jules & moss interview

Jules & Moss is the French duo that is really on fire now.

Having recently made their debut on Tiefschwarz’s amazingly consistent Souvenir label, their most recent studio work has seen them come up with the goods on Acumen’s Thrill of It – where they just served up their inaugural LP, the delicious sounds of Double False Face. Suffice to say, it’s been worth the wait too. Here’s what the fellas has to say when we got through to them recently…

What’s going on in the world of Jules & Moss right now? What’s been keeping you busy around Christmas and new years?

Good food and good French wine of course! Christmas was sweet, a nice time in families and with friends. We also planned our projects for 2015 which was great…

So how was 2014 then? Was it a good year for you musically speaking?

It was a year full of emotion. Like a lot of artists, we’ve had our ups and downs. But we remember the great times last spring in beautiful places with great people, like in Paris (Zig Zag, Rex Club, Cocobeach Party), in Switzerland (Hive Club, Caprices Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival), Brussels at Wood, and Lyon of course with Nuits Sonores Festival to name a few…

We also had a great time listening to our track – Bis April – (Souvenir Music) which was played during a lot of parties during Sonar in Barcelona by a lot of great names. It ended up in the Live compilation by Oliver Huntemann who had really nice words to say about it. And then it was in the Top 10 Tech House 2014 picks of Beatport… So a nice “millesime”! It was also, on one hand, the birth of our album project, and on the other hand, the birth of the baby of our manager Renö, who we salute by the way…!

Aside from your own stuff, what else really excited you musically in 2014?

We’re always happy to listen to other artists, particularly those who mix quality with power and emotion in their music (Maceo Plex, Alex Niggemann, Recondite, … to name a few). We’re also happy to see friends delivering really huge stuff this year, like Ruede Hagelstein, Denis Horvat, Dachshund, Villanova & My Favorite Robot/ But also into indie artists like RY X too…

And what sort of stuff did you grow up listening to? How has that changed over the years?

I’ve beautiful memories when bands were repeating in the family house during my youth. There was a studio for that and a lot of artists were meeting there. It was soul, jazz, blues and rock! A few names who really influenced me includes Rage Against The machine, Herbie Hancock, Buena Vista Social Club, Joe Satriani… (J). Listening to the family’s turntable, I was really sensitive to some of the wax which where played on it including Ennio Morricone, Beethoven, Duke Ellington, Pink Floyd, … (M).

What was it in France like for electronic music when you were growing up?

Really great. Label wise, you’ve got the likes Circus Company, with dOP and Nôze as artists (Jules played drums some years ago for all of them at their studio). Also InFiné with Rone for example who is a really brilliant artist!

How influential were the likes of Garnier, Daft Punk and Justice on your tastes? Were you swept up in the whole electro thing?

We’ve a lot of respect for Daft Punk and Laurent Garnier, but they don’t really influence what we do. With Laurent Garnier, we were honored to receive some really nice words from him about our music and it’s always a great pleasure to speak with him so easily. He really is a great person in France for the electronic music culture: cultured, really open-minded and still living with passion for his art.

Electro sort of died a death a few years ago. Why do you think that is?

We don’t think so. Like all new musical movement, it needs time for people to accept and then like it. It’ll be back!

And how would you best describe the music you guys make then?

Something like hybrid techno with emotion…

And can you tell us a bit about the album on Thrill of It? What was the idea there?

We wanted to mix together the tracks we thought that were more interesting for this project. Some of the tunes were a little bit older than other ones we’ve produced for the album.

So how do you know Acumen? Has he always been a big believer in your sound?

We were playing some of his tracks and appreciated the man as a producer. Then we had the great pleasure to meet him in person and quickly he became a good friend. We started to work with him with a release on his other label Time Has Changed (co-founded with Timid Boy). So it ‘s a big pleasure to work with him on this project, to have our very first album with someone we have a really good feeling with.

So did he give you complete creative freedom to do the album as you please? How long were you working on it for?

Our collaboration was exemplary because we agreed on all the tracks quickly. Let’s say that it took something like 3 months to set up everything.

How challenging was the whole process? This is your first album, isn’t it?

As we said previously, the wish to build something with the tracks we thought the more interesting for this project, with some tunes maybe produced one year ago but also with new ones, dedicated to the album.

How did you know when it was finished? With hindsight, is there anything you’d have changed about it?

When we became deaf! No, seriously, we were able to make an album with 30 tracks…So we had to focus, select and take a decision with Acumen, helping us to fixed the thing.

What French producers do you think we should be looking out for over the next while?

Well, we told you about Villanova, from Paris, we could also mentioned a nice duo from south of France, Melokolektiv, who are really good friends of ours too!

And what else is on the agenda for you two over the next while?

We are really happy to announce our 3rd release with Souvenir Music, label from Tiefschwarz, who we feel more and more close to. So watch out for that one!

Jules & Moss’ Double False Face is out now on Thrill of It.

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more info:

Jules & Moss // Thrill of it