Jupiter
Quarles Baseden and Amélie de Bosredon are Jupiter. To write like the NME they have the enchanting vocals of Sally Shapiro combined with driving energy of Fred Falke. Hopefully my lazy comparison doesn’t put you off as these guys are amazing. Their debut 12” Starlighter comes out Monday (the 14th) and is already out digitally with a cool remix by Bottin.
Winston: How did you guys first get interested in electronic music?
Jupiter: We were more into rock initially, and we didn’t feel so attracted to house music but when Daft Punk started getting big around 96/97 we changed our minds. They were all over the place in France, there was no way you could miss them. And upon hearing their first few singles, you couldn’t help but fall in love with the mix of influences and the novelty of their sound, so we could say that Homework first got us into electronic music.
W: What made you start Jupiter and how did you two meet?
J: We met on holiday through a mutual friend, but we hated each other at first. But we both happened to be studying in London the following year, and we somehow bounced into each other and had a very different feeling than the first time 
At first we were making electro-folk music, with no apparent reason as we were both really into electro, funk and disco. I guess we both played guitar and wanted to get into electronic gear slowly but surely, and it was the best way to do it. Anyway, we quickly realised we had way more fun playing the sort of music we most enjoyed listening to, which sounds pretty logical now hahaha
W: How did you get involved with Valerie Collective?
J: Anoraak contacted us shortly after we started Jupiter last year, and asked us to remix Nightdrive With You. Apparently, he was pleased with the result as he subsequently introduced us to the rest of the collective and included our take in a remix EP. We have a very good relationship with the crew, as they’re all very talented and really cool people. I guess that makes us friend, which is why we were included in the Valérie & Friends compilation.
W: What’s your take on the world’s fascination with the French electronic music scene? To me it feels like there is a shift back to a more disco centric house sound like Cassius, Dimitri from Paris and Fred Falke rather than the Ed Banger sound, what do you think?
J:French people have a bit of history with electronic music; not only did people like Pierre Schaeffer and Jean-Jacques Perrey pioneered electronic music (I was taught this in class in the UK, so I’m not trying to be chauvinistic here!). The massive international success of Jean-Michel Jarre probably paved the way for more recent acts. Because of this, the French benefit from a great international respect when it comes to electronic music, which we think is great.
If by the Ed Banger sound you mean a lot of distortion, then we’re pretty glad people are returning to a more disco sound. However, the impressive craftsmanship of bands like Justice has influenced a lot of people, and I don’t think people will ever go back to the receptiveness of French house, like it was after the peak of the era. We like to think people are trying to bring back the sound and spirit of that music (or disco music for that matter) through a more modern and eclectic approach. The best of both worlds in other words
W: What sort of gear do you use to make your tracks?
J:We don’t have much hardware actually, we usually use our Juno 106 up to the point where we need more perspective in sound, which leads us to use a range of virtual synths, most often a prophet 5 and a dx7. We have some digital synths that needs fixing though, but it’s often more tempting to use our computer straight away haha. However, we’ll probably invest in more hardware when and if we get the chance to grow bigger, and thus be able to carry around more equipment, which leads us to the next question…
W: What your live setup is like is backing tracks or live instruments or a combination?
J : …on stage we use a lot of pre-programmed stuff, as electronic musicians must. However, we try to play as much live stuff as we can; Amélie sings and plays now and then, while I play non-stop from our first intro till the last note. It’s very funny because my synth patches are programmed to change automatically so I can play bass, chords and lead at different moments of the same song, which can be very confusing for people who watch us haha
W: first single Starlighter has just come out, what else can we expect from Jupiter in 2009?
J: At the moment we’re trying to see where that single leads us, how people respond to it and as such to our music in general. Maybe another EP, remixes and a lot of gigs. We have a few concerts lined up at the moment and we love performing live so we can only hope for more!
W: Ile de France is a pretty big place, where did you guys grow up?
J: It is a big place indeed, we actually live in Paris. Does our MySpace say Ile de France or something?! I personally grew up in Bordeaux, which has a double-meaning to it.
Amélie grew up in a small town north of Paris, not very exciting but sufficiently close to go to gigs, record shops etc
W: Jupiter has only been around for a short time but what is your favourite memory with the group so far?
J: Playing in Moscow was perhaps the greatest memory we have, as the crowd there was very responsive, expressive and most importantly mad about disco music!
Winston | 1 Comment
You post awsome posts. Bookmarked !