Justice: “we only do what we think is fun” [ENTREVISTA]

Gaspard Augé is silent. Wearing discreet glasses, he greets shyly at the beginning of the video call and keeps his microphone muted while Xavier de Rosnay assumes the answers during the almost 15 minutes of interview with the Justice.

Between a puff or two of his vape, de Rosnay modestly answers questions about a 2024 especially hyper for the French duo, with hyperbolic audiences and new classics added to the repertoire – a new climax for Justice, the result of the success Hyperdramahis fourth studio album and the 10th best international album of 2024, in the poll of Rolling Stone Brazil.

Released nearly two decades after the raucous debut in Cross (2007), Hyperdrama follows the duo’s sparkling disco-funk sound that alternates between moments of experimentalism and accurate dance explosions. The result comes on the tracks, as crowded and young as 20 years ago – something that, for both of them, they guarantee, doesn’t get easier with time:

The relationship with the live audience, the success of Hyperdramathe production of iconic clips and expectations for a Brazilian show can be seen below, in Justice’s conversation with Rolling Stone Brazil:

Xavier de Rosnay: It hasn’t really evolved. For us, music videos have always been excuses to try things. There is really no continuity between the videos, each one is a different piece. Every time we feel like we have something different to try, we always try. We don’t make music videos to promote the songs because sometimes we make videos for tracks that aren’t singles, we can do something that, from the beginning, we know won’t be seen by many people, like in “Stress” or “Generator”, for example . They’re not singles, but then an idea comes up to work on them and let’s do it. It doesn’t really matter if it’s a single. And when we do it in singles it’s the same process. If we find an idea that we like, we do it. So there is no evolution because there is no continuity. We just try different things.

Xavier de Rosnay: We wanted to do something that was reminiscent of the opening sequences of the anime we watched when we were kids. You know, like those first two minutes of the cartoons, which had that same song and you had all the best sequences from the anime seasons compressed into two minutes or one minute. So it was a mix of that and several other things that come more from a western tradition, like James Bond openings. And also several French artists, like Moebius, and the sci-fi comics of the 1970s. So yes, that’s what we condensed in this video.

Xavier de Rosnay: It’s been great, yes. The thing is, we only know part of the reception, because we don’t really read the press. And we don’t spend much time on the internet – I never access anything. So the feedback we get is really when we play shows and we see people who are getting a feel for what’s going on and it’s been great so far. But the two things we noticed was that the audience was renewed between this album and the last one. Now we see a lot of people who look like they are in their early 20s. Kind of like when we were in our early 20s and were more interested in alternative moves. So we feel that [é] a growing part of those who go to shows, like the first rows for example, and even after the performances, when we go to hi-five the audience and see them. Like when I climb [na grade]I always try to see who is there and the strongest guys stand out, because the people are much younger. Lots of girls too. So that’s what we noticed most. And the other thing is that we started playing shows before the album came out and we realized that the new songs were working too, just as well as the classics. It was a great sign. And now that they’re out, tracks like “Generator”, “One Night/All Night” or “Neverender” are the peaks of the show, some of the climaxes. From that perspective, it’s good. I think the reception is great, I hope so.

Xavier de Rosnay: Everything is different, from now to the last time. It’s still a little strange for us, because it’s not in our DNA to go out there and perform on stage. So to make this look good we adapted a lot of the stage to us. From the beginning we have adapted everything to make us comfortable doing this. And the experiences have been very concrete and abstract at the same time: concrete because it’s the only time you see the people who are listening to your music and how they listen. Because when they listen to it on Spotify or somewhere else, you have no idea what they’re doing, how they’re listening, whether they listen to 15 seconds or the whole thing, or just the intros, or whether they just put it in the background. When you’re on stage you see exactly what’s going on. This is the real and concrete part. The abstract part is the amount of preparation for such a short experience. What does a show give? An hour and a half at most. And as I said before, we are not stage animals. [Então] We try to stay focused on what we are doing. Very often the show pauses for a minute because it gives us a blank screen, we look at each other and then it’s over. “He finished?” “He finished.” And we don’t even notice the time passing. So it’s strange, but we love the result. And we always look good, we feel good afterwards, because it’s a long preparation and in the end it’s worth it.

Xavier de Rosnay: I think we seek our excitement first. And we always think that if it’s exciting for us, people will also find it exciting and fun. But we never think about whether people will like it or what they think. And that explains why we do some things and no one cares – it’s happened in the past. So it’s really make or break and we have no control over it. So we just do what we think is fun and hope for the best. When people happen to enjoy it it’s amazing, if not, at least we’ve done something we’re proud of and find exciting.

Xavier de Rosnay: We are really trying and making plans to make it happen. The biggest difficulty with South America, or even within Brazil, is that all the cities are really very far from each other. And our biggest enemy on tour is shipping. Because they are long and very expensive, they take three weeks to move from one continent to another, things get lost, it’s a logistical nightmare. So we are really trying to make it happen and we should know soon if it will happen or not.