Exclusive Interview With President Street Part Two - Pete

The man behind the music! We caught up with guitar maestro, Pete, as President Street

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


NEWS PROVIDED BY
Fifth Element PR

Hi Pete! Thank you for taking the time out to answer these questions. How have you been holding up during lock down?

Hi, thank you for having me! I’ve been holding up well. Like everyone it definitely feels like a scary and uncertain time but also I really think it’s a time to reflect. Me and my circle are all healthy and happy and that is a real blessing right now when so many people are not.

Can you let us know about the origins of President Street? How did you both meet, how did you come up with the name?

President Street is a project that I started a few years ago. It’s named after the street that I actually grew up in in Perth, WA. It was a street where so many good and bad things happened and it definitely left an indelible mark on my life.

I met Ruby about 5 years ago now through a music website here called Starnow where artists create profiles and can find work. Ruby only put her profile up for about a month but timing is everything so I found her on there in that short window. The funny thing is that all the other singers I looked at had professionally produced demos but Ruby had simply taken her phone into the bathroom and sung accapella into it. I was so taken by her voice and I instantly knew that she was the one! Since then we’ve become really close friends, co-writers and collaborators so the stars were good to us that month!

How does the musical landscape in the UK compare to Australia? Has your music been received differently?

We’ve really loved the reception that we’ve received in the UK and feel really humbled and honoured to be honest. I suppose we’ve just found that the scale of the UK population versus the geography is so great for us. In 2-3 weeks we can tour the country (by car!) and play so many different towns and venues and cover so many people. Also the radio cover we’ve received in the UK has been amazing and, again, the concentration of people means that we reach so many more people versus Australia. Yeah we love the UK!

How do you and Ruby balance your writing style? Is it a case of Ruby writing lyrics and you writing music or is there more of a crossover?

We balance each other out really well. We’ve found that our tastes are really aligned and it’s a very collaborative process between us and we literally cover off on all aspects of the songwriting together.

It’s funny because neither of us have ever had a music lesson so we’ve had to develop our own way of communicating what we have in our heads but it works. Often Ruby will sing the guitar lines she can hear and every now and again I just trick up that little ‘Ruby hook’ into a guitar line and it stays on the record. Hint – check out the end of ‘I Found Me’… she’ll kill me for that!

What has been your go-to album/song/playlist during quarantine?

Funny but I’ve gone back in time for some reason during the quarantine. I’ve had ‘Sign of the Times’ by Prince playing heaps during these times. Nothing to do with the relevance of the title, I think just the simple genius of those songs and the fact that it’s a live album really inspires me. Whenever I listen to Prince I instantly want to pick up an instrument and play.

What are your plans, now lock down is easing? Back to the UK soon?

As soon as we can! We had a tour booked for August/September 2020 that’s been postponed obviously and we also had an exciting support lining up before COVID pulled the handbrake on all touring so we’re super excited to get back out over to see you guys as soon as possible. The Australian government has blocked all non-essential travel so it looks like 2021 will hopefully be when we can get back over. We have also been writing as much as we can so watch this space!

Thanks so much, Pete! You can listen to President Street's latest release, 'Something to Believe' down below and follow them on social media to stay updated on tour and travel plans.

July 14, 2020 5:29am ET by Fifth Element PR  

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