Justice's best advice for artists: revel in your mistakes

CBC

2 days ago

French electronic duo Justice have three Grammy Awards, but they have no interest in going to expensive studios or working with famous producers. They insist on recording all of their songs in their home studio setup.
"Non-professionalism is a very big component of the music that we make," says Gaspard Augé, in an interview with Q guest host Garvia Bailey. "Although we are not mixers, we've all always engineered and made things ourselves.... I always say you should mix it yourself. Because even if it's gonna sound less good, it's going to sound better. Because as the artist, you are the most relevant person to give that personality to your record."
Justice's music has no shortage of character. They have a wide variety of musical influences, ranging from Funkadelic to Nirvana. The duo have also taken a lot of inspiration from Michael Jackson — they dedicated their 2007 hit song D.A.N.C.E. to him, and their new collaboration with The Weeknd sounds like a reimagined version of Thriller.
Originally, Justice's song with The Weeknd was only supposed to be a short instrumental opening track. But in the end, Wake Me Up became a full five minute song with lyrics.
WATCH | Official audio for Wake Me Up: "[The Weeknd] said, 'Yeah, can we make something like classical orchestrated music?' So we did that," Xavier de Rosnay explains. "And then we made like ten seconds of music just to show him that it could lead onto something else. And he's like, 'Oh yeah! That's cool!'... I think he liked the idea to once and for all concretize this kind of connection he has with Michael Jackson."
After multiple decades in the industry, many music groups end up burning out or breaking up. But Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay say that they're bonded for life, and they could not be more in sync.
"From the moment we met, it was really like a fusional type of relationship," Xavier de Rosnay recalls. "I think we met and two months after that, we were really spending all of our lives together. And that's still the same thing today.… I behave with him the same way I behave with myself. Like almost one entity."
I behave with him the same way I behave with myself. Like almost one entity. - Xavier de Rosnay, on his relationship with Gaspard Augé
"It's a bit crazy when you think about it," Gaspard Augé says. "And I still love you very much, so that's great — but it's a weird thing."
The full interview with Justice is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.