The Presets doing Supermarket SWEET!
Writing music is like doing a poo! SUPERSWEET's Steve Gislam has some invaluable lessons to learn from Julian Hamilton (pictured left) of the Presets. What else will he find out? That people should keep their heads on for the sake of superficial beauty... that amongst others!
SS: Your album is called Beams. What's the story behind the name?
Julian: The word Beams was written on a shopping bag that was sitting on the floor of Kim's studio.
SS: Describe the album in no less than five words.
Juiian: Bitches will be lovin' us.
SS: What's the band dynamic like for you? Do you write the lyrics and music together?
Julian: Music we write together, Lyrics I write alone.
SS: I'm interested in the recording process of Beams. The album is an interesting one in the way that the mood of it swings from dark and seductive to fairly cheery towards the end, via some really paranoid bad-comedown kind of stuff with tracks like 'Worms'. Is this a deliberate thing to create such an organic sounding album or was this a result of the recording process?
Julian: Nothing was really deliberate on the album. We kinda just set up our toys and play. Whatever comes out on the day is The Presets style. I don't mean to be rude, but it's kinda like doing a poo - you never know how it's going to come out, and it's always different - but you have to get it out of you or else you are grumpy. Writing music for us is like going to the toilet. Sometimes our music is really hard, sometimes it's soft and pretty.
SS: What was the recording process like? How long did the album take from start to finish?
Julian: We spent 3 years and two EPs screwing around and finding our style. Then one day we decided to get our shit together, scrapped most of what we had and we wrote, recorded and mixed most of our record in a couple of months.
SS: With being on the road and all, are you sick of each other yet?
Julian: Kim and I have been friends for a long time. If we were going to rip each other's heads off we would've done it along time ago. I think we both prefer each other with heads on.
SS: And what's been the best gig so far?
Julian: There have been too many good ones - can't choose a favourite. Standouts were definitely Miami, Glasgow, Berlin and Los Angeles. Oh, the Folsom St Fair in San Francisco the other day was really cool. I have never seen so many naked 50 year old bearded men before.
SS: What's been soundtracking the tourbus?
Julian: Our US tour manager really loves gangsta-rap. We listened to The Geto Boys whilst driving through Houston, listened to GhostFace Killah in NY, and Ice-T in L.A. We've found that nothing gives you a better feel for a place than listening to rap music from that area.
SS: Live performances always give a new dimension to music. The music can be twisted and turned and performance becomes the order of the day for the live spectacle. With that in mind, what do you think your strengths are as live performers?
Julian: We really enjoy performing live. I think our music makes most sense when it's being blasted at a darkroom filled with sweaty kids. I hope that when the audience sees us on stage acting like idiots, maybe it gives them permission to do the same.
SS: In a musical climate where 'electro-punk' bands are beginning to sound like regurgitated versions of one another, you seem to have a fresh approach to the scene and very much a unique sound. What artists would you say influenced you the most? And which of your contemporaries are you fans of?
Julian: Our biggest influences I think are the bands that were big when Kim and I first met in the mid 90's - The Prodigy, Josh Wink, The Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers. These days our favourite (kinda similar sounding to us) bands are people like Hot Chip, The Juan MacLean, Digitalism.
SS: Where do you stand on the 'MySpace-ification' of music? As a relatively new band what effect have they had on your exposure?
Julian: MySpace has been great for us. It has made it so easy for us to keep in touch with our fans. In Australia we no longer have to advertise shows in magazines, we just send messages to our friends on MySpace. The best part? Now my mother doesn't bother me about tour dates! She just checks our MySpace. Usually she'll find out about shows before I do. 'Hey sweetie, you're going to Barcelona. That sounds like fun!'
SS: You're from Australia, a country that seems too many to be culturally on the up in terms of music, art, film and so on, but there is still the AC/DC stereotype of hard rock. What's your feeling on this as a band who don't rely on guitars to make music?
Julian: Funny you say that - when we started The Presets, we used to set up our instruments in Kim's kitchen and try to play AC/DC and Midnight Oil songs with our synths. That is how we kinda wrote in the early days, by trying to cover classic guitar rock without guitars. We like the energy and aggression of rock music, but prefer the sound old synthesizers.
Words: Steve Gislam