The Presets

The Presets are a long way from home. The day after starting off their North American tour, the electronic duo is waking up in Minneapolis. Just one stop into their 18-date co-headlining tour, Kim Moyes, one half of The Presets alongside Julian Hamilton, is fighting a cold but nevertheless says the tour is off to a good start.

Alongside fellow Aussie dance-makers Cut Copy, The Presets are playing shows in support of their second full-length, Apocalypso. Classically trained musicians, both Moyes and Hamilton have a penchant for crafting dense compositions that still get people on their feet. A modern update on ’80s dance pop, Apocalypso topped the iTunes chart back home and, is beginning to make a mark on U.S. audiences.

SSv’s Natalie B. David caught up with Moyes to discuss the band’s live show, touring so far from home and what prompted the sinister vibes behind their latest album.

SSv: So with this tour and your previous tours in North America have you noticed any real differences between the audiences here and your audiences at home in Australia?

Moyes: Um. Well, the main differences are that our profiles are bigger in Australia than they are in America. So the shows are a lot larger and maybe a bit more intense. But the shows have been getting bigger here, especially in the major cities and they’ve sort of been doing the right things. Like, people aren’t coming to the shows and standing there scratching their chins and not dancing and stuff but they come to the shows and they’re kind of cutting loose which is exactly what they’re meant to do. But, aside from differences in how they look… I don’t know. You know, actually, there is one cool thing that they do. After we play, they all come up to you and say, “Wow. Thank you for coming here. I really appreciate it.” Which in Australia they wouldn’t do that. They would yell at you.

SSv: That’s cool that you get to feel appreciated for coming all the way here to play shows.

Moyes: I think it’s really nice.

SSv: So, besides just the shows being a larger size back in Australia, is it strange going on tour to other places where your popularity level is different?

Moyes: Yeah, but you realize that different markets are at different stages and people’s awareness are different of you and we’re not stupid. We’re not going in thinking that everyone should, like, worship us or that everywhere should be as big as the other place. It’s all work. There’s nothing that’s a real dud. There’s not really any instances where we turn up and nobody comes to the show or if they do come, they’re real standoffish or whatever. Even the really small shows are really, really fun. I guess the main thing is that it’s just hard work touring, just getting there and all the in-between stuff besides the playing. It’s just hard work, but, you know, I kind of enjoy it more than the big stuff. The big shows are really nerve-wracking. So it’s not strange, it’s just part of the thing.

SSv: So something I’m curious about, with electronic music a lot of people think when they go to the show a lot of it is just loops and stuff recorded on the computer, so I was wondering with The Presets live show, how much of it uses technology and how much of it is you two playing live?

Moyes: Well, it’s very much half and half. A lot of our production and stuff is pretty dense. And it’s just the two of us so we have to use the computer but we’ve designed it in a way that… Our live performance for us is really important, especially since what we come from originally is actual musicians. We’ve sort of designed it in a way where I can play drums and Julian is singing and playing keyboards and then all the really good big stuff is coming off the computer to maximize the intensity. It’s not very obvious. If you’re watching it, it’s obvious what’s going on behind what we’re doing. It looks like we’re making a lot more noise than we should be, yeah. But we’ve loved dance music, electronic music, our whole lives but we’ve always found that side of it, the performance side of it, to be really boring. Like dudes standing in front of the computer and whatever. But that’s kind of what we’ve tried to rectify.

SSv: You mentioned that you two are actual musicians and you have classical training. So having that background, how did you transition into making the electronic dance music?

Moyes: Well, when I finished Uni, up until then, I was like 22, all of my music was classical performance and it was all very much about physical instruments and stuff like that, and once I finished my degree I felt that part of my life was now…I had reached a point where I could go into a professional career, being in an orchestra or being a session musician or I could put an end to that bit and start learning something new. And I was always really listening to electronic music, fascinated about the sounds that I’ve heard, so I decided to buy a computer. And I had been dabbling a little bit at Uni and stuff, but I decided to spend all of my time doing it, and that’s just kind of how we did. Just got really obsessed on it, buying keyboards and drum machines and all that kind of stuff and learning about production.

And then also, it was definitely also about learning to record yourself and what you can do with recording, you know what I mean? A lot of the music that we do isn’t completely electronic. We record a lot of live sounds as well and we sort of mix about with them inside the computer. So we’re not a purely electronic act or or purely into, you know, techno or whatever, but it’s all fair game.

SSv: So you met Julian back in the ’90s and you guys are still together making music. So when you first met, did you ever think that you would still be playing together ten years later?

Moyes: I guess in my mind I had always hoped to do it. When I met Julian we became like best friends and he feels like a brother and musically and everything. And we just felt really strong together as people and I always hoped that we’d be doing stuff together, though I can’t speak for him, but yeah. I’ve always been a romantic like that, thinking we’ll take on the world, and bit of that really rubbed through in our relationship. But it’s definitely cool. It’s hard. We’ve known each other for like 13 years and we’ve been friends for that long and have had a few projects and things sort of change over time, but luckily we’re still really good friends, and have a great time making music together.

SSv: So what is it about your musical partnership that keeps the two of you working together?

Moyes: I don’t know. I guess we’re sort of really similar in a way, so there’s a real understanding but we’re also polar opposites, [so] that’s quite challenging. I think we both challenge each other on a lot of levels. We’ve worked with a lot of other people and I don’t get the same type of feeling. I don’t know specifically what it is, but, yeah, we really respect each other musically and as people and feel like we have this common understanding but feel like there’s a circle that gets completed being with each other. It’s hard to explain.

SSv: Now with, Apocalypso, what I’ve noticed that there’s a bit of a sinister feel to it, with the beginning of “Talk Like That” and the first track “Kicking and Screaming” other points on the record, so I was wondering what inspired that sinister feel and if it was intentional or if it just happened that way.

Moyes: That’s something that we sort of feel is in techno. After years of going to raves and listening to certain techno and stuff, there’s a real uneasiness that’s quite a bit like dark and a little bit dissonant and that’s something that we’re always really objective to. Like if you’re listening to Chemical Brothers or some certain Detroit techno, just the way that they put that stuff together is, I think for us, we think it’s called “funky.” When there’s that like darkness or uneasiness or whatever you’re describing, I know what you’re describing, but that’s what we think “funky” means. A bit like stinky and, you know, almost a bit wrong.

SSv: And I also read that you guys don’t necessarily do remixes for other people anymore, but you like it when other people remix your songs. So what do you like about hearing remixes of your own work?

Moyes: I guess initially, the main reason that we get remixes is so that DJs will play our songs in the club. And I mean a lot of the music that we make is dance floor orientated but it’s still pop music and it’s maybe not the best music to be played in a club by a DJ. But just really solid club mixes that production wise is right for clubs. I don’t know. It’s so good to hear an interesting take on a song. It doesn’t matter who’s done it or what it is. Sometimes like really weird things, like ambient things call, it’s just really good to hear our song or just Julian’s vocals on a completely different idea. It’s actually sort of why we don’t decline things that we get is that when someone has taken Julian’s vocal and then completely created a new bed for it to sit on it’s like, all right, we could’ve been this band, you know. Almost like there’s a new band there.

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Tagged as: Australia, Dance, Electronica, House, Techno

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