Kim Moyes is a busy man. Despite working on a new album with fellow The Presets producer Julian Hamilton, the DJ and musician has just released his solo EP Kloser, which he’s bringing to Perth with Motorik. PENNY LANE catches up with the percussionist, producer and Preset.
In a time when retro rock was mainstream and Wolfmother rode the radio wave, two Sydney musicians strayed away from the pack. After forming The Presets in 2003, producers Kim Moyes and Julian Hamilton began injecting their brand of electronica into the minds of clubbers and dance music lovers alike – with some amazing results.
“When we started playing in clubs we’d have really small crowds, and I feel like we really built up a world around us that people sort of became interested in very naturally – we weren’t jumping on any bandwagon, we were really creating our own path and carving our own niche,” Kim says.
It’s a niche that has rivalled even the best of pop and rock – in 2008 The Presets reigned supreme at the ARIA Awards, taking out Best Dance Release, Best Group and Album of the Year. So what’s their secret to success?
“I guess for us we sort of stick to what we believe in,” says Kim. “The main thing for us is just producing good songs. A good song will last the test of time no matter what trends come and go.”
Kim says those trends, including breakbeat, DnB and trip hop, will no doubt have their day. “We don’t really try to rely on just cool sounds or technological tricks because they generally become dated really fast,” he says. “Hopefully that’s what sets us apart and hopefully that’s the reason why we’ve been able to have a decent career. We’ve been doing it for 10 years and it doesn’t seem to be dying down anytime soon.”
Kim’s side project, which he first produced under the alias K.I.M (Kimberly Isaac Moyes), has been around for just as long. His first album, Selected Jerks 2001-2009, was released in 2009, and since then – in between producing and touring with The Presets – he’s managed to create a range of solo tracks and collaborations.
“I’ve been doing a lot of production and collaborating with a larger array of artists in this last four years,” Kim says, “and I guess the reason why I even got around to doing [the Kloser EP] is because I just had a bunch of tracks sitting around that I thought went really well together. They were kind of spread out over a number of years and I just kept coming back to them thinking that they had something good about them.”
The subsequent EP, featuring tracks Kloser, Casiopea and Frozen, is an entirely different breed of electronica – think cosmic outer space, with a more subdued mood then anything from The Presets.
“It’s music I’d like to listen to on the plane,” explains Kim. “I mean, you can dance to it, it’s definitely got a groove to it, but it’s more thoughtful an I guess it’s music to get lost in as opposed to music to lose your shit to.”
Kim takes his solo show to Perth in September, and in the meantime, will visit South Africa, America and a number of festivals in Australia with Julian.
KIM
KLOSER TOUR
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 @ PARKER
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 @ METROPOLIS FREMANTLE
