FEATURE We’ve both developed different types of skills, so by doing this it lets us play to our strengths a little more. Also, sometimes it’s To some, synthesizers are a scientific very hard to talk about music, and the only nightmare of oscillators, virtual patch way to get across an idea is to do it and then cables, 200 knobs, faders and no idea where play it back. I don’t think a lot of the music to begin. No worries… platinum-selling on this record would have been finished if MY PEOPLE band say it’s fine to start with – we’d worked together the whole time! MD: Could you talk us through a couple of yep, you guessed it – the presets. Julian the tracks, perhaps starting with the single MD: So what are these different skills? Hamilton and guide us through My People? the making of their latest record Apocalypso, JH: I generally follow Kim’s lead on sound JH: My People eventuated after I bought and how the sound of a few presets helped choices, especially with regard to drum these cool pedals from a store in Pomona, inspire the album. sounds and mixing, because he’s done a lot California, called Analogue Haven, and I more remixing and his own techno. ROLL OVER wanted to see what the Korg MS20 sounded Propped up on the Hohner Pianet in Julian’s KM: … And the way Julian programs a synth like through them. I got an Effector 13 Sucka studio is a Ludwig van Beethoven action- is so different to how I’d do it because he can Punch pedal, a LastGasp Art Laboratories figure sitting comfortably alongside a hard actually play the piano. Thunder Box Donshariser and this little copy of The Presets’ singleAre You The One?. JH: In the same way, being a non-keyboard yellow Diamond Compressor, and that was A present from his brother, the figurine the bass line for My People. I also bought a is a nod to the classical training that has player, Kim programs synths in ways that I never could. I might consider myself a piano Bixonic EXP2000 Expandora multi-stage taken Julian from a pizza joint in Balmain, distortion pedal that we used a lot. It was to piano teacher and session muso, to one player and a , but the way some of the songs evolved, like for instance I Know one of those times where you plug in, click half of a No.1 Australian duo. Figuring that through pedals and suddenly you’ve got this classical was the best training a musician You, is because Kim bashed away at them at his place. sound. I programmed up a really basic beat, could get, Hamilton and Moyes spent years started playing the MS20 through my new in the conservatorium developing musical KM: The process was really efficient and pedals and got this snarly mean sound. And discipline and a theoretical knowledge of reduced everything to its essence; it was that was it – the bass line just came out of the Western harmonic tradition. After all, survival in a way. I had a huge problem with the sound. We always try and let the sounds says Julian, “the harmonic tradition has been starting this record because I had certain inspire the parts. around since Beethoven and really hasn’t barriers in my mind about where we were changed since then. He and Mozart were going, but there’s nothing more inspiring Ten minutes later, the bass line was sounding doing things that everyone does in every than simply diving in and scrambling to get really cool, so I plugged in a microphone and pop song today. We’re not writing a new it happening. started yelling these words over the top: “I’m harmonic language… but then, who is?” here with all of my people” was one of the CUSTOM PRESETS first things that came out and it stuck. They work a nine-to-five when not on the MD: How do you record, and how much is road, traipsing into their studios to plug performance as opposed to programming? MD: Do you often just start with presets or away for the day regardless of whether they build sounds from scratch? JH: We do a little bit of MIDI programming feel like it or not. It’s this discipline that has and use some soft synths, but most of it comes JH: The presets are a good starting point, for afforded them a raft of opportunities to hone down to playing synths and percussion with sure. Usually we’ll turn on the synth, plug it their craft, including helping out the likes our hands. ProTools is a tape machine to us. through a few pedals, start playing, and that of , , The Cops and We record the parts in, and then chop up will inspire a certain groove or a certain bass others. But, this is all about The Presets, and the bits we like. We do a lot of programming line. We’re not computer programmers you how they managed to squeeze out one of too. MIDI tightens the parts up but we’re still know. the best Australian dance records of the last going for takes. MD: My People sounds very raw and live, decade. KM: We both got ProTools setups in about how did you evoke that energy? STARTING AN APOCALYPSO 2002. The initial inspiration still comes from KM: Once we had the bass line right, it came Mark Davie: So, Kim and Julian, how long performance, even setting up drum machines down to patterns and sounds that give you did it take to finishApocalypso ? and using MPCs. From there it moves into the the sense you’re watching the band. It had to Kim Moyes: We started in February last realm of editing and programming. Because be full, and full-on, as if it was club music. year. we both come from playing backgrounds, it It also had to be really simple to maximise : A friend lent us her holiday needs to be a physical thing in order for it to the space. actually feel real. I know so many people who house in the hinterland behind Byron Bay JH: We programmed things as if we were can finish a song inside a computer, but I’ve and we did a lot of the early writing up there playing them – there wouldn’t be techno been struggling with that idea for so long – for a couple of weeks, after which time all the drum fills. It was all about how we would somehow I can’t seem to get into it unless I’m touring started up again. When we got home, play it if we were actually performing it an ape in a studio. But I really want to spend I guess we probably worked solidly for three physically. or four months, from August to January. this year developing that part of my mind so I can finish a song in a computer. That’s my KM: When we’d finished our first album AT catches up with the MD: How do you work together? biggest goal. I want to get that monkey in my Beams, we had to figure out how we would duo that’s been KM: A lot of ideas were started by Julian or mind. play the songs live. We tried three or four myself, then we’d swap sessions and maybe different approaches before finally figuring pressing all the right buttons. work two to three days a week together. You out what worked best for us. So we had that work faster and make decisions more quickly in the back of our minds when we were Text: Mark Davie when you’re by yourself. putting the new album together. All the bass lines were kept in the computer, so the bass JH: When we got together it would generally be for a couple of hours in the morning.

AT 32 AT 33 JH: One of our favourite instruments is the Korg MS20s. They get used a lot, and there’s a certain sort of character that’s associated with what we do. We’ve got four of them now. And they’re all a little bit different. We couldn’t work out why when I wanted to change the bass line for My People I could never get the sound again. It was because I was using the wrong one. (Far Left) Julian's studio with Omega 8 synth, the sound of the record, on right, (Left) Bass line for My People, (Right) Julian's favourite synth, the Roland Strings - not Kim's favourite.

sounds could always be really different, but THIS BOY’S IN LOVE WITH GROOVE JH: The bass line for This Boy’s In Love was the main thing for me, was making sure well. The drums were massive; everything quite a long line that Kim programmed. I So we added some constant semi-quaver I could play the drums. It was then just a was really aggressive and a lot of the top end KICKING & SCREAMING THROUGH LAYERS chopped a lot of it out and made a single- rim patterns behind the kit just to fill up the matter of adding percussion sounds and WATERSHED VOCALS had been reined in. The problem was that the JH: Kicking and Screaming originally started bar loop. ears, so the illusions of the spaces weren’t so effects underneath, like white noise under MD: Where did you record your vocals? bass on these mixes was competing with the when we were trying to make a techno track disparate. the snare, so it sounds like an epic reverb on MD: How much are you altering the MIDI vocals, but once that was pulled back, all the out of hip-hop sounds on the E-mu SP1200 JH: I did them all in my shed using a Shure the four count of each bar. performances? MD: Did you program all the drums on the vocals found their space. From then on we [old-school sampling drum machine]. Until Beta 58 through a Neve 8801 channel strip album? decided we’d continue to do the record as if MD: How do you keep the parts full-on yet we eventually admitted that even though we KM: Everything’s on the grid. We record with a bit of compression and EQ on it. It Scott was mixing it, but every time a single simple? loved those sounds, they weren’t cutting it in the MIDI, and then quantise it to be tight, KM: The only live drums on this record worked really well, because that’s what I’ve came up, we’d send it to John and see what he JH: I’ll record a bass line with a synth, the mix. and for feel. And once it comes back in, you were hats, a real ’80s way of doing things. been using on stage forever. I tried using all tighten it up again. Previously we’d program drums, layer live could do. It was a luxury having that backup and Kim will find the bits with the same KM: The acid bass line ended up being a these really expensive mics and new mics, drums, and then use Beat Detective to bring second opinion. resonance. Sometimes you’ll play these Roland TB-303, one of the Korg Legacy JH: But then you sometimes have to move but I just wasn’t getting the vibe. So I grabbed them together, and if you listen back it synths and they’ll move in big long waves, so synths, and the Studio Electronics Omega 8, elements even when it’s on the grid. For the Shure, held it in my hand, took off my JH: Sometimes the mixes came back better sounds like a drummer who’s got a third arm if there’s a low C, he’ll try and grab it when it’s all layered to make the one sound. We could instance, kick drums may flam against bass shirt, had a couple of scotches and got in the from overseas, sometimes they didn’t. The that can’t keep up. But even the live hats were at the strongest point of the wave, and then have done the whole album on the Omega notes, and even though you can see it’s bang- zone. I’ve since bought a new Shure KSM9 problem was really that Scott was mixing it, edited down from a good eight-bar loop to copy that C. The result is these big, fat, strong but it’s fun to use different synths. on visually, you still have to move it a few microphone; that’s killer, and I can’t wait to Kim was mixing it and I’d walk in and add sounding instruments. And even then, you milliseconds to make it feel a certain way. one quaver group repeated. use that on the next record. my two bobs’ worth as well. The result was MD: Do you record filter sweeps live or that sometimes it would end up sounding can chop the fatter, stronger sounds out of I remember especially with This Boy’s In JH: We’d listen to three-minute takes trying KM: We then added lots of subtle layers of automate at a later stage? like crap, whereas we weren’t in John’s face. the part. As producers you have to think that Love, the whole time I’m thinking, “Is this to find the ultimate bar and probably end up distortion to it. One of the big sounds we But I’m thrilled we had the chance to send way. JH: All the filtering on the 303 for Kicking pushing? It sounds like it’s rushing. It’s just cutting one beat out and looping it. used on the vocals was the Ensoniq DP4, and Screaming was recorded live. The bass not sitting.” some tracks to John, because the album When I first played theMy People bass line it KM: I sampled various records and CD's using a phaser or doubler to add some really synth in My People was played with one hand sounds really good now. was really snarly and had lots of harsh mids KM: Certain syncopated rhythms and sound to get some of the drum sounds. I also did synthetic, futuristic sounds. on a knob while playing at the same time. The in it, and Kim EQ’d the hell out of it on his qualities stuff up how grooves sound. That two or three days with Scott Horscroft at KM: And Scott’s amazingly intellectual with Korg Polysix arpeggiator was programmed JH: There were a lot of choruses and phasers. Crane Song EQ to make it fit into the mix. was the problem we had with This Boy’s In BJB, processing and making a lot of sounds mixing. The levels of intricacy he gets with and filtered with hands, then cleaned up in We also used AutoTune to get a synthetic He dipped a lot of the mids out and brought Love. We had a rock kick and snare with from the EMU SP1200, but ultimately a few the mix is pretty amazing. But a lot of the the computer. It’s always a mix of approaches robotic soulless quality, or slammed it a lot of the subs up. He essentially took out hi-hats, and the hi-hats made every bar of these sounds ended up a little too harsh time it doesn’t need to be that intricate, it – sometimes we use technology and get through compressors. Sometimes there were all the things that I loved about the sound! sound like it wasn’t looping properly. Even and only suited some specific songs. All the just needs to be full-on. That’s what was good really geeky. four layers of vocal effects. But looking back, it sits so much better in the without those sounds it still didn’t sound percussion sounds on Aeons were from an about John. He did his mixes in half a day on TWO MANY CHIEFS IN THE MIX track now yet it still has a nastiness about it. right, because the bass line is so syncopated. Akai MPC60 disk I bought from a guy in ProTools, all with plug-ins. MD: You had two mixers on this album, how I thought the nastiness was in the snarl, the California that had orchestral, cinematic MD: Would you do that again and maybe did that come about? round mids, but then I guess one person’s and industrial sounds as well as distorted even send a whole album to someone? nasty sonic character might be another vibraphone, chimes and lightly played metal KM: We mixed in three stages, with My JH: We’d definitely do all the pre-production, person’s irritating thing that’s getting in the percussion. Other sounds came from an People, This Boy’s In Love, and the first version because all the processing we do at BJB is way of the mix. Elektron MachineDrum, a Jomox Xbase999, of comprising the first stage. really good. Roland TR 808 and Sequential Circuits We’d done My People with Scott Horscroft DrumTracks. I also used toms and crash and it was pretty full-on. It got brutal in the KM: That was the best thing about doing cymbals from Garage Band. I recorded the top end and the drums were really small. all the work with Scott, and aiming to get a hi-hats in my studio, as well as shakers, and Initially I was really happy with it – I thought finished mix before sending it to John. And handclaps, and finger cymbals forYippiyo-ay . it sounded like Metallica. It didn’t sound like that’s why John could make decisions really A New Sky has wood blocks and xylophone a house track. quickly, because it was all there laid out in sounds from my MPC60 - just don’t tell the front of him. As long as you had in your Knowing it was going to be the first single, guys I went to the conservatorium with... mind that you’d got to the point where you I just grabbed the Shure, Pav (Steve Pavlovic, Modular Records boss) “ thought it was at its pinnacle, letting go was MD: Is that the only sampling on the suggested we give this guy in LA, John held it in my hand, took refreshing. record? Fields, a try to see what he came up with. off my shirt, had a couple A WORD FROM SCOTT HORSCROFT JH: A lot of the vocals are sampled, I’d sing We sent him the tune and he mixed it really We pulled Scott away from the psychedelic of scotches and got in and then chop up the bits I liked, put them sessions of the upcoming Daniel Johns/ the zone into a sampler and play them back to try record to talk about his role in and get that ’80s-pop Stock, Apocalypso. Aitken & Waterman kind of sound on tracks like and Together. AT 34 ” AT 35 JH: We used the Ensoniq DP4 and the Korg SDD1000 a lot, because they’ve got them is noisy, amped and recorded with mics, at BJB as well. Probably every vocal sound on the record has the DP4 over it in some whereas dance music offers an open platform way. And a lot of the dubby, atmossy stuff, MD: What approach do you take when mixing for working with depth and space. It’s also a is with the Korg SDD1000. We used the Boss The Presets? DM2 analogue delay more than the Roland lot of work to create that atmosphere and put RE-201 Space Echo, because it does the same Scott Horscroft: I guess the big difference it in a place. ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’ rising step delay kind of stuff, only much cleaner. (Far with The Presets is they produce the music at Nearly everything in the mixes is very dry. left) Scott Horscroft at BJB. home so it comes to me completely recorded Then there are a few minimal things that we other than some vocals and synth lines to tie it used to put the sounds in a space depending all together. The process that we go through is on which track it was and how noisy the bass compression in the drums to get them right really developing their sound and the depth of was. Big noisy basses are a really key element up there and clean, and a lot of pre-EQ to pull the tracks. We do a lot of re-amping, go through that determine how the mixes work, because out anything that was going to make it sound pedals, and a lot of the time they’re also just they take up so much space. It then becomes a little bit distant or roomy when it didn’t need developing the parts in the tracks. a matter of fitting things around it to keep the to be. Being the second record that Kim, Julian and bass really present. MIXING I have done together, we now have a working A big thing we used was the SPL Spatializer, When we initially started we all had different method that’s really open, and songs change. which puts things out of phase, extremely ideas about what the shape of the mix should Each mix took about two to four days on left and right, so it feels like it’s coming from be in terms of the drum levels and vocal levels, average. It was a production workshop cum another world. That gives you the space, but and we had to do a lot of experimenting mixing session. it’s nevertheless still dry. So it sounds present to get that right. In the end, we had a great MD: Was there much fixing and cleaning up and danceable, and you can hear every rhythm shape in our heads. The drums had to really required of their home studio recordings? and every element that makes up the groove. be thumping and pushing things along. If Keeping things dry is really crucial. the bass is too loud, then you don’t get the SH: Not so much fixing as a lot of tinkering impact of the drums hitting you in the face and experimenting with different sounds MD: Obviously the drums are a key factor as if they’re right in front of you, because the and placements, and the tightening up of in driving the mix, what did you do to make drums are what everyone dances to. A lot of it arrangements. Even though everything is done them sit right? is maintaining the push and pull of the drums to the grid we’re shifting things to get them to SH: We did a lot of work on the drums in the on the bass compressor, and slotting things in groove exactly how we want them, whether it be studio, everything from re-amping bits and without affect the balance too much. Once we late, or really pushing the track along. pieces to interesting side-chaining action. We had that down it was a lot easier. Vocal production is another big thing we would always try to get interplay happening MD: What stage were the tracks at when they spent a lot of time on, finding the right space between different drums, and affect the music were sent to John Fields? and delays, and a lot of cutting up. The album with those drums through keying. A lot of the sounds extremely present, and that’s due to a time we’d try to build it up as an organic beast SH: We’d gone through the whole process of lot of the dramatic automation we were doing that triggers and opens other things up, so it’s producing the tracks up, so I sent him stems of to keep something in focus at all times and making itself work. It’s a little mathematical what we’d done, and then little bits and piece right up front. Always the vocal, but whenever puzzle that opens and closes and creates of what we thought he’d want from the original the vocal wasn’t there we’d try to aim to have random responses, which we’ve always been sessions. It was really to get that American, something to respond to it and keep a melody excited about. compressed, totally upfront sound that he’s flowing through everything. renowned for. And those tracks came back MD: How much compression could you use? sounding great, and in a way it really helped us MD: What are the differences between mixing SH: A lot of it is so synthetic and compressed find a great shape for the rest of the record that dance and rock music? coming to you, it’s more about looking at suited the American radio sound. He did a lot SH: It’s really drum driven, the whole thing is compression over how the mix is working, how more work on the same shape that we were smashed through with the kick leading the way, the vocal affects the track when it comes in, looking for and it came out really well. which is quite different to rock. The big thing and whether you want anything disappearing There was no animosity, it was a really good between mixing dance and rock is you have to due to compression. The mixes were heavily thing, especially when we got the first mix get a lot of clarity, presence and punch. Because compressed and the mix bus on the Neve was back and it was really fantastic. We sent some it’s all so compressed and synthetic, any space also compressed and EQ’d. There was a lot of more to him, and he was saying, this sounds you bring in has a huge impact, so space is used fine and fantastic. And that was great coming much more minimally. There’s a certain amount from him, because we were looking for him to of natural depth with rock, when everything go to the next step after doing all that work.

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