The Presets are riding high on the success of their third album Pacifica and are about to head off on a national tour. It’s their first non-festival tour since 2009 and some shows have sold out within days of tickets going on sale. Julian Hamilton who is one half of the band, alongside Kim Moyes, spoke to OUTinPerth from his home in Sydney.
Do you prefer doing your own shows to being on the festival circuit?
Yeah we do, the festivals are fun, you meet a lot of other bands and it’s a cool vibe. But when it’s your own show you get to put your own stamp on it and make it your own party. You have control over the lights and the whole events. It’s like you’re throwing a party for your friends rather than attending someone else’s.
Are you looking forward to playing the Mardi Gras Party, will this be your first time?
No we played it six or seven years ago and we were the first band to every play live, up until then they’d just had DJs. We’re definitely looking forward to it. It’ll be nice to go back there and have a jump around with all the boys and girls.
Pacifica is the first time you’ve been writing music on an actual piano, did it change the way you wrote music?
One of the great things about the success of Apocalypso was I was able to build a home studio and put a piano in it, I’ve been playing the piano since I was five but I’ve never had one in the place where I had music. I supposed it did change things, when you sit in front of a computer screen and you’re moving a mouse around you write in a certain way and when you’re sitting in front of a piano with keys your write in a slightly different way. Maybe if the music’s not as banging and hard it could be the piano that’s to blame.
You’ve noted that one of the influences for the track Ghosts was the song Red Pony by Perth band The Triffids, a band acclaimed for their song writing skill. Do you think we give less notice to song writing skills in electronic music?
Yeah, but it is there. I often hear people say, ‘Have you heard that Hot Chip Tune? It’s a really good song when you strip away all the beats.’ I’m always like – duh, of course it is, it’s a really good song with the beats and stuff around it. Some people find when they hear techno beats it’s not a good song because it’s not on an acoustic guitar but if you think of bands like the Pet Shop Boys and New Order they’re all good tunes. With Ghosts we really wanted to create that sort of sea shanty vibe and that’s something that The Triffids did so well on that song.
After the tour are there plans to get back into the studio?
We’ve been in the studio getting ready for the tour, remixing some of the old songs and jazzing them up and bringing things into the 21st Century. Don’t worry, we haven’t made any dub step versions. After the tour we’d like to get back into the studio. I hate this term, but with Pacifica we felt that we’d ‘ticked a big box’ and nailed some goals. Now we can already see the next thing we’d like to move towards and keep making music that’s exciting to us. I don’t know what style it’s going to be in yet, there are things floating around in my brain and I’m sure Kim’s got some ideas floating around in his too.
The Presets kick off their national tour at Metropolis Fremantle on January 31, grab your tickets from www.oztix.com.au
Graeme Watson
