words: Eddie Ahgren photo: Jack Siegel
Exploding onto the European scene way back in 2003 with a thunderous remix of Simian’s ”Never Be Alone,” French duo Justice followed up with numerous dance refixings of tracks by the likes of N.E.R.D., Franz Ferdinand and Britney Spears. Partners Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay finally made their way across the pond in early 2006 to tour the US, but it was at last year’s MTV Europe Music Awards when the West really took notice. Kanye West, that is. After his ”Touch the Sky” music video lost to the video for the remix of ”Never Be Alone,” Kanye made headlines by bumrushing the stage and whining about not taking home the honor. Since the extra dose of publicity, Justice has been DJing out like crazy and just started traveling the globe with their customized MIDI music machine, Valentine. This summer, French dance label Ed Banger Records is putting out Justice’s debut album, , a rumbling pastiche of blistering synths, thumping beats and distorted melodies. Mass Appeal recently spoke with Gaspard Augé about Justice’s beginnings, his unpronounceable album name and its ambiguous meaning. Let the cult rumors start now!
How did you start making music? Did you start out as DJs?
No, at the time we just had a few high school bands. And I was playing drums and Xavier was playing bass. And [our goal] wasn’t to make club tracks…We played rock and funk.
So were you interested in the old disco, rock, funk and those kind of tracks?
I was more into heavy metal and Xavier was more into P-Funk. And when we did “Never Be Alone,” we had no idea it would end up in the club.
Do you ever feel like you want to go back to being a band?
No, because we really want to keep it as electronic as we can. Because [everyone else is] trying to change electronic music to a live act, it’s a little bit corrupting the music. And we don’t want to be a full band on stage.
Why did you and Xavier start remixing tracks?
It was for total control on our music. We were not composing the tracks in this rock band, we were just the backing band in some way. We did the Simian remix for a college radio remix contest, and we lost.
The Kanye West incident, was that good or bad for you?
Yeah, it was definitely good because I think he [acted as] a promoter for us. So I think it was just not a serious beef. Really friendly.
Have you seen his video with Pamela Anderson?
No, bizarre.
What do you think of Kanye? Do you like his music?
I don’t really know his music, actually. But it’s silly because you know his DJ, A-Trak, is like a huge fan of what we are doing. So when the MTV thing happened, A-Trak was saying, “Hey, man, what have you done?”
Who did the record cover for the new album, which is just a cross?
It’s [Ed Banger art director] So_Me again. But this is more minimal then what he was doing before.
Yeah I like the design. Are you guys Christian?
Um, yes I am not allowed to answer this question, I am sorry.
What does the cross mean?
We want to let people imagine what they want about the cross, like Metallica’s The Black Album or [the] Beatles’ The White Album.
