RS: The music, when you're putting it together, do you write the
tracks or how do you write your songs?
Kim Moyes (The Presets): We kind of do everything at the same time, and the songs keep
evolving. We usually start with beats or chord progressions, and then
build the song and produce the song at the same time that we're
writing it. Every section will be fluid, and will constantly be
changing, until it gets all the right vibe. Melodies and all that sort
of stuff would be put on the top. It constantly changes until it all
feels good. It's a weird process but it always seems to work for us.
RS: Apolcalypso's a really strong title. Where did that come from?
Kim Moyes (The Presets): Well, we came into the studio trying to decide on album names,
or trying to go with this vibe – I can't think what the word was. It
was kind of like we were just chucking names around for the title, and
Julian sort of jokingly said "Apocalypse Wow" one time. We thought
that was so ridiculously camp and funny, and obviously we weren't ever
going to use it. It just came out of that – Apocalypso is just kind of
the silliness of an Apocalypse and a Calypso.
RS: Nice. The idea for "The Boys In Love" video with the milk,
where did that come from?
Kim Moyes (The Presets): Oh the director, that was all the director's ideas.
RS: That video has gained you a big following here in the US, in
the queer world. Is your following pretty queer around the world or is
that more of a US thing, phenomenon?
Kim Moyes (The Presets): We definitely have never shied away from the queer audience.
When we first started, some of the first people to really embrace what
we did were at gay nights in Sydney and Melbourne, in Australia. They
were the ones who really championed us at the time. And I guess in
Australia, particularly in Sydney with a really huge gay population
and lots of gay clubs and stuff – we feel really at home in that kind
of situation, and sort of associate dance music and partying with
that. We've always wanted to tap into that, and we've had some really
great opportunities. We were the first band ever to play at the Sydney
Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. We've played at the Folsom Street Fair in
San Francisco; we've played at the Christmas Street Day in Berlin, and
we've been on the covers of gay magazines. We're both straight, we
both have girlfriends, but that's the sort of thing that we really
think is a great thing about what we do – we don't shy away from
having a little bit of fun with the idea of sexuality and all that
sort of stuff. In our videos, and maybe in the subject matter in our
music and stuff – for us, it's all about that freedom you get in the
gay world. We kind of stick it in the face of everybody else, and see
how they react. It's really great that we've got the gay following
here in the States, and everywhere else in the rest of the world. We
know it's going well when we get more gay people coming to our shows –
then we know we're going to have fans to last.
RS: I tell my friends that your CD is basically electronic music
to have sex to. Is that basically what you had in mind?
Kim Moyes (The Presets): Yes, I guess so. To be honest, I think that's when electronic
music is great, when it's meant to be groovy, to be sort of sexy.
Inside of that sexiness, you've probably got a bit of what we do.