Music Q&A: President Street

What informs your music and songwriting?
The primary focus for me in songwriting is about emotional connection. Trying to find the right lyrical tone with the right musical energy is key. I like to observe things going on around me and try to recreate the emotion of that moment.

How have you evolved as a band over the years?
I think we’re more focused on finding the right sound these days rather than throwing layers on layers. So it’s probably more about quality rather than quantity of sounds that we use.

What are you up to at the moment artistically?
We just shot a really creative and cinematic music video for our new single with a super talented actor friend of mine, Kate Jenkinson, that will come out in the next couple months. I can’t wait to share that!

What’s on your rider?
Nothing too unusual, to be honest. We do have a vegetarian amongst us though!

Tell us your most embarrassing or surreal experience.
The most surreal experience would definitely be hearing Yeah I Know being played on the radio for the first time. It’s what you dream of and it didn’t disappoint.

What song do you wish you’d written?
All of the Lights by Kanye.

What’s your worst lyric?
I wrote a song called Enjoy the Chaos and we were watching a sci-fi TV show called Threshold on rotation at the time. So I made a reference to a triple helix with the line “it’s spreading faster than a triple helix” as a bit of homage to that show. Unfortunately no one understood what it meant and the show never got a second series and disappeared into the ether, so I guess they never will.