Live at Lido Sounds

Justice: On the throne of live electronic music

All that glitters is gold with Justice: the electronic duo will be playing at Lido Sounds in Linz on June 29.

(Bild: Matt Weinberg)

With their album "Hyperdrama" and a groundbreaking light show, French electronic superstars Justice are coming to Linz's Lido Sounds in June. The "Krone" saw them live at London's Alexandra Palace and spoke to Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé about constructing songs, the impact of electronic music in France and "Ocean's Eleven".

Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé enter the stage wearing golden glitter jackets. Unagitated and wordless, they stand behind their electronic devices and begin to work their magic. At London's Alexandra Palace, the Mecca for darts fans over Christmas and New Year, 10,000 people are there live on two chilly days in February when Justice prove why they are currently undisputedly on the throne of electronic live acts. After Daft Punk took early retirement in 2021, the sceptre remained in France. Even if Air or Jean-Michel Jarre lay claim to it - there is currently no way around Justice.

The almost two-hour show is an audiovisual masterpiece, the likes of which have never been seen before. The songs and song structures are meticulously paired with the breathtaking lighting effects. A dazzling compendium of effects pours across the stage, stringently following the beats and causing amazement. Justice have been making their mark on the electronic world for more than 20 years now, and with the album "Hyperdrama", released in 2024, they were able to add a new, original chapter to their versatile sound. At the end of June, the two musicians will bring their groundbreaking show, including all their greatest hits, to Lido Sounds in Linz. The "Krone" was there live in London and was left open-mouthed in amazement.

"Krone" : Gaspard, Xavier - your last live concert in Austria was a long time ago. That was during the Urban Art Form at Schwarzlsee near Graz in 2012. Do you still remember anything from past gigs?
 Xavierde Rosnay: Not really, we're on the road far too much for that. But I still remember those funny towers in Vienna. Gasometers. They look like water tanks, you can't forget something like that.

There will be a comeback in June at Lido Sounds in Linz. You'll be bringing your album "Hyperdrama", released in 2024, with you; the song "Neverender" recently even won a Grammy, your third overall. Is the feeling of winning a Grammy still special?
de Rosnay: Definitely. We've won Grammys in three different categories, which is also a nice sign of versatility. I realize that winning doesn't automatically mean that we wrote the best song of the year, but it's a nice recognition when you're awarded for it and realize that people dig it. We are very proud of this song. It was fun to produce and it came really easily to us.

The longer you've been on the road together as Justice, the more often and the more you like to collaborate with other musicians. This time we hear Miguel, Tame Impala or Thundercat on "Hyperdrama". What criteria do you use to choose your musical partners and what are the motivations behind them?
de Rosnay: If a collaboration or project sounds interesting and the intentions behind it are the right ones, then we're happy to dive in and give it a go. We also worked with The Weeknd for his latest album. He called us and wanted an epic, orchestral opener - that's how "Wake Me Up" came about. At the end of the day, it's always about whether it feels good and right for us. Whether we have the feeling that we can actively contribute something to an idea.

"Hyperdrama" is more than ever an album that consists of a certain form of deconstruction. It always seems to me as if you have an idea, but you deliberately try to torpedo or change this idea in the realization, so that a new impulse comes into the sound. Is that really the case?
de Rosnay: What you say makes sense, but in reality it's not that complicated. We usually have an intuition about the direction we want to go in and what feels good and we follow that intuition. We never rush, but always take the time we need until we are happy. The market normally demands that you release a new album every two to three years. But we prefer to step back during this time, take time out and recharge our batteries. We also have other interests in life that require time. Even though we work with a lot of other people and the team is big, Justice is essentially a two-man project that makes all the decisions and therefore takes its time. We are not classic producers or mixers and mastering guys. We are musicians who are constantly learning and learning processes take time.

The two of you have been working together for more than 20 years now. How has your artistic and creative partnership developed over the years? Has there long been a blind understanding, or is a creative process also riddled with fights and discussions?
de Rosnay: Not much has changed at all. Our project is Justice and each album is a sub-project of it. We both work on the project together and not individually. Of course everyone throws their personality into the big pot, but in the end it's about what feels good and makes sense for the big picture. We want to have fun while creating and not have to deal with exaggerated ego games. If it doesn't work well, it doesn't mean you can't do it. Sometimes something doesn't fit into the overall construct and you have to accept that as an individual. If you approach music with this attitude, it's much easier to make progress in all areas. A high percentage of ideas have to be discarded, we're used to that by now. When you hear a finished song, we've probably put together 200 different versions of it. When it comes to finalizing, we are quite perfectionists.

Do you consciously strive for perfection when you're working on songs? Especially in the electronic segment, you can tweak and tinker a lot.
de Rosnay: Not directly, because as we all know, perfection is not possible. If something seems perfect to you, that doesn't automatically mean it's perfect for other people. In any case, we don't stop working on a song until it excites us both and feels right. In the end, it's less about perfection and more about care and precision.

Electronic music has always been subject to certain trends, both commercially and less commercially oriented. Trends that you never followed. Was this rejection of trends responsible for the fact that you were able to secure so much compositional freedom right from the start?
de Rosnay: As soon as you jump on the trend wagon, you're already lost because too many others have tried it before you - it simply doesn't make sense. We find it much more exciting to create things and tinker with them. Finding something that you weren't even looking for because it wasn't there before. I think it's better if we sometimes fail or have mistakes in our compositions than to be too generic and comprehensible. If I've heard and seen something a thousand times before, I don't have to reproduce it. It should always be the most important vision of all artists to present something that comes from deep within and is not externally driven. If we do something in between that doesn't interest anyone but excites us, that's perfectly okay. You can't measure creativity by sales figures.

Are you still as curious as you were in the early days of the band? Is curiosity the most important means of maintaining creative tension?
de Rosnay: Curiosity is certainly a good recipe for longevity. Especially in the world of electronic music.
Gaspard Augé: If we had always followed everywhere, we probably wouldn't have been around for 15 years.

Do you think about how the songs work in a live setting when you compose them? What kind of impact can they generate on stage?
de Rosnay: Not really. We're certainly not a band that wants to create club or dance music. It's important for us to realize that we can always transform obviously not so danceable songs on an album so that it works in a live setting with dancing. We always try to write the best album of our career and usually it's not necessarily danceable. When we start preparing for the live show, we adapt it until it works. There are only two of us on stage and we have no other option than to simplify the songs as much as possible. When we write an album, the last thing we think about is our audience; we let ourselves fall completely into our sound worlds and thoughts. We are also limited in terms of equipment and have to work with what is available to us. People should have fun at a Justice show even if they're not experts or don't know some songs that well yet. It's about the shared experience. The detachment and the spirit. The music and the stage design are just vessels for something that you can't physically grasp in the overall experience.

Is setting up a new live show a kind of "trial & error" process for you? Do you only find out after the first few shows whether the theory can be implemented the way you would like it to be, or whether there are still some hiccups?
de Rosnay: To a certain extent, yes. There's always something to adjust, but we usually know where we're going and which things need to be changed or altered and how. I don't know if it's experience or if you can explain it mathematically, but we've learned how to build a song in the live set so that it radiates the greatest possible efficiency. Sometimes we think we've got the hang of it and then realize that the implementation was a mistake. Then we tweak this part three, four, five times and try to make it functional. As I said, a perfect implementation is hardly possible, but we don't throw in the towel quickly, we work on something for a long time until it fits.

Jusice set new standards when it comes to an audiovisual live experience.

(Bild: LJ Jones)

Your show is both aurally and visually captivating. Do you even notice the audience and their reactions on stage, or are you so caught up in your own world that it mostly passes you by?
de Rosnay: Our setlist is planned from A to Z, it wouldn't be possible otherwise because the songs are linked to the visual component. We usually know exactly what's going to happen next down to the second. We have to be so precise because otherwise the overall concept wouldn't work. There are two types of live shows that we like from the outside. One is the improvised one, where an artist totally opens up and puts everything into his expression and surprises himself and those around him. You see artists like this every night in a different and original way. It's never the same, so you get to the very heart of the artistic expression. With other acts, like King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard or Thundercat, you never know what's coming and how the set is laid out. Will they play for three hours or just one? Will it be jazzier or rockier? It's a constant surprise. But the whole concept makes it impossible for us in this form.

Is your approach necessarily the more rigid one?
de Rosnay: Yes. We have a setlist and it's more a question of how we present the fixed songs. We try to focus on one track and stick to it. The fewer little things we have to tweak during a tour, the better we've managed to get the basic structure right - and with experience, it gets easier and easier. Every visitor in every city should have the chance to see the best Justice show. You can only guarantee that if you stick strictly to a formula and follow it through. Justice don't deliver a choreographed concert because we don't dance around or make a fool of ourselves, but it's all handmade. We are precise, but neither sound, nor light and visual effects are prepared by machines, but are recalibrated night after night - by people. We also don't communicate during a concert. It's like a well-planned bank robbery. We all have our role and know what to do. We are the "Ocean's Eleven" of electronic music. (laughs)

France has an incredibly rich history of electronic music. Air, Daft Punk, Jean-Michel Jarre, you and many others. Is this history inspiring or can it sometimes be mentally inhibiting?
de Rosnay: Whether live or in the studio, many aspects of electronic music are natural and handmade. It wasn't that long ago that technology was making its way into this world. Progress is unstoppable and rapid. Things that we used ten years ago are now relics of the day before yesterday. For us composers, it's all about filtering out the fruits of this technology and using them correctly. Technology allows you to do and play so much that you have to limit and restrict yourself in order to create your own identity. Whether it's Jarre, Daft Punk or us - French acts always seemed to have a nose for picking out these fruits. We don't deny our origins and electronic forefathers, but we don't dwell on this history either.

Talking about the technological aspect, it's so easy to get lost in gadgets and gizmos. Is it increasingly important to remember your own compositional roots and not be driven too much by technology?
de Rosnay: It's not difficult for us, because technology is only the slave of our musical wishes and desires. We always have an idea first and only then do we move on to the technical component. Technology is used in such a way that it serves us and helps us achieve the goal that we already have in mind. We have never been slaves to technology ourselves. I find it easier to implement an existing idea technically than to let technology dictate ideas and build on them. But a lot of things are also simplified. Why should you still use 50 plug-ins today when you can achieve the same effects with two or three? For me, the point of technology is not to use more, but fewer tools - but to use them sensibly.

Do you find yourselves in your old songs or do they sometimes seem like relics from a distant time? It's not just the world that keeps turning, your sound also undergoes a general refreshment with every album.
de Rosnay: The music we like and enjoy listening to has hardly changed in the last 20 years and we can't decide whether something we compose is timeless or not. In this respect, I think that songs from 20 or 15 years ago fit in very well with the present. Everything follows a certain path.
Augé: We have never compromised on the sound or the visual aesthetics. We always play the shows exactly as we imagine them and as we think is right. It may sound strange now, but I think that our songs have aged really well for the most part. This is also due to the fact that we work on songs for a long time until they are finished and are not afraid to make radical decisions.

Have you fulfilled all your dreams and wishes that you've had with Justice so far?
de Rosnay: We never had big ambitions. Our dreams were already fulfilled when we were working on the first album. The big goal was to write an album, release it and hope that someone would listen to it. We never thought any further than that - and now we're here.

Do you still feel any pressure after all these years? Especially because you're winning prestigious awards, filling the halls and making strong albums? Is there a fear that this run of success could come to an end?
de Rosnay: We feel the most pressure when planning the live shows. A lot of people spend a lot of money to see us and we don't want to disappoint them. Unfortunately, the ticket prices are really expensive and you have to stretch yourself to enjoy an evening like this. We always want it to be worth it and for people to go home satisfied. Otherwise, pressure is completely out of our hands.

NaDo you have to completely decouple yourselves from touring and songwriting commitments when you get creative again, or can you do it on the side?
de Rosnay: All you need is a laptop and a working microphone. Everything before that forced us to physically visit the studio. But basically we prefer to be 100 percent focused and that works best when you're not on tour and don't have any other commitments to fulfill. We talk and record ideas here and there, but a whole song could never be written on the road.

Live at Lido Sounds
After a 13-year absence from Austria, Justice are back with us this summer - they are headlining the second day of Lido Sounds at Linz's Urfahranermarkt on June 28. In addition to their imposing show, acts such as RAF Camora, Annenmaykantereit and Uche Yara will also be providing plenty of excitement. Tickets and all further information about the festival can be found at www.oeticket.com.