Earlier this month we posted this explosive new mash-up single by ARIA winning Sydney duo The Presets, who pitched down, spliced up, then artfully rearranged their massive back-catalogue of singles to create a schizophrenic career-spanning retrospective jam to help launch the new range of J&B Mash-Up flavours.
The Presets’ J&B Mash-Up track is available now for exclusive streaming via the J&B Australia Facebook page, where fans of The Presets are invited to enter an exclusive competition to win a live performance from the band for you and fifty of your closest mates.
To get the lowdown on how the track was made, look back on their careers so far, and glimpse ahead to the making of their new album, Pedestrian caught up with Presets vocalist/keyboardist Julian Hamilton and drummer/percussionist Kim Moyes to discuss the band’s past, present and future.
PEDESTRIAN: I should start with the reason behind why we’re talking to you guys, because you’ve just done a mash up track for J&B. Can you tell us what that was all about and the process of actually putting that track altogether?
KIM: Well it was pretty easy actually. We just chose some music, we chose the song “My People” then we took the vocals away then we threw a bunch of vocals from other songs over the top and had to find out which sounded shit and which sounded good and we kept the ones that sounded good and didn’t use the ones that sounded shit (laughs).
Justice do that in their live sets where they sub in vocal over different production and stuff like that. That’s always fun for an audience.
K: Yeah! You can listen to all your favourites without having to listen to the whole album. You don’t have to waste like 20 minutes of your life. It’s the art form that was devised by Jive Bunny, I think.
JULIAN: We do a little bit. We do mash up songs like we’ve mashed up “Anywhere” and “Steamworks” together that we use as an encore for our show and the fans seem to enjoy that. But we also blend a lot of songs into one another so like you’re still playing this melody from an old song over the next tune and it kind of works and it’s fun. It’s like synaesthesia or like you’re on acid a little bit.
K: But it’s funny because the example of “Anywhere” and “Steamworks” Julian brought up pisses other fans off because they just want to hear “Anywhere” (laughs).
It’s funny you say that, I don’t go clubbing as much as I used to but the last 4 or 5 times I’ve been, I’ve heard “Steamworks” each time.
K: Really? It’s the new underground tune?
Yeah it’s been long enough!
J: Well that’s good. That means it’s been long enough.
K: Yeah it means we’re old enough.
J: We’ll have to announce a Beams live tour to do the album in its entirety like on a Wednesday night at the Enmore.
We’d go to that. I know this would have forced you to be a bit reflective of your work but what has changed the most since Beams as far as the way you approach and think about music?
K: We actually zoomed through Beams to listen to it and get an idea of how everything sounds and get inspiration for what was going to go in the mash up and it was such a crazy experience. We didn’t listen to the whole thing, we kind of just zipped through it. It was of all over the shop; it was such a funny album. A real compilation of too many different ideas I think. But at the same time I think it all seems to kind of work. That was the big difference between us making Beams and Apocalypso like we kind of refined it down and even more so in Pacifica. But you do go back and listen to it [Beams] it all sounds kind of higgilty piggilty sometimes for me.
J: But it’s cool, too. It’s certainly survived. There’s something nice about not really knowing what you’re doing. It makes it more fun in different ways.
Is it still as much of a time machine for you guys as it is for your fans?
K: Yeah definitely, even more so for us because we get taken back to the people we were when we were making it. It’s funny remembering what we were like when we were making that record.
J: Yeah it’s like looking through old photo albums. It’s a different process because it’s us on every song and we pour all our heart and soul into our music. It’s like, this is our main thing. This is what we do. You definitely recognise your younger selves in the music. It’s a cool little time capsule.
What are your fondest memories of those times? There was something quite special about that time in club culture.
K: Yeah the club scene is very mainstream now. There’s nothing wrong with that, it was just that before it felt fresh and new and close knit and there were huge club nights were around. I don’t want to sound like an old bogey going “when we were young”…
J: But yeah there were a special couple of years we felt very focused and everyone was friends and the excitement was palpable and then it became more gentrified again.
Going through your back catalogue, what’s your favourite song? What are you most proud of?
K: It’s hard to pick just one. It’s almost like different categories. It’s like your favourite stonker or your favourite electro pop ballad. I mean “Girl And The Sea” is still a real favourite of mine. It was the first one we had a video for and for a lot of people, it was the first taste of us. We still get a lot of people coming up to us telling us about how important that song is to them. It exists in a way that isn’t our regular mode. It’s really heartfelt and super nostalgic but then again there’s a song off every album that has something special to either of us, I’m sure.
J: Same, that tune for sure. Sometimes there are certain tunes that you enjoyed making and that you’re really proud of but perhaps you probably wouldn’t want to listen to all the time. Then other songs like “Girl And The Sea”. Like Kim said, it’s hard to pick a favourite.
Is there anything you’re embarrassed about, retrospectively?
J: There’s plenty!
K: I think with the music, we’re pretty strict with what we release. If we made anything that’s a bit iffy we definitely call it before it goes to the release table.
So what have you guys been doing this year?
K: I’ve just finished Kirin J. Callinan’s album and Jack Ladder’s record. We’ve been working on new material. I’ve been doing Beni’s stuff. We’ve just been doing heaps of projects. Julian’s been doing a lot of co-writing.
J: It just never ends. It’s good to keep busy. Just heaps of co-writing with pop people and little bits of production here and there. Just keeping busy with the new Presets stuff.
How do you guys approach starting a new album or thinking about making new music?
K: I mean with where we are now, in our current creative zone, before we sort of started making new music, we got to remix a bunch of old songs for this new show we’re putting together and that really fed into the creative process of where we are now. I guess it’s kind of similar to where we were last time, but last time I felt we were stabbing in the dark a little bit, whereas this time it’s been a lot more focused.
J: It’s different for me now. For every record you do, you sort of get it out of your system. Pacifica was a tricky record to make. It’s like, we did it and it’s done and now we don’t have to make it again…if that makes sense. Now we can move on to the next thing, whatever feels good. I personally feel like this period is much more easier than Pacifica, we can just have fun and make whatever makes us happy and feel good.
You are in a position where can kind of do anything that you want.
J: Yeah that’s right. Especially if we did Apocalypso 2.0 I don’t think we would be in the position to do anything we want.
It seems now more than ever the music industry and music audiences are so fickle that if you fall off once they just don’t let you back into the building. That must be scary as a creative person.
K: Yeah. With Pacifica we got to address something different from what we addressed in previous albums. We got to do something a bit more artistic and less about party smash anthems. And I think after getting that out of our system and broadening the range and scope of the band, it kind of seems exciting for us to go back to making more party music again. Not like there wasn’t an element of that in Pacifica – it’s just that the climate we were in during Pacifica was a little bit different and is different now. I feel there is more freedom for us to make classic Presets stuff without it being hideous. We sidestepped a few issues in Pacifica. Coming from my point of view, there was some pretty hideous stuff going on that we were kind of directly or indirectly part of.
J: Musically
K: Yeah musically. Hideous, noisy stuff like dubstep, or whatever. It just felt like the world we would have logically followed went off in a direction that we couldn’t really go with. It’s difficult to explain.
No I think I understand. There is a market for an artistic or less conventional kind of dance music though.
K: Yeah I mean we don’t want to take the fun out of it. It’s important that dance music doesn’t become too cerebral where I think a lot of cool stuff gets lost. Music is also for the body and should be fun but it shouldn’t be abusive or hideous.
How would you describe the general vibe of the new stuff?
J: Fun. We’ve always liked dance music. I’m thrilled we’re making a dance album. It’s fun. We’re in a good place. Like Kim was saying, we’ve addressed things we wanted to address with Pacifica and personally it feels like a real relief and fun to be making slamming dance music again. Then again, we haven’t finished the album yet so that may change.
What advice would you give your younger selves?
K: Be nicer.
J: Be patient. Keep doing what you’re doing.
Main Image by: Piona Goodall via Getty
