Puerto Montt City Orchestra : Musicians for Presidents...

I met Puerto Montt City Orchestra's Tim Salter for an interview about the band's new track, "Balearic For President", and how both of them approach their musical journey.

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1) Hello Tim! Thank you so much for joining me on the Balearic Breakfast blog! Your brand new track is out now on Higher Love Recordings and was played by Colleen on the 177th episode of Balearic Breakfast. Can you tell us more about your journey in music and how the Puerto Montt City Orchestra came to life?

Hi Artur! So, Puerto Montt City Orchestra is me, Tim Salter, and Angus Murray. We became friends when our children went to the same primary school in Kent, England. Over time, we realized that we shared a similar taste in music, so we decided to transform our love of all things Balearic into music production.

Angus has released music in the past on UK house label Luxury Service as Downtown Loop, whilst I have been in a number of different bands over the years. We were thrilled that Higher Love wanted to release our first track – Our Patagonian Friends – and we’ve not stopped since (We’re not the most prolific producers, but we do have a steady output!).

We are also very fortunate that we have some very talented friends that we collaborate with – Ellis on guitar, Dave on bass, and on "Balearic For President", John on saxophone.

2) Why did you guys choose to remix Residentes Balearicos' "Balearic for President"? What did you like, on the sonic side, in that track?

"Balearic for President" came out as one of the tracks on the "Higher Love 2" compilation back in 2022.  I think the track resonated with us because of the way the synth chords worked so well with the more acoustic elements. For us it sounded so summery and really evoked that early evening feeling when on holiday. We contacted the Residentes Balearicos to see if they were up for us doing a remix and were over the moon when they agreed and sent over the parts.

3) You did not one but went as far as to propose three different versions! That's impressive! I feel these are more than "remixes" since you really enhance the initial track, a point nicely explained on the Bandcamp page and during Colleen's show. How do you approach the "remix"/ "rework" side of things? What are you after?

When we start working with an original with a plan to remix, we look for the parts of the song that we feel we can build something around, and we go from there. On "Balearic For President", the first mix we came up with was the Blue Sky mix, which was built around the beautiful vocal harmony from the original.

We love a track with a spoken-word element, so with the track name "Balearic For President", the idea quickly came to us to find an interview with the President of Ibiza! We are always trying to include a 'live' element, which is why we replaced the synth bassline with a bass guitar version and then added the guitar.

We have been massive fans of "Schmoov!" for years, so we were super excited when John (Buckby) agreed to write and play a sax line. We built the White Sands mix around what he sent us. The final version we did was the Orange Sun mix, which was based on our hope that if we did a beatless version, people might decide to open mixes with it! We also wanted a version that really highlighted the beautiful parts played by Ellis and John.

4) Colleen shared the way she likes to work on the remixes she does. Do you think that having even a vague idea of the direction you want to take a given track is a preliminary requirement, or do you give yourself time to let the track sink in and then try something out "on the fly"?

I’d say a bit of both. One of us will have a strong idea as to what to do with the track from the beginning, but then with time, the track will go through so many iterations and directions, that often it won’t be immediately recognisable from the original idea, but each step in the process is so valuable to us, as without the previous one, however minor a change or idea it may be to build upon it, it wouldn’t lead to the next step, and we wouldn’t end up at that final destination. 

5) What are your future plans? Are there any new remixes or other musical goodies coming our way?

We have quite a few tracks on the go at the moment. We have a reimagining of a track called "Hay Fever", which is coming out in August. This is one that is close to my heart as it’s a song by 14 Iced Bears – an indie band from the late 1980s that I actually nearly joined as a drummer when I was 15 – but my parents wouldn’t let me as I was still at school! Anyway, we’re super pleased with how this has turned out, and we actually got Rob from the band to sing a new vocal for us.

We are also very chuffed that Jesse Fahnestock (10:40 / Jezebell) has agreed to do a remix. We’re also working with Maya Blandy on another tune and hopefully, then have an album coming out next year on Higher Love. So, lots going on and exciting times!

Thank you very much Tim!

My pleasure!