After the release of their medicinal single ‘Heal’ back in May, Australian-Pop duo President Street are back with their latest infectious single, ‘Tell Me Brother’. Loaded in weighty, stylistic grooves, ‘Tell Me Brother’ has brought the funk to President Street. Challenging outdated forms of masculinity, President Street create their version of an anti-war song, at a time the world needs to hear it the most. With an uptempo feel to it, contagious rhythms fill this single with bouncing danceability, luscious vocal melodies and bustling basslines, yet the strong message that runs through this single remains.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello President Street. When was the idea to go into music born?
Hey! For the two of us it’s probably a little different.
Ruby always wanted to since she can remember but had some barriers to overcome until we both met a few years ago and started our President Street journey.
Pete hadn’t grown up around music as a kid due to his mothers untimely passing (she was very musically gifted and would’ve no doubt made Pete have music lessons as a kid had she been around but due to her passing he was never really exposed to any music) but he instinctively came back to it later on and couldn’t think of anything else once that moment hit!
The thing that we both feel very strongly though is that music is more of a reflex than a choice - that’s why our first EP was called “Involuntary Actions”.
What do you use when producing music?
We use Pro-Tools and as much as possible we play instruments live rather than using programming functions. Most of our songwriting happens with Pete strumming an acoustic guitar and Ruby trying melodies.
We’ve been fortunate to work with some other amazing producers too like Ash Howes (Kylie, One Direction, 5SOS, Ellie Goulding etc) and John Reynolds (Sinéad O’Connor, Damien Dempsey, Damien Rice etc) who’ve put their touches on some of our songs too.
Your latest song is 'Tell Me Brother'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
Tell Me Brother started a while back when there were some riots in Australia - that got us thinking about all the wars and general violence in the world that was still happening and even years later is still happening so it’s sadly still relevant today. So the lyrics came first.
Musically we wanted it to be upbeat and letting the congas and bass take a central role has brought a bit of a funk twist to the track which we love.
We toured with Roachford and used Tell Me Brother as our set opener so that also helped us play around with and incorporate a few different sounds in the recorded version too - it’s always fun working it out for a live setting and seeing if we could bring any live and performance elements into the recorded version.
John Reynolds then took the reigns and finished off the production of the track - we recorded the vocals in his London studio during our Roachford tour. Apart from being an incredible producer, John is also an amazing drummer and he laid the awesome live drums that give the track so much colour and vibe.
What was the most difficult challenge you faced?
The most difficult challenge that all artists and story tellers face really is imposter syndrome. We, like everyone else, continue to struggle with the idea that what we have to say matters but, between us, we’ve built a strong sense of support for each other that allows us to push through and keep making music and doing all the backend side of things all independent musicians do!
What does your music studio look like? What is included in it?
Our music studio in Melbourne is very low key really and almost DIY! We have our computer with Pro Tools, a Neuman microphone, a bunch of guitars, keyboards, bass, hand percussion and a bright yellow couch haha! :)
How do you know when a work is finished?
Probably when we both just feel happy and comfortable with it after giving it a few days off from listening to it - you know, just ‘cleanse the palette’ and hear it with fresh ears after a couple days. When we both feel there’s nothing more we can add we are usually ready to let the team hear it.
What are your long term goals?
Long term, we want to be able to write songs that people want to hear and to play our music on a large scale. Sounds simple because it is - but the truth of it is that sustaining a successful music career is not an easy thing to do - especially as independent musicians - and we are constantly focused on our audience and staying relevant to them and we hope they will stay with us on our journey!
Do you have a mentor or coach?
Not really… maybe we should! The closest to a mentor would be all the amazing industry people we work with - their experience and opinions are always valuable to us and we try to take as much knowledge as we can every time we’re lucky enough to be in the room with them.
What are your biggest achievements in your career?
So far it’d have to be working with the amazing people we have worked with, having numerous songs reach the top 10 in the UK Music Week charts, receiving messages from fans about how our music has impacted them and going on tour with Roachford performing across amazing venues in the U.K. to his lovely fans (and making some new fans ourselves!).
We feel so lucky to have gotten to this point and hope we’ll have even more achievements going forward! :)
Where is the best place in the world you’ve ever been to?
Probably different for both of us. Musically for Pete it definitely is O2 Shepherd’s Bush. Seeing photos in the backstage hallways of who has been on that stage and just the stunning surroundings are so awe inspiring. Outside of music I love travel so its hard for me to pick just one spot…but Stonehenge was genuinely awesome for me and I was geeking out a fair bit.
For Ruby it’d be the O2 Ritz in Manchester performing as the support act for Roachford - the venue is visually quite lavish and just felt so magical to be there, acoustics were great, and we had a great night with the Manchester crowd. Otherwise non music related it’d be returning to the places my parents and their families came from in Europe - it’s always special to see where you’ve come from and piece things together. Specifically, all the Greek Islands that I’ve been to - hard to beat in Summer! Although we did have our first U.K. summer this year believe it not after all the trips we’ve had to the U.K in winter - it was amazing in summer!