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[title]‘Do we romanticise it, or do we tell you the truth?’ says Xavier de Rosnay about Justice’s upcoming Field Day set.
‘The truth is, that the way we make our show, everything is meticulously written, so when we go on stage we know what we have to do by the second. The goal is to try to execute it as well as possible every night. Everything is triggered by hand because we want to be able to react if there’s a problem – so we always have a plan, like a heist, and everyone has a role.’
De Rosnay and his partner in crime Gaspard Augé make up the legendary electronic music duo Justice. Credited for blending heavy metal with dance music to make what is known as early noughties electroclash, their debut album ‘Cross’ had a monumental impact on the music scene and contemporary artists such as Charli xcx. In her recent Ibiza Boiler Room set, producer The Dare blasted Justice’s 2007 track, ‘Stress’, at full volume – and in her number one single, ‘Guess’, you can hear influences drawn directly from Justice’s back catalogue.
‘We know that she likes our music and we can see that in the audience of the shows, there’s a new generation of people [hearing us] that are in their 20s or late teens,’ de Rosnay says. ‘It’s the best thing that could’ve happened for us right now – and at the same time, it kind of makes sense. When we started making music 20 years ago, we’d be going to see bands like New Order or Suicide.’
If you want a clear idea of what Justice shows look like, take a moment to load up their recent Glastonbury headline set: drenching the audience in blinding lights (a signature move that they’ve done since their first shows), they’re meticulously hitting synthesisers and light cues to create something loud, messy and rock ‘n’ roll. ‘We’re always mindful of what [LCD Soundsystem’s] James Murphy meant when he said ‘‘shut up and play the hits’’,’ says de Rosnay. ‘When you go to a concert, you don’t want to see a band force-feed you with their new albums or new songs, and that’s not what we do. We only play new songs that fit the environment we’re in.’
When you go to a concert, you don’t want to see a band force-feed you their new music
As we reach the end of ‘brat summer’ and peak indie sleaze-electroclash revival, it seems fitting that the duo are headlining a festival in a city Xavier once lived in and played frequently at the start of their careers. Here, Justice pick their top London venues: reflecting on their favourite places to play and looking ahead to where to go next.
Fabric
‘If we think of London in the early days, we think of Trash [nightclub], with Erol Alkan and Soulwax (2ManyDJs). We also think of Fabric – there was a point where we played at least like twice a month in London and that would be either Fabric’s ‘Bugged Out’, Plastic People or Trash. We used to stay at Erol’s place: he was really important for the beginning of Justice, as a mentor. Both he and Soulwax were our teachers in the early years – they defined what a club night meant to us. We don’t play clubs a lot, but when we do, we always play in the hopes that it’s going to have low ceilings, not be too big, and be dimly lit. We’ve played all three rooms of Fabric, and room three will always be our favourite.’
Brixton Academy
‘We took over the whole venue in 2017, which was fun. We love it because of its size and its look, the location – everything is amazing. We were there a decade before supporting Klaxons, during the peak of what people used to call ‘‘New Rave’’, so it was full-circle. That was amazing. It’s really the type of venue we love in London because of its capacity and scale.’
Royal Albert Hall
‘We have no idea if it would make sense if we played there, but we’d like to do a Justice show in a grand, old, opera house-style venue. We just came back from touring the US on the East Coast, and almost all the venues we played were these grand music halls. It was great. It works very well to have our futuristic setup in a classic environment – it’s very ‘‘2001 Space Odyssey’’. We’d like to do there next.’
Justice’s new album Hyperdrama is out now.