LA Weekly

I’m pretty sure the Presets made me gay. At least temporarily during each of their shows I saw here — energizing, mesmerizing, twisterizing orgazmoramas of technosynth pop. If Australia’s Julian Hamilton (keyboards and vocals) and Kim Moyes (drums) had gone into pharmaceuticals instead of music, they might have created a pill that makes you high, makes you dance and makes you smart. No time release. And, you know, what more could you want? Coming out of a classical education via rock and film music, their latest album, Beams, moves from pure, driving, stuff-amyl-nitrite-up-your-nose-and- shake-your-head-around-till-dizzy grind to light, bouncy pop to electro-noise weirdities to the lovely, clip-cloppy cinematic title track. Hamilton and Moyes spoke to the Weekly via e-mail, answering the same questions separately, which were then edited together.


L.A. WEEKLY:Your live shows make me think of two things. One, seeing Richard Pryor at the Comedy Store years ago and the way his routine got you laughing, then kept you laughing harder and harder until you were, like, dying . . .

JULIAN HAMILTON: What? You mean you stood there laughing at us the whole time?


. . . and two, sex. Your song order seems very purposeful.

KIM MOYES: Man that is awesome! The set we’ve been building is completely designed to have a powerful beginning and a mind-bending finish. I guess we always thought that if we are going to be in front of an audience for a limited amount of time, like 45 minutes or an hour, we are going to try and pack as much of a punch as we can.


And while we’re at it, what role (if any) does sex have in your music? What role should your music have in sex?

MOYES: Sex sex sexiness IS the music, and a lot of what Jules is singing about is related to the topic of getting some or wanting to get some. We have always said that in these uncertain times, what better way to spend it than to dance, get high and fuck?

HAMILTON: I hope it makes people want to fuck and dance — they’re two of the last things we’re allowed to do in a world that’s being increasingly run on hate and fear.

MOYES: A lot of people feel the need to tell us about their sex lives and how our music plays a part in that. I would rather they kept it to themselves, but I am proud there is a piece of us sharing some intimacy with them in the bedroom.


Do you like Slade? Don’t feel you have to answer this.

MOYES:

HAMILTON:


If you were forced to classify the Presets in the most annoyingly narrow-minded, quasi-journalistic manner, what specific genre would you choose? Otherwise, where does the music come from — what and who are your influences (in music or outside of it)? What do you want the music to do for us?

HAMILTON: Three years ago journalists called us electro-clash, now they’re calling us new rave. I don’t know what they will call us tomorrow.

MOYES: Spazzzzdancefaggggrock! But if we were crossing the U.S./Canadian border, I would say just “Dance Music, mate!” Essentially we are a party band; it’s pop music with techno production. We draw inspiration from so many sources; films like Blade Runner and Mad Max are very important to us; all music affects us.

HAMILTON: We both grew up on sci-fi films from the ’80s, so film scores by guys like John Carpenter and Vangelis kinda stick in our heads.

MOYES: Hopefully our music will be with you in the car on that amazing summer vacation, or you will get laid listening to our songs or find something consoling or meaningful in the lyrics when you have just broken up, whatever — but you MUST dance like a fuck-wit to us!


You guys met in college, studying classical? What role does classical music play in your lives and current musical pursuits?

HAMILTON: That’s correct, we met whilst studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. I studied piano — Mozart and stuff, as well as modern guys like Cage, Boulez, Stockhausen.

MOYES: I was studying classical percussion, which to a large extent is learning how to count 500 bars before it’s your turn to play the triangle, offset by extremely complicated contemporary composition. Jules and I became friends over film and music and started going to clubs together and taking drugs. We had an incredibly beautiful instrumental band called “Prop” with three other members.

HAMILTON: By night we were discovering Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers, but our days were spent battling with really difficult classical works. It’s an intense and demanding discipline, which is why it sticks in my head now, even though I no longer play classical music. I think there are a lot of similarities between classical music and dance music — especially in terms of mood and energy: the way a dance track can break down, then build up excruciatingly slowly to a massive release, then step up even higher. A three-hour DJ mix can be a real emotional roller-coaster, much like a lot of classical music (especially romantic-era stuff like Rachmaninov Piano Concertos and Wagner Operas). I think both dance music and classical music touch on a range of human emotions in a way that perhaps three-minute rock songs cannot.

MOYES: A lot of the modern art or classical music I undertook as a classical percussionist really opened my eyes to possibilities. It gave me a sense that you could make anything happen. So much of contemporary art-music ensembles are run by hardcore fanatics who endlessly chase government funding for projects and inevitably lose money from every concert they put on, but keep it going for the sheer passion and necessity of it. I admire that so much. As for the sound worlds being created by the composers and musicians in the contemporary classical fields, a lot of it is very hard to digest and probably too intellectual for me to grasp, but some of it is so fresh and beautiful and such a great source of inspiration for me as a musician. The orchestra, opera and the classics are just as important to me as, say, John Lennon, the Beach Boys or Kraftwerk.


Tell us about your other bands, and their relation to the Presets (historically and currently). Why just the two of you and what are the pros and cons, musically and otherwise?

MOYES: The band we were in before, Prop, came together when we were at music school. It had five members who were all studying either classical or jazz. The main instruments of the band were vibraphone and marimba. We had two drum kits, a Fender Rhodes, three synths, bass guitar and at times a big, old double bass that we called “the tree.” It’s the sort of band you would expect from music students — intense, learned and filled with wide-eyed ambition. The Presets is kind of the opposite to Prop in many ways. Having so much gear really limited the amount of touring we could do, and musically the Presets is more immediate as opposed to Prop’s long and winding instrumental improvisations. While we tried to be as democratic as possible in Prop, a lot of the decision-making was left to Jules and me, and when we had a few musical ideas that the rest of the boys didn’t quite understand, it became apparent [that Jules and I needed] to start a new project. Hence the Presets was born.

Since then we have played in other bands together and separately, been involved in the productions, writing and recordings of other peoples projects. It’s important that we get time away from each other to explore things outside of the Presets and keep our musical relationship fresh.


Kim, you have what I think of as “rolling” style, sort of fluid and organic. Is this just your natural way of playing, or did you pick it up from someone?

MOYES: I had a couple of great instrument teachers growing up. One is the principal timpanist in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Richard Miller. He taught me this great fluid style with all these overexaggerated arm gestures that help project sound and get the body into a sort of circular rhythm that he defines as “Funky,” like dancing on the drums — kinda makes sense that the person defining the beat has gotta be dancing if he/she wants to get everyone else dancing. Now it’s just a part of my natural style. He also taught me that everyone has their own unique musical voice, and it’s important that you give yourself a chance to be heard. I liked that idea, it helped me realize some sort of freedom (and made me completely independent and hence, unemployable).


Julian, at the Henry Fonda a few months back, some jerk threw a paper cup or something and hit Kim. If looks could kill, that guy would be a burn mark on the floor, and Kim played with a particular, glaring intensity the rest of the show. Is he scary to work and travel with?

HAMILTON: Not at all! Of course, he has his dark, intense moments (like everybody), but he deals with the rigors and stresses of touring way better than I do. Unfortunately, because Kim is sitting at the drums and I run around onstage, he makes an easier target than I do (and believe me — I’ve had many a bottle fly past me onstage).


Kim, tell us something equally bad (or good) about Julian.

HAMILTON: You better say something nice, Kim . . .

MOYES: Julian is a really great person. He is modest, considerate, sensible and incredibly funny. And he can dance like a mother­fucker.


Kim and Julian, where do you see your music going? Where would you like to be in five years, 10 years, in music and in life? Or, just tell us about your favorite TV shows.

HAMILTON: Still doing this — just easier. It would be nice not to spend as much time away from home. Now that I think about it, it would be great to have our own chef while on the road in USA — the food in this country sucks you know! (My favorite thing to watch on TV back home is my football team, the Tigers, kicking some other team’s ass — and they don’t wear helmets and stop for 2 minutes every 30 seconds like you guys do here.)

MOYES: I think in five years I will hopefully have a couple of kids and a big, fat mortgage on some great house in Sydney. I will be going to the beach every day, even in winter. I will still be making music, maybe the Presets will still be going. Man, the Pet Shop Boys are still at it!


THE PRESETS | Beams | Modular Interscope

For more information, check out www.thepresets.com.