Interview
(posted by Vertigo on 2006-05-07)
Here’s the result of the interview conducted with Xavier and Gaspard from Justice (accompanied by So-Me) at Radio Campus, a few hours before their set which called time on the 2006 edition of ‘Printemps de Bourges’ with love, screaming and a bit of AC/DC.
- Right now, the name ‘Justice’ is on everybody’s lips even though you’ve only got a few releases to your credit. How do you explain the buzz around you ?
Xavier : It’s just a lie, it’s probably a lot compared to what we’ve done.
Gaspard : The people aren’t rioting yet, or at least we haven’t noticed it.
X : We haven’t been going for very long.
- You (Xavier) play by yourself in your DJ sets, any plans at the moment to put together a genuine live show ?
X : Well, we’ve got to finish the album first but after summer we’re going to come back to it to create a live show.
- You create electronic music but can we make comparisons between you and the rock scene, artists such as DFA1979 ?
X : No, no, we consider ourselves first and foremost an electronic group. We’ve done plenty of remixes for rock groups, even pop groups, but we don’t consider ourselves part of that at all.
G : It’s just that we dress like rockers so that’s ashamed
X : I don’t think we’re all that close, musically-speaking.
- Don’t you think that it’s the attitude which makes the music, rather than the other way around ?
X : Yeah, there’s a little of that, it’s the attitude and also your friends and contacts. It’s funny though that in England our friends are the likes of Soulwax and Erol Alkan, so we’re associated with the rock scene over there, whereas in France it’s the ‘BANDE INSTITUBES’, EdBanger, we’re pretty much in this kind of hip-hop scene. In the end we’re neither really hip-hop nor rock but they’re mostly just associations.
- We’ve seen you remix Franz Ferdinand and Britney, how were you put in touch with them ?
X : These people aren’t actually our friends, in reality it’s simple, at Domino the guys have got their ears open and Britney’s manager in New York is interested in the French/European scene in general, it’s just pure chance, a lucky break.
- Will the album be one long Waters of Nazareth or will you be turning your hand to other styles, something a little more pop perhaps ?
G : Yeah, it’ll be a lot more pop in fact.
X : Yeah, we’ve done loads of really heavy, noisy stuff, we’re finding it a bit more difficult to listen to now, we’ve kind of overdosed on it. The things we’re been working on at the moment are really poppy, basically disco, not so brutal and a lot lighter than Waters of Nazareth which we deliberately pushed to the limits of what we could listen to.
- Xavier, why do you DJ by yourself ?
X : Because Gaspard has got two left hands and that lets me play some stuff which make him blush with shame sometimes. This evening I’d prepared some real stadium-fillers but it’s a little room so I’m going to play eighty percent 90s music, ten percent of our mates’ stuff and ten percent of whatever else…
- In terms of production, who brings what to your tracks ?
X : I do everything by myself in Justice! No, the pair of us do everything together but creating electronic music is more of a discussion thing, a Justice séance in the studio, the pair of us drinking coffee, then we try out our ideas and the production process is actually quite short, once we’ve both come to an agreement on what we want to accomplish with the piece.
- What about EdBanger ?
X : In no particular order: Vicarious Bliss, the only true pop producer in the whole crew, he makes these really poppy solo tracks for the girls, which can be awesome.
G : He can be the new James Blunt actually.
X : SebastiAn, producer of pretty hard techno, we’re massive fans of this guy, he’s our friend. Krazy Baldhead, who makes triphop (laughs) no I’m kidding, he makes this quite slow electronic jazz, really pretty. Mr Flash, the main producer from TTC who’s bringing out a 12” pretty soon which is really a killer. Who am I forgetting?
G : Uffie with Feadz and Oizo, and Mehdi.
- And in terms of the artwork, So-Me, how do you determine the label’s visual identity ?
So-Me : Well, it’s awesome because Busy P, who’s my boss, as well as benefactor and label artist himself, gives me total freedom so I really enjoy myself. Not many labels are this lucky (laughs).
X : And since he’s the only graphic designer nobody has the right to say it’s no good, we don’t have a choice anyway.
S-M : If we sign a new artist who hates my work, well, they bump him off, it’s death for him.
- When’s the next release for Justice ?
X : The next single from the album will come out this summer and the album will follow two months later.
Source
Thanks To Will For The Interview !
And Grrraymond For The Traduction ! |
