Party Like It's 2007: The Presets Are Putting Their Own Spin On The Indie Sleaze Revival

Cyclone Wehner

The Presets are staging their own touring festival, Foreverafter, with other acts from the fabled Modular Recordings fold – the name a "nod" to Daft Punk's mythic 2007 NEVEREVERLAND spectacular, where they were the principal support. But the big question is whether the duo's renewed live activity means album five is coming.

The Presets(Credit: Ben Sullivan)

The Presets

The Eora/Sydney electronic dance music legends The Presets – frontman Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes – have conceived a new summer touring event called Foreverafter. And it's a homage to a mythic Australian extravaganza they performed back in December 2007 – Daft Punk's NEVEREVERLAND.

At the time, the French robots had released their third album Human After All and, having headlined 2006's Coachella with the euphoric Alive spectacular, were enjoying a rejuvenated currency.

An extension of Modular Recordings, Modular Touring booked them to play live at a bespoke festival here for the first – and final – occasion as a duo with various "friends" supporting. For Foreverafter, The Presets have similarly engaged their old Modular associates Cut Copy, Ladyhawke, Bag Raiders and the Bang Gang DJs – all still relevant. The street posters are everywhere.

Moyes – musician, producer and DJ – is freely reliving NEVEREVERLAND. "I think it's definitely in the spirit of that, for sure," he says of Foreverafter. "I mean, there's no denying the fact that this is a kind of like nod to Modular and to that era. That was such a good festival for us to do, and 'NEVEREVERLAND' was such a great name, and 'Foreverafter' just sort of came out. It felt like this is continuing the story.

"It was in the spirit of what we were trying to do with the festival – which is [to show] that these bands and this music that we've created and that scene that we were from is still vital; it's still continuing, it's still got a really visceral, strong spirit to it."

NEVEREVERLAND was held at an auspicious juncture for The Presets – and Australia. Days prior, they unleashed their now iconic electro-pop classic, My People. Hamilton had penned the lyrics to protest the Australian Government's mandatory detention of asylum seekers – a policy Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating introduced as an interim measure in the '90s that was ramped up by John Howard's Liberals.

In November, Howard was defeated in the Australian Federal Election by Kevin Rudd's Labor. The germane My People assumed a life of its own, actually attracting commercial radio airplay.

However, Foreverafter isn't exclusively about Millennial nostalgia for indie-dance, electro-house, nu-rave, MySpace, Tumblr, blogs, hipsters, Vice and the retroactively tagged 'indie sleaze' aesthetic that proliferated against the backdrop of recession. The Presets have also lined up Meanjin/Brisbane newcomer FUKHED.

It's announcement day, and Moyes is Zooming from his Eora/Sydney hometown, disclosing that he's been yapping to media all morning. "I'm happy to go camera-off – it's kind of like having a conversation with the driver in the backseat," he says drolly.

Moyes' charismatic cohort, Hamilton, is absent – the multi-ARIA-winners alternating interviews. "Julian's just on a family holiday at the moment, and so he left on Monday," he explains. "But I'm leaving for my family holiday tomorrow night… So, yeah, it's just ships in the night."

Moyes and Hamilton bonded as students at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (the former a percussionist) in the '90s and were members of the cult instrumental ensemble Prop – Sonic Youth's impressive advocates.

But the friends gravitated towards electronic dance music and DJ culture and were soon remixing themselves. The Presets officially launched in 2003 (coincidentally the same year MySpace was inaugurated) – Hamilton surprising himself as vocalist. Curiously, the musicians-for-hire were simultaneously gigging in The Dissociatives (Silverchair's Daniel Johns and Paul Mac).

The Presets signed to Steve "Pav" Pavlovic's Modular Recordings, the stable solidifying its credentials as an indie-dance brand with The Avalanches' success. In fact, the outfit always had a rock 'n' roll edge, composing formative material with Johns (in turn, Hamilton co-wrote Silverchair's Straight Lines). In 2005, following two EPs (the song The Girl And The Sea synced for the teen TV fave The OC), they debuted with the subcultural album Beams – the first single the indelible Are You The One?.

Beams was licensed to another seminal label in Germany's International DeeJay Gigolo Records after founder DJ Hell (aka Helmut Geier) caught them live. "He came and saw us in New York, and he really loved us, and then we met up with him again in London," Moyes relates.

Under the tastemaking Münchner, Gigolo popularised electroclash, promoting Miss Kittin & The Hacker and Fischerspooner. "Gigolo had a really hot moment in the early 2000s, and it was kind of the label." Liaising with Gigolo was "a really great experience" that ushered in more opportunities across Europe. "It felt like it was something happening and, through them putting out our record, we got to do a bunch of touring in Germany and Spain. It was a really amazing time."

In 2008, at their creative zenith, The Presets became a generational dance-pop combo. In the months leading up to NEVEREVERLAND, they rocked the Big Day Out's Boiler Room. The Presets would finally crossover with the chart-topping Apocalypso – led by My People, that hallucinatory video courtesy of Moyes' younger director brother Kris, which was succeeded by the hits This Boy’s In Love and Talk Like That. They scored several ARIAs. Significantly, The Presets were the first electronic dance act to win 'Album Of The Year'.

Formidable live, The Presets established an international presence, appearing at Glastonbury and Coachella (initially in 2009, billed the day Paul McCartney headlined). They remixed Kings Of Leon's Closer, their uncharacteristically mellow version included on an expanded Come Around Sundown. The Presets bolstered past achievements with 2012's Pacifica.

Still, The Presets didn't pursue world domination. Over the next six years, the adroit pair moonlighted as writers and producers or took on side-projects – Richard Tognetti securing them to participate in the Australian Chamber Orchestra's ambitious TIMELINE. Moyes co-produced the DMA'S' 2018 LP For Now, the Brit-pop aficionados exploring psytronica.

But The Presets sporadically circulated singles – one, 2014's No Fun, remixed by Eora/Sydney's emerging future bass producer Golden Features, a "fanboy" – and they teamed with the Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angello for the progressive Remember, Stuart Price co-producing.

Modular ultimately floundered – or imploded – and, circa 2015, the roster was absorbed into Universal Music Australia with Pavlovic departing. Moyes harbours no animus. "It was amazing, and it was so inspiring and motivating," he reminisces. "It's funny – there are some labels that have really stood the test of time, and they've been able to maintain [themselves].

“I guess they don't bite off too much more than they can chew, they don't have crazy overheads, or maybe they're just managed in a bit more of a careful way… My personal experience with Modular was just it felt like we're on the greatest label in the world – and in the country, for sure."

Moyes recalls "a great time" when Modular was but one of myriad dance music labels globally with "like-minded" people, citing James Murphy's DFA Records and the French Kitsuné Musique and Ed Banger Records. It was "an incredible time to connect," he adds, MySpace a locus.

Modular wasn't sustainable. "But I don't know if I could foresee the implosion of Modular coming. I certainly felt like maybe the label was running a bit beyond its means. Maybe the rock star aspect of the label itself was kind of bigger than the rock stars making the music! So I guess it's one of those things that burnt really bright and it faded out even quicker."

Mid-2018, having rejoined the live circuit, The Presets mounted a comeback with the warehousey Hi Viz, proclaiming the irreverent lead single Do What You Want "pub rock techno" – a catchphrase Charli xcx might coin, though, Moyes jokes, they were "never not in the pub techno era."

Unusually, The Presets solicited guests like Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears. Another song, the housey Out Of Your Mind, featured Alison Wonderland (whose Church The Presets remixed) and was apparently co-written with Tayla Parx as well as Warren "Oak" Felder from Pop & Oak (the R&B posse gaining prominence subsequent to their input into Kehlani's SweetSexySavage). Most buzz? A DMA'S collaboration, Are You Here?. Hi Viz reached #5 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums chart, The Presets championed anew by triple j (they covered Midnight Oil's '80s Power And The Passion for their Like A Version premiere).

The Presets returned to Splendour In The Grass for a fifth go, replacing Canada's Chromeo. They then headed back overseas, playing the Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival in Las Vegas. The Presets were shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize – the third time consecutively since Apocalypso.

Increasingly embracing cross-generational exchange, The Presets cut 2019's joint EP Raka with the mysterious Golden Features. They also aired the modish groove You Belong as the soundtrack to the 2021/2022 New Year's Eve midnight fireworks in Eora/Sydney. Today, The Presets are still performing to a fervent fanbase, last summer selling out a gig during AO LIVE Opening Week alongside RONA.

But The Presets don't have a schedule for a fifth album. "Look, anything's possible," Moyes states. "I think, at the moment, we're just focusing on doing our own music and working individually – and that's been really fun.

"It's been a long career, and we've been sort of trying to meet certain expectations and making albums and touring and making songs that are hits and things like that. I think eventually it just becomes quite abrasive. There's just time needed for people to grow as individuals. So that's what we're focusing on now.

"The Presets is definitely something that we really love, and we wanna nurture, and we want it to evolve. But it almost has a different set of needs now.

"So, yeah, I mean, we know that people would really love another record and it's certainly something that I think we would love to be able to get to one day. But there's no immediate plans for that at the moment... But you never know."

Indeed, both of The Presets have solo profiles. Moyes was DJing, remixing and disseminating original tracks as K.I.M even in the 2000s. Recently, he's busied himself contributing to others' projects – notably Keli Holiday's but also Genesis Owusu's (with a writing credit on his LIFE KEEPS GOING). Moyes was especially thrilled to produce viral Eora/Sydney renegades Shady Nasty's debut album TREK of last year – "Fred again.. really got quite excited about that."

Moyes has just helmed an EP for Sex Mask, the Naarm/Melbourne electro-punk trio aligned with the ever-entrepreneurial Pavlovic's latest concern, Unpopular Recordings – the appropriately rowdy first single (and title-track) Raid. "They're a really exciting band who've got a lot of promise," he enthuses. "They hadn't really worked with a producer before – they've done most of their stuff in-house. So that was really fun; to kind of kick them into a different sort of way of being."

Moyes welcomes fresh challenges. "I've been doing lots of funny little things," he shares. Moyes served as music director for the cabaret show GATSBY At The Green Light, adapted from F Scott Fitzgerald's '20s Jazz Age novel The Great Gatsby and premiering at the Sydney Opera House in late 2023 with the pop-soul auteur Odette starring.

"But," he resumes, "I'm just really enjoying working on my own music at the moment, actually." Moyes has no idea what will result – K.I.M fare or anything else. "I'm trying not to think about it like that. I'm just sort of trying to get it out and we'll see where it lands."

In 2023, too, the First Nations hip hop supergroup 3% flipped My People for their Blak anthem, OUR PEOPLE, named 'Song Of The Year' at the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs) – Nooky praising The Presets in interviews. "I think they just used a sort of sample – and it's like a song in its own right. It was great – [we were] super chuffed to be involved. They did a fantastic job and brought their own agenda to it."

Ironically, 3%'s repurposing of My People reminded listeners that the original was a protest song as much as a party banger. But Moyes isn't fazed that, lyrically, My People may have lost any subliminal resonance. "No, it's sort of not that important," he insists. "Whatever inspires a song's meaning is irrelevant, in a way – like people need to take that on board into their own lives. The worst kind of music for me is when it's like, 'This is exactly what this means.' You know, that's so boring."

Nonetheless, The Presets are intentional songwriters. "I'm not talking about just making meaningless music that is waffle and put together haphazardly. I think it has to be put together carefully so that it matters to you enough that you would want it to matter to somebody else."

The Presets' union is resilient, outlasting many relationships. How do their personalities complement each other? "Well, I think the fact that we're complete opposites is probably the number one thing," Moyes reflects. "There's a kind of yin to a yang aspect. We bring to the partnership something that maybe the other person can't – and vice versa. So I guess that that's what's made it endure. It's not always easy."

Again in 2023, The Presets hit the road on a national DJ tour (encompassing dates at outlying suburban venues) to mark their 20th anniversary. And they aren't averse to nostalgia – Foreverafter capitalising on a post-COVID-19 pandemic retro boom in the dance scene, Millennials out raving. But is EDM more intergenerational, or atemporal, than pop?

"I think pop is really time-dependent – and style-dependent," Moyes begins. "I think dance music is style-dependent, too. But, if you look at the music Dom Dolla makes and some of the dance music of the '90s, it's almost like there's a tradition to it. It's functional in a way that pop music isn't.

"I don't know how to talk about it without reducing it down to something that's gonna be a soundbite, but the experience of dance music is a body experience first and foremost – and maybe [that's] not so much with pop music. Pop music is almost more about personality, in a way, whereas [with] dance music a lot of the time you find that the personality is the second most important thing.

"Even just the nature of going to see a DJ – I mean, maybe not so much these days with big festivals and stuff, but a lot of the time it was sort of like someone hidden in the corner and the music was just there. It's part of an experience that you were involved in, rather than going to watch someone in flamboyant costumes [with] 30 dancers, synchronised dance routines… It feels like the experience of dance music is the most important thing."

Moyes pauses. "I almost feel like dance music is quite traditional. It's like you can go and do a DJ set with a bunch of new music and also a bunch of old music and put it all together and tell a story and that will make sense. You can actually even grab stuff from other styles and put it together and it'll make sense. [But] it's something I haven't really thought that deeply about, I'm afraid!"

The Presets have remained visible in popdom, yet a few of their contemporaries are forgotten – Moyes' erstwhile studio pals Lost Valentinos are consistently underrated. Who does he believe is worthy of rediscovery?

"I mean, maybe even before our time, [but] I feel like bands like Itch-E & Scratch-E and Severed Heads and Single Gun Theory are amazing Australian electronic music and really singular. They were the sort of bands that inspired me as a young aspiring musician – and a teenager. They're the ones that got me interested in electronic music, and Australian electronic music, doing things very differently, very particularly; beautiful music and sometimes really challenging music…

"So I think, for me, rediscovering what I would say are the pioneers of Australian dance music is really important to get the whole story. I draw the lineage back to them.

"We go on to have our thing – we inspire. I know RÜFÜS DU SOL talk about how we inspired them – and that inspiration and that lineage keeps continuing. [But] I think, if anyone's gonna talk about rediscovering, it's sort of [like], 'Let's go back to the artists that really created the blueprint for what we're all experiencing now.'"

Intellectualising electronic dance music aside, Foreverafter should be a celebration of indie sleaze – and very rock 'n' roll. Is it OK to dig out our vintage high-waisted and jewel-toned skinny jeans? "You've gotta come however you feel most comfortable," Moyes quips. So who is likely to party the hardest? "I think everyone on the line-up is definitely renowned for knowing how to party," he laughs, "but also I'm a lot older now. I don't know. We'll have to see."

The Presets lead the new live music event, Foreverafter. Tickets are now available.

Presented by Frontier Touring and Double J