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| Australian anthems: the Presets – My People | Australian anthems: the Presets – My People |
| (2 months later) | |
| The year 2007 was a busy one for Australia. It was the year of Kevin07. It was the year the Big Day Out tried to ban the flag. In December, as Daft Punk’s Alive tour rolled around the country with its giant pyramid, their support act – Sydney dance duo the Presets - was on the verge of becoming one of Australia’s most powerful musical forces. | |
| Few expected My People to be a hit. The first taste of the Presets’ forthcoming second record Apocalypso was dirty, industrial and heavy. Nothing on their debut album Beams was as dark as this. The band and their record label, Modular, thought that radio mightn’t play it. So it’s hard to imagine that anyone would have guessed that My People would spend a year and a half in the Aria top 100 singles chart – the longest run of any Australian song in history. | |
| While the Presets had always been anthemic, My People was a call to arms. It thunders to life with a grinding synthesiser, a clangourous kick drum and a nasally, stubborn choral line. Then in come the vocals of Julian Hamilton, sounding oddly defiant for a song that’s ostensibly a party jam. “I’m here with all of my people/Locked up with all of my people.” A premonition for Sydney’s future lockout laws? | While the Presets had always been anthemic, My People was a call to arms. It thunders to life with a grinding synthesiser, a clangourous kick drum and a nasally, stubborn choral line. Then in come the vocals of Julian Hamilton, sounding oddly defiant for a song that’s ostensibly a party jam. “I’m here with all of my people/Locked up with all of my people.” A premonition for Sydney’s future lockout laws? |
| Hamilton later told Rolling Stone that My People is a protest song, written in the wake of the Howard government’s treatment of asylum seekers. “It’s about the way we view outsiders,” he said in 2008. But by the time the song had been released, sentiments were starting to change. After 11 years in opposition, Labor was in government. The Liberals’ controversial Pacific solution, which saw asylum seekers detained and processed on Manus Island and Nauru, was being wound down. When My People roared through the speakers and into the 18th position in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2007, I wonder how many people realised they were dancing to the beat of a protest. | Hamilton later told Rolling Stone that My People is a protest song, written in the wake of the Howard government’s treatment of asylum seekers. “It’s about the way we view outsiders,” he said in 2008. But by the time the song had been released, sentiments were starting to change. After 11 years in opposition, Labor was in government. The Liberals’ controversial Pacific solution, which saw asylum seekers detained and processed on Manus Island and Nauru, was being wound down. When My People roared through the speakers and into the 18th position in Triple J’s Hottest 100 of 2007, I wonder how many people realised they were dancing to the beat of a protest. |
| Apocalypso was released four months later and quickly cemented its place as one of the most important electronic albums to come out of Australia. It debuted at No 1 on the Aria charts and became the first dance release to take out album of the year at the Aria awards. People began to look to Australia for new dance music. The recent success of homegrown electronic artists overseas owes a lot to the might of the Presets at this time and in particular the centrepiece of Apocalypso, My People. | |
| It took the Presets four years to follow up Apocalypso. By the time Pacifica was released in 2012, the world of dance music looked very different. Dubstep had happened. Flume was about to happen. But almost seven years later, My People hasn’t aged at all. Perhaps that’s because it’s even more relevant than it was at the end of 2007. | |
| In the aftermath of the death of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati on Manus Island – reopened since the release of My People – questions are being asked about the way Australians treat people from other countries. They’re the same questions Hamilton and Kim Moyes were asking themselves when they were writing My People. Maybe, seven years later, we’re ready to dance to the beat of a protest | In the aftermath of the death of Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati on Manus Island – reopened since the release of My People – questions are being asked about the way Australians treat people from other countries. They’re the same questions Hamilton and Kim Moyes were asking themselves when they were writing My People. Maybe, seven years later, we’re ready to dance to the beat of a protest |