President Street, the Australian Pop Fusion Collective, return on the 5th of December with ‘Back Home’, a cool and relaxed take on the homecoming anthem. The song, with its enrobing vocal and pulsating percussion, is the perfect song to lead us into Autumn. We sat down with Pete Moses to talk about the genesis of the new track and what encouraged him to touch on such a serious subject matter.

Hi Pete! Could you quickly introduce yourself to those who are new to your music?

Hey, thanks so much for having me! My name is Pete and I am the guy behind President Street. I’m based here in Melbourne.

So, on the 5th of December you are returning with your brand new single ‘Back Home’. Can you tell us a little bit about how the track came about?

Back Home is a song I wrote after watching the news one night. I was struck by the look of fear and desperation on the face of this Mum who had her 2 little kids with her trying to escape a war and genocide. And then listening to all the vitriol in the political debate around the issue I just thought it’s so easy to gloss over the human story that, at the end of the day, this is a Mum and her little kids who are no longer welcome in the place they used to call Home and they’re trying to find a new version of Home. I just thought about what she must be feeling and tried to capture that.

Whenever I write I usually try to capture an emotion and play it out. The challenge with Back Home was that I was trying to get across both the heaviness of the situation that they’re in but then to also capture a sense of hope that they can find a new Home and ultimately happiness. So really 2 contrasting emotions in the same song - not easy.

What message would you like your listeners to come away with after hearing ‘Back Home’?

I suppose I would say that sometimes its good to take a step back and just try to see the human side of a situation. Hopefully that will allow compassion and empathy to guide the conversation.

And I really wanted to try to capture a sense of hope that these people can find happiness again.

What made you want to write a song about the tragic refugee crisis?

As a songwriter I usually try to reflect on what I see around me and I guess I just felt a real sense of empathy with the faces that I saw in the news. We’re so lucky being born in a stable country and I can’t imagine what going through first a war and then having to leave your home must be like. Just so tragic.

Can you see yourself writing more songs of a political nature in the future?

Yeah probs. For me I think that all songs are a snapshot in time of what the songwriter is feeling at a particular moment and while I’m not a ‘political’ artist I think that its likely that in the future I’ll feel drawn to write about a situation that has a political element to it.

Do you think that music can have an effect on humanitarian crisis’ worldwide?

Wow, big question. I definitely think that music can open a conversation and hopefully that it can even be the first step towards change. So yeah I’d like to think so :)

Can you tell us about your plans for the future? Will we be able to see you live?!

We have a lot of music in the works and I’m really excited to share that in 2019. And of course I’m hoping to get over to the UK soon so I hope so!

And finally… What artist are you obsessed with at the moment?

It’s weird but I’ve had a lot of Fleetwood Mac playing around me lately. I think that musically they’re awesome and I never get tired of Stevie’s voice.

So what can we expect next from this collective? Well, with Back Home being released on the 5th of December, and the suggestion of new music already in the pipeline, it doesn’t look like things are going to slow down for Pete Moses and his crew anytime soon…

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