In 2024, enough time has passed for the nostalgia of “indie sleaze” to return to our lives. It has been seen in fashion, it has been seen in cinema (‘Saltburn’), and it has been seen in music, as Charli XCX’s ‘BRAT’ refers to that era, who was there – as a teenager – although she released her first album a few years later. Justice got the world dancing at the time with ‘DANCE’ and their remix of Simian’s ‘We Are Your Friends’ and, in the years that followed, not only have they not stopped, but they have continued to evolve their exciting mix of electronic and metal sounds, reflected in their own way of dressing.
Perhaps when no one expected it, as it has actually been eight years since they released their last album, ‘Woman’ (2016), Justice have released one of the best works of their career. In ‘Hyperdrama’, Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé sound more Justice than ever, but they also sound better, alone or accompanied by their friends Tame Impala or Miguel, while the music offers an exciting journey through different rhythms and styles that fight to be heard as if it were a battle in space. It is the Album of the Week.
JENESAISPOP has the chance to meet Xavier and Gaspard for a while during their day at Primavera Sound, where they are giving one of the highlights of the day. Xavier is talkative and in fact he is the one who answers most of the questions, while Gaspard prefers to stay in the background, hidden behind his sunglasses.
Why did it take you eight years to release an album?
Xavier: It’s not like it took us eight years, we’ve actually been busy with other projects. The previous album, ‘Woman’, came out in 2016, the tour finished in 2018, and then we released ‘Woman Worldwide’, the live album. ‘Iris’, the concert film, came out after that. By the time we finished all that, it was already 2019. Then we took a break, Gaspard released a solo album, ‘Escapades’… We started working on this new album in 2020 and it took us three years to finish it. We’ve never really stopped, things take time and we’re not good at doing multiple things at the same time. If we tour, we take care of the tour, and if we make a record, we take care of the record. And, by doing everything ourselves, it takes us longer.
Was any part of the album worked on during the pandemic?
Xavier: Nothing at all… We started working on the album just before the pandemic and, when the lockdown came, we stopped working. It was good for us to isolate ourselves for a couple of months, although we know that the pandemic was horrible for other reasons. And when the lockdown ended, back in July 2020, we resumed work on the album.
Tame Impala doesn’t have any features on their albums, but they do like to collaborate with other artists. What do you think about Kevin Parker’s collaborative side?
Xavier: (Kevin Parker) is very talented as a songwriter and producer, but what strikes us about his music is that it seems simple, but it isn’t. When I listen to a new Tame Impala album, I like one or two songs at first, but over time, I realize that I like them all, and they all end up being part of my life. When you see him in concert you realize that he plays 20 songs and they are all hits.
The melodies that Kevin sings on ‘Neverender’ and ‘One Night/All Night’ seem simple, but when you work with him you realise how much work they put into them, how much natural intuition Kevin puts into the recordings. With ‘Neverender’ he drove us crazy because he used a note that didn’t fit us, but then, mixed with the music, it made perfect sense. On the album we’ve sometimes repeated melodies from different songs to give continuity to the whole, but the melody on ‘One Night/All Night’ is kind of its own thing and doesn’t fit with any other melody on the album.
‘Afterimage’ seems to me to be a cathedral of sound. What can you tell me about it?
Xavier: ‘Afterimage’ took us a long time to figure out. We got the basics of the song right away, but none of the vocals we tried fit. Then, at the end of the recording, we met RIMON and she found the missing piece of the song. The change of pace at the end of ‘Afterimage’ came to us later. Sometimes you come up with the concept of a song quickly, but it can take two and a half years until you finish it.
I’ve read that all the samples on the album were created by you. Gaspard, I don’t know if you want to answer this question…
Gaspard: We have used samples from other tracks, but we have created most of the samples ourselves so we can do everything our way. We like to create our own loops and use them in the music because they add harmonies and interesting aspects to the recordings.
Xavier: I don’t think anyone quite understood what we meant by this. When we say that we want our music to sound like it uses a lot of samples, what we mean is that we are processing the music non-stop. We have used samples on occasion, of course, but generally we work on a song and mix it, import it, mix it again, process it over and over again.
Give me an example.
Xavier: ‘Incognito’, for example, the main loop is all synthesizers, except for a part that we found on the internet. In ‘Incognito’ we recorded four or five layers of synthesizers, we mixed it, we put it through different processes, we imported it, and we repeated this process several times until it was impossible to differentiate what was a sample, what wasn’t, where the bass was… We wanted the recording to sound like that. That’s why all the songs on the album sound so compact, we’ve worked most of them this way.
Lately, pop hits from the 80s and 90s have been sampled non-stop, like David Guetta ripping Eiffel65’s ‘Blue’.
Xavier: It’s one thing to sample and another to make shitty versions of old hits.
Don’t you think the industry needs to breathe a little air?
Xavier: We are nobody to give an opinion on what the industry needs. The difference, in my opinion, is in what I say. If you sample ‘Blue’ it is because you are looking for a hit and you use a song that is known. We create our own samples because we don’t want to use something that is already done and because they add a texture to the music that we like. And we don’t have an opinion on the industry, people can do what they want.
“We are nobody to give an opinion on what the industry needs”
Do your kids know what “indie sleaze” is?
Xavier: They will know soon because the revival is not over. I imagine that for people of that generation it is the same as for others the era of new wave or disco music.
What do you remember from that time? You were actually there putting on the soundtrack…
Xavier: It was a funny time. What happens when you’re part of a movement is that there’s always a group of people who decide that they’re going to listen to certain music, dress a certain way, behave a certain way… It’s the zeitgeist, you can’t explain it. We’re lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.
Country music is back in fashion. What do you think?
Xavier: I remember ten years ago, there was a mix of country and EDM beats… We are very open-minded about music, we listen to a lot of things. Country is not one of those things, it is a very American thing, but there has to be something for everyone. And we love the look of country artists. I love Orville Peck, and I love his character.
The mask is getting shorter and shorter, and eventually he’ll take it off.
Xavier: I hope not! I’m sure he’s handsome, but the character is so cool…
Did you know he was a punk artist before?
Xavier: Yes, I’m not surprised because he doesn’t sing country like everyone else. What I mean is, even if things happen in music that we don’t understand, our position is not to judge.
