Justice have been one of my favourite acts of recent years. My friend Tom Bates introduced me to them when I was in Sydney for a summer holiday back in early 2007. Everyone seemed to be going nuts for the french electro sound and Bondi had become Paris by the beach.
There was something about the weight of the tracks. Real balls. Guitar music played by DJ's. Drum programming is original as well, staccato and broken. I loved the sound of the open snare that has become a signature of their remixs. The slapping, bouncing bass lines also tickled at one nostalgia from watching too many old 80 TV shows.
So I took some tracks back to NZ. I remember when I dropped 'Waters of Nazereth' on the decks during a friends farwell party. Everyone cupped their ears in horror at the distorted heavy fuzz and thought the speaker had blown. I had a good laugh to myself and realised NZ wasn't quite ready for this sound!
In September 2007 I was in London getting ready for my Endeavour concert at Koko when the venue manager asked if I wanted to come to a gig at the venue. It turned out Justice were playing that week so I jumped at the chance. I asked all my banker friends in London if they wanted to come but none of them had heard of the band, or wanted to go. I couldnt believe it! So I went by myself.
This was a Wednsday night in trendy Camden and it was full of uber cool hipster kids of the American Apparel generation. The Klaxons DJ as well then watched from side of stage and it really felt like the center of the scene at the time.
I hung around afterwards and saw the group's manager Pedro Winter loitering in front of the stage. He is the founder of Ed Banger Records, ex-manager of Daft Punk and is a legend in his own right. I plucked up enough courage to approach him and introduced myself. I asked if the duo were booked for NYE and interested playing at R&V. He said they were tossing up between Birmingham and Los Angles but would consider up for offers. He liked the idea of coming to NZ for summer and seemed interested in the surfing and wine tasting. So he pulled out his Blackberry and sent an introduction email to his agent.
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| Pedro Winter aka Busy P |
The next day I conversed with the agent over the bands availability. She asked if I was interested in the 'LIVE' or the 'DJ' set? I said DJ like the one I saw at Koko the previous night. Two guys standing over a desk of knobs and buttons, looked like they were playing records to me!
She was horrified saying 'how could that set be 'DJing? Did you not see the guys making music??' Turns out the LIVE set is performed and mixed in real time on keyboards and computers via software called Ableton live, with a full specced production and lighting show, and a crew of 12. I had a lot to learn.
She was horrified saying 'how could that set be 'DJing? Did you not see the guys making music??' Turns out the LIVE set is performed and mixed in real time on keyboards and computers via software called Ableton live, with a full specced production and lighting show, and a crew of 12. I had a lot to learn.
Unfortunately my kiwi peso offer just couldn't compete with the other extravagant offers from around the world and to my dismay the act ended up being booked in Los Angeles.
My instincts were right and by the end of the 2007 Justice were one of the hottest tickets in the world. They came to Australia for the Parklife tour, an epic lineup with Digitalism, M.I.A and our own Shapeshifter, but didn't come to New Zealand. However the heavy Ed Banger sound swept through this part of the world and had everyone chanting 'We Are Your Friends' and 'D.A.N.C.E' all summer long.
In 2008 R&V expanded to three days and began working closer with our festival booking partners in Australia and UK. When the booking options came through they included Pedro Winter - djing as his alter ego Busy P - along with Mehdi, A-Trak and Switch. We HAD to invite him to come and check out our amazing festival for himself!
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| Busy P, Switch, Mehdi, A-Trak - Gisborne Airport, Dec 2008 |
At the festival I made the effort to go up to Pedro and re-introduce myself. He thought R&V was amazing festival and even said he thought it was 'the new Coachella'. I mentioned to him I still had my sites set on Justice and to spread the good word. His set went off and the guys had a ball playing in the Cellar stage amongst the native trees. It still goes down as one of the most memorable nights of the festival and those who were there were treated to a set they will never forget.
Busy P and Mehdi at R&V 2008
Busy P and Mehdi at R&V 2008
I thought we would have to wait a full album cycle until we got the opportunity to offer on the Justice boys again. Word was they were not playing gigs just recording their sophomore album. Even still, I still dropped Pedro my annual email to remind him we would love to host the guys in Gisborne.
This year I got a call in June from the guys at Fuzzy in Sydney asking if we like to offer on Justice DJ set. They were breaking from their recording schedule to fly out to Australian for three dates only but had a break chance NYE was available! It is fair to say a few fist pumps were going down at the office!
After a bit of back and forth, talk of private jets and crazy 30 hour schedules subsided and we decided that the date of 30th Dec would suffice for a New Zealand show at Rhythm and Vines, meaning the duo could rest before the hectic Australian leg in early Jan.
It will not be the LIVE show I saw in London. The new live edition will be rolled out in 2011 along with the new album. It will no doubt consist of full production, light show, the walls of Marshalls, black leather jackets and whatever other new tricks the Parisian will unleash on the world.
However the DJ set will be just as memorable. It will be both Xavier and Gaspard playing their favorite tracks in true mash-up party form. It will cover the back catalouge, the hottest tracks in the world right now, and even a sneak peak at the sound they will be unleashing on the world next year. Remember this is their first appearance in months and with a new album out next year it is a huge coup!
So there you go - a bit of back story to how we got Justice to visit our shores.
As a side note I finally met up with their agent in person in London this month. She said that she had never seen the boys jump at an offer like they did for R&V when it came through this year. She said they get dozens of offers every week and turn them down but replied straight away to our email! Pedro must have put in the good word:)
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