kim (the presets) interview.

i sat down with kim from the presets as he had just returned from playing at the ultra festival in miami. he seemed quite perplexed as to their place in this mainly techno music festival, but was enjoying it nonetheless. while most interviews are set up by pr people to promote a tour or a new album, he didn't have anything specific on his agenda to promote. we just sat and talked about whatever came to mind, sometimes it's nice to just talk about nothing.

cagedbaby - hello there (the presets remix)

kim: ya i didn't quite get it [being booked for the ultra festival]. it's supposed to be a dance festival, but the music they were playing in between acts didn't quite fit. it seemed a bit corporate. we've played winter music conference before but we always feel a bit out of place.

ya it's totally an electronic techno dance festival and seems that only very recently have electro acts been infiltrating to play. don't you ever get the urge to break loose and maybe when you're in situations like this choose to play music that's out of character for you guys? pull a big room house set in south beach miami?

i would have liked to, we just never seem to do it.

but i'm glad you have that stamp on your hand so we can talk about it (looks down to see 'gude laune' which means 'good mood' in german). i was just curious how you got obsessed with sven väth?

kim: oh right. it's because of that sven panel that someone sent to me. i couldn't stop getting on it and listening to him saying 'gude laune'. my friend and i got really delirious one night in san francisco and got matching tattoos and shirts. we were like 'are we really sure we want this forever? yeaaaahhhh! good mood forever!'

oh it's not a stamp?

kim: haha no its a tattoo. it's for life. but now if i could make it into something else, i will.

no leave it. i'm sure you'll get into every german club for free. back to speaking about you guys playing interesting festivals, i remember seeing you guys a few years back at the folsom street fair. was that one of the weirdest gigs you've ever had?

kim: ahh yes, the leather daddies masturbating while someone else is filming them getting whipped. that's my dream come true to perform right in front of that. we've played it a few years now and it gets weirder each time we play. we love those guys. one of our friends is one of the organizers so that's how we ended up there.

do they get into your music?

kim: yes, they really get into it. i had no idea we had so many fans in the gay/leather-daddy community.

oh did you hear about the whole steve angello/paris hilton fiasco that happened here yesterday? do you frequently get terrible at demanding requests while dj'ing?

kim: oh ya. my ultimate pet peeve is when people type in requests on their cell phones. i just usually grab their phone, close it and hand it back. i wish i had the balls to do what a friend of mine does, it'd be great. he's occasionally grabbed the phone, found 'mom', dialed it and then sort of sit down and say 'muuuum, i'm fuckin peaking on my first ecstasy tablet. this is amazing! i love you!' at 2 am.

i'm always curious where people get their music from? where do you normally get stuff from?

kim: these days it comes from all over. alot of the time i'm lucky enough to get sent promos. i go to beatport about once a week too, but i generally just buy a bunch of music that i don't play out or ever listen to again.

are you guys on twitter?

kim: i think the presets are, but i'm not. i just recently found out what it was. i think its big here in the states, but it's not as big back home. even regis and kelly are talking about it, so you know it's kindof blown out at this point. i don't really want to know what people have had for breakfast. it's pretty narcissistic.

well, you guys don't seem very subject to trends either. it seems as though the presets and most everyone else that emerged from australia around that time don't have a trend-based sound that's going out of style. how do you guys manage to keep this up and who has been influencing your sound lately?

kim: a lot of techno. i don't think people are really ready for it yet. the gigs that i've played mostly techno sets have been quite duds because i think they are expecting me to play stuff that sounds like our music. so i had to burn a bunch of electro cds this morning. you gotta play a little bit of what people want in addition to what you want.

so are you trying to sneak away to germany as often as you can to get your real techno fix?

kim: ya, i wish.

well then this is about as close as you're gonna get for a while. i'll meet you at the cocoon party!