Since The Presets first emerged from the deep, dark, depths of their Kings Cross studio, a place where midnight minds roamed freely and seeped into our radars with their immediate signing to Sydney cult-label Modular Recordings and their subsequent thrill-seeking ‘Blow Up’ EP in 03, we’ve been standing by, dancing around, intrigued and itching ourselves with anticipation for what would come next from the sizzling Sydney duo.

Our next teaser came with the release of their ‘Girl & The Sea’ EP the following year, it was a fine example that late night tomfoolery and sleaze were not all this powerful twosome were about, they had much more ammunition up their sleeves left to scorch the dancefloors with and even provided us with a few dark and filmic pieces that took us safely from the discothèque and into the seedy back alley for the long walk home that usually follows a night of play, as the chemicals subside and a blissful confusion sets in. Taking us to destinations not seen from the boys since their days with magical five-piece Prop.

Now after another year of delicious anticipation which have seen The Presets share the secret with the international market as they blew away audiences across Europe and the UK, supporting The Dissociatives, they’ve served us with their magnificent, genre-splitting 12 track debut ‘Beams.’ ITM’s Semone Maksimovic hounded the duo’s Kim Moyes to answer a few lingering questions in the wake of release.

Clocking-in at just over the 43-minute mark, it’s a vast journey of exemplary highs and mysteriously haunting but meaningful lows, a sojourn that manages to keep us guessing until the very last turn, about where it is they’ll be taking us to next. It’s an enchanting and seductive journey that balances between their classically trained instrumental filmic odysseys and their sordid late night debauchery. I find the album a little too short to decipher whether they fill in the in-between to complete the spectrum or whether they were torn between the two directions a little.

“To a certain extent that is true. I think we look at this as more of a complete picture of what we are about. That is why it is not just a rock album or just a dance album, it took us 2 EPs to get to this stage. We always knew we had cross a couple of areas to make something representative of who we are and also something that was not too much of the same thing. We’re not all about late night sleaze all of the time or mellow instrumentals either and I don’t think that life is like that” explains Moyes, before continuing “Anything goes has always been our policy. We are not really interested in scenes. We love anything that we consider to be good, be it indie, dance, pop, country, classic, MOR whatever. We are more interested in feeling than style, our world of style is a little retarded maybe?” he questions.

Working on what would become ‘Beams’ over the course of the last three years, through their rise and rise to mega-stardom, a small line-up change, some costume additions and of course life on and off the road, the boys began with only an inkling of an idea of where they wanted to take us with their debut. “We wanted to take the listener to a place where fun, hedonism, romance, humour and whimsy are all interconnected. We didn’t really set out with any great plan as such but more just took our time writing, recording, learning about production and most importantly living and experiencing life. Its just a bunch of music reflecting 2 people’s warped view of the world from a certain place and time.”

One of the things that automatically jumps out from a fan’s perspective, whilst looking through the tracklisting, is the inclusion of ‘Girl & The Sea’ and ‘Kitty In The Middle’ from the last EP, but an obvious shaft of any material from their previous EP. Have the band gotten over the sound altogether? Or was this more just to show that the band have evolved since then? “We both felt that Girl and The Sea has been one of our strongest songs as too with ‘Kitty…’ We wanted as many people as possible to hear these 2 songs and the fact is more people buy albums than EPs. The reason nothing from ‘Blow Up’ is on there is cause that stuff was done at a time when our sound was very infant in its development. There are a lot of cool things on that EP that we both listen back to now and go ‘wow! how kkkkkkkraaazzzzy!’ as well as things that we kinda cringe at, production type things. We just didn’t think any of it really fit with where we were at now. But we still love playing the older stuff live!” Moyes reassures us.

With a multitude of new studio programs and equipment on the market, it seems that the boys stuck to their guns and continued to mess around with their beloved old machines while sourcing the sound for Beams, instead they chose to indulge in a few musical instruments they haven’t previously utilised in The Presets, bringing in trombone, acoustic guitar and strings. It becomes apparent that some of the included tracks won’t be the easiest to translate in a live form. Which has me wondering if we’re likely to see bassist Sam Dixon re-added to the line-up or whether there’ll be any more players added to take the show on the road. “We are happy playing with just us two at the moment, we’ve just added a permanent sound guy/tour manager which makes life a little easier. But as far as it goes for adding more players, I would love to see that happen when the time and money is right.”

With the band’s recent overseas jaunt supporting The Dissociatives (from which both are live members) I found it hard not to ask how their feelings and views playing up their in their own band (as opposed to performing with The Dissociatives or Silverchair-whom Julian is also a live member of) changed. “We were overjoyed that someone was willing to take us to the UK and Europe and pay us! Most bands would come back from there first international tour owing money. We were received extremely well in all the cities we played and that was awesome cause practically no one knew who we were. When you are playing in someone else’s band like Silverchair of the Dissos you are very aware that it is a job, not to say you don’t put the effort in but it is very different to playing your own music. I am just glad that we got the opportunity of a lifetime and it all went so damn well!” explains an excited and surprisingly astonished Moyes.

Since their return the boys have been busily gearing up for the album to be unleashed on to the world and brushing up on their live proficiency to bring it to us locally as they prepare to hit the road on an extensive tour. What can we expect? Silly question, they aren’t going to let all of the cats out of the bag, but they will divulge only this “Rave Bubbles, Laughing Gas, lots and lots of Goons and a night you’ll want to last forever.”

From here on the plan of The Presets’ world domination is simple according to Moyes “We’ll probably burn out, get dropped by our label and find a job packing shelves at a Supermarket.”

Beams is out now on Modular Recordings, available for a limited time only with a bonus Presets carry-all. Check them out on the last remaining dates of their national tour:

Thursday Oct 6 – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday Oct 8 – Metro Theatre, Sydney (BUY TICKETS)
Friday Oct 14 – The Espy, Melbourne