From pop music to dance: The Presets’ Julian Hamilton on composing Forever & Ever

Julian Hamilton, one half of ARIA Award winning band The Presets, is making music with a new kind of beat.

As the composer behind Antony Hamilton, he’s stepped back from the pop world he usually inhabits. A “refreshing change” he says, to “explore just how much emotion and meaning I can convey by saying very little at all.”

His score for Forever & Ever has been composed with only two instruments, the sonic palette consisting of minimal techno synths which will remind the audience of a party or rave.

We chatted to him about collaborating with his brother Antony, composing for dance and his creative process:

Q. Can you share some of the inspirations behind the music you’ve composed for Forever & Ever?

Inspiration is such a funny word, I don’t know where it comes from. I am always noodling around at home making bits and pieces. And sometimes those musical ideas become pop songs for a band, or sometimes they end up going on the scrap heap. This time around, I made a bunch of things, and sent them to Antony just to show him. Like here are some acid lines, some beats and things, what do you think of this stuff? He really liked them, and he said they might be really cool for a dance work that he’s got coming up with Sydney Dance Company.

Inspiration is such a funny word, I don’t know where it comes from. I am always noodling around at home making bits and pieces. And sometimes those musical ideas become pop songs for a band, or sometimes they end up going on the scrap heap. This time around, I made a bunch of things, and sent them to Antony just to show him. Like here are some acid lines, some beats and things, what do you think of this stuff? He really liked them, and he said they might be really cool for a dance work that he’s got coming up with Sydney Dance Company.

I sent Antony a folder, mostly of acid lines and for instance he would go “I love the third one, it would be cool if we could make a half hour piece based on it.” So that’s what I did.

Antony would come back with feedback saying “I love all those things, but can it do less, because the music has to support the dancing.” Because I work in a pop music world most of the time where you only have three and a half minutes to try and say something, this is a much different process. You have half an hour to say much less and you don’t really want to compete with the dancing on the stage. So that’s a really fun practice to be able to craft some music that doesn’t do much. I really enjoyed it.

 

It’s really fun. Because we are brothers there’s been box loads of advantages. We have a shared cultural and imaginative language. We like the same stuff. We’re able to convey ideas very easily. For all the challenges we’ve faced, there’s been a lot more advantages.

Hamilton’s Forever & Ever was performed from the 16th – 27th October 2018 as part of a double bill with Bonachela’s Frame of Mind. Sydney Dance Company’s 2019 Season Two is on sale now