go to a rave or a club until I was 22, because before that nothing in it had really caught my attention and plus in that time my hometown didn’t have a wide or solid electronic music scene.
Once I was living in Mexico City, I was exposed to a lot more electronic music: friends lending each other records, sharing recommendations, and through that I started digging into specific sounds, synthesizers, and different textures. That’s what really drew me in. At the time I was playing in Mexico City with Pop/Dance, Indie Dance, and even some Post Rock bands, and that’s where I started working with synthesizers and going deeper, discovering sounds I couldn’t get from any instrument I’d played before. So my entry point was really about sound and sound design, not DJ culture or the rave scene.
What were the biggest challenges in making that switch?
The biggest challenge in that shift from rock and roll to electronic music was finding a middle ground in my own sound. Sometimes I felt too rock and roll to belong in the electronic world, and other times too electronic like I was falling into something cold, abandoning where I came from. That tension was one of the hardest things to work through. It wasn’t until I stopped trying to belong to a genre and started digging into who I actually was and where I came from that I found the balance naturally, without forcing it. That’s where I landed, on something with a real identity, something I could recognize as fully me, my history, my influences, all of it living inside a single track or record. That search for an identity where the sound reflects who I am has been one of the hardest parts of this journey, but it’s also what continues to guide me.
Talking about Mexico City, what was the scene like for electronic music and do you think it imparted anything specific on your music?
The Mexico City electronic/rock scene of that era was incredibly rich, so many ideas, so much going on, and I loved being part of it. That scene, roughly 2002 to 2005, left a real mark on my sound. I was already playing in that circuit with dance-punk and dance-pop bands, spending years working alongside musicians, producers, and friends, watching how other producers worked in their studios and apartments. I learned a lot on the ground, just by being immersed in it, listening to the different currents within that same scene, within that whole boom happening in Mexico City at the time. It gave my music a distinct stamp, and honestly, my interpretation of that period is something I still carry with me in my project today.
Your sound is very much based in the rudiments of Disco, while touching on everything from Italo to Techno. What is it about this sound that appeals to you?
I got a lot of disco influence from my parents too, alongside rock and roll, there was always disco playing when I was a kid. As I got older, I started picking out the elements of disco I liked and leaving out what I didn’t, same with rock and roll, house, techno, and so on. A lot of genres would wear me out, or I just couldn’t find a narrative in them. But I noticed I could listen to certain elements; disco percussion and basslines, for example for one or two hours straight without getting tired. So I started isolating the elements I could listen to for long stretches without fatigue, and tried to combine or contrast them into something new. That’s how I built my own mental library of sounds across genres, an influence built from elements rather than whole genres.
How have you made that sound your own?
I’d take these elements from different genres or sounds I liked, record them, and process them with whatever tools I had. A lot of disco felt too clean, too polished to me. With the Indie Dance influence I’d picked up in the 2000s, I was after something more visceral. So I started running these disco elements through guitar pedals and whatever else I had on hand, it gave the sound character, turned it into something dirtier, more garage, more visceral in its design but still narratively structured. Disco and house could feel a little too pop for me, so I pushed them further, stripping out major scales harmonically and centering my music in a darker universe. Not dark in a negative sense, but in the sense of unknown, of the mental, of the cosmic.
You’ve lived in New York for a bit. With its historic connection to Disco, what did you garner from the city in developing your music?
I was in New York from 2018 to 2022. What that city gave me goes well beyond a genre or the disco party scene; it’s a cultural wonder in every direction; just walking down the street is inspiring. But it’s also overwhelming, too much information coming at you from everywhere. I tried to keep things simple, and New York felt like a confetti explosion of stimulus, so I’d always retreat back to my own space, my small studio to process it all. The disco scene in New York gave me a lot, culturally. I took what resonated, what felt interesting, the details that inspired me but I never fully immersed myself in disco culture. I experienced it as an outsider, a spectator. I tried to bring my own vision to it instead; darker, more mysterious, while also exploring other territory at the time. It just wasn’t the right moment or place for that immersion.
You’re based in Miami today. Is there anything like a scene for that sound and how has the city made an impact on you creatively?
Now that I’m in Miami, the scene for these genres is a small scene within a small circuit. I haven’t found my way in yet; I’ve knocked on a few doors, but nothing’s landed, and for now I’m comfortable staying on the periphery. I focus on what resonates with me here, open space, nature, wildlife, family and let go of what doesn’t; I just don’t spend time where there’s no resonance. Ultimately, the city has a subtle effect on me, but it’s not a source of inspiration. If the right input isn’t coming in, or I don’t feel the energy, that’s fine it pushes me back inward, and when I close my eyes, that’s where I find the universe that actually inspires me. If anything, cities can be more of a distraction for me than a muse.
I’ve heard you say you consider yourself a producer more than a DJ. What is it about the production process that appeals to you?
Yes, I’d say I consider myself more of a producer than a DJ. I started as a composer, then a producer, and mixing came after that. DJing is a separate thing for me, it’s not part of how I create tracks or albums, it belongs more to the world of connection; taking that music and presenting it, narrating it in a way that connects with an audience. I think a DJ has this beautiful role of being a conduit between two hearts, the sender of the message and the one receiving it. When a DJ understands both the producer’s language and the audience’s, that’s where a real connection happens; it’s an art, the art of connecting. Being a composer, to me, is like being the DJ of the original spark; you have to encode the message and translate it into music so the listener can interpret it. That part fascinates me. And producing is what comes after, once you have that initial message, your job is to articulate it as clearly as possible. That intersection, composer and producer is where I find my deepest sense of purpose.
So you seem to enjoy DJing too. What do you feel you can express through DJing?
I do enjoy DJing, just in a different way than producing, composing, or mixing. What I love most about it is the connection with people, trying to understand them, tell a story, be that thread connecting everyone in the room. Reading a crowd in real time and creating that shared magic on the dance floor is its own art form. For me, yes, it’s about technical skills but also a big weight on the ability to communicate, to open a door for the audience so we can reach something deeper together. That’s what I love about it: I learn something new every time, and I’m always trying to express that part of myself a little better.
How would you compare your sound as an artist and your sound as a DJ?
I think, at some point, the two converge in sound. I’m constantly hunting for sounds I love in the tracks I play, something in them that inspires me to build something new from scratch. So one side is about interpreting for myself, and the other is about creating from pure thought. It’s amazing how a DJ can inspire a producer, and vice versa, it’s really a circle, the same story with continuity running through it. The two meet somewhere in the middle. My voice as a DJ is a little different from my sound as a producer, but they both live within the same universe.