Warning: Parts of the following interview were lost in translation.
Blame any number of determining factors—wavering cell signals, a weak intercontinental phone connection, thick French-accented English and an interviewer who doesn't speak a lick of French. Just don't blame Gaspard Augé.
Augé, who is half of the critically acclaimed French electro/dance duo Justice (Xavier de Rosnay is the other half), was trying his darnedest to offer a good interview, even when it wasn't clear whether he understood the questions.
"I don't speak English so well," he admits toward the end of the conversation—at which point that has already become abundantly clear.
But at least the guy tried. In 15 minutes of conversation, Augé answered maybe 20 questions. They seemed like quality answers too, which really was the most frustrating part of the interview. Below is the best of what we made out. Here's Augé...
...on touring Germany (where he was at the time of the interview):
"It's going OK. It's not, like, the craziest country to tour in, but...I don't know. It's not very sexy."
...on using the cross symbol for the cover of Justice's American debut:
"It goes back to 2003 when we started mixing beats together. We had the idea to try to turn a club into a church because it's almost like...the same energy. And we also think they both kind of unite people and move them in the same direction."
...on Kanye West crashing the stage when Justice won the Best Video award at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards for "We Are Your Friends":
"It was very crazy....It was the best promotion we could get at the time."
...on the stateside MTV Video Music Award-nominated video "D.A.N.C.E." in which the Justice guys simply walk through a crowd while their T-shirt animations continuously change:
"We were all booked, and we had to come up with an idea that was very cheap and quick to make the music video. We came up with the idea for the one that we shot with So Me [the director of the video], which was a very simple one. It was made in like one week or something... It's kind of cool that it worked out."
...on the fact that So Me, who directed the "D.A.N.C.E." video, recently directed Kanye West's video "Good Life":
"It's funny because the director that was involved in that incident [at the VMAs] just directed a Kanye video called 'Good Life.'...It's great for Kanye...."
...on what exactly fans can expect from the duo's live show:
"I hope blood, sweat and tears...Some fun."
