If your studio was on fire and you could go in a save one thing, what would it be and why?

If you could choose any film from history for Juicy Lucy to be the soundtrack, what would it be and why?

What’s the coolest thing in your house?

What do you collect apart from records?

If you could remix any song from history, what would you choose and why?

We were at the same party and at some point the DJ played “Mama Used to Say” by Junior; everybody left the dancefloor except for the two of us. We had a chat and quickly realized we had the same musical tastes. It was bit of a “let’s start a band!” moment, we decided to play music together and let the magic happened.

Packed venue and lots of drinks. Good food can be helpful too.

After becoming a producer, you can’t listen to a song without scientifically analyzing it: it’s automatic. Sometimes we regret the times back when we could listen to a song and appreciate it for what it’s worth, instead of just thinking things like “nice reverb on that cowbell”. On the positive side, that means we can come to appreciate any type of music, as long as we find something interesting beyond the actual music (production skills and such).

To be honest we’ve never heard of them but we’ll give it a go! As far as Juicy Lucy is concerned, the album is definitely a blend of all the different things we listen to: Chic, The Doors, Giorgio Moroder, The Beastie Boys, The Clash, Interpol etc…

At the time we were mixing the album we used to watch every single live performance on Midnight Special. It’s priceless to witness legendary disco acts play live at the peak of their career, a time when lip-sync was the norm; picture Chic, KC & Sunshine Band and Donna Summer, complete with a proper disco orchestra. To be able to immerse yourself into the reality of what made that music so amazing is priceless, so I guess it had a big influence on our record.

People are always surprised when we answer this one! We actually produce everything on FL Studio (formerly Fruity Loops), and we’re not planning to change anytime soon. We actually started making music on this software and never bothered to switch as we grew accustomed to its ins and outs: all the shortcuts, workaround tricks etc…and to be honest it’s an awesome tool if you can master it. It would take so much time to switch to another software anyway. Daft Punk actually used one of the bundled plugins in “Derezzed”

We have the chance to be part of a generation that can emulate any instrument on an average laptop, but it’s a double-edged sword. Too much freedom, endless possibilities can make you unfocused. Our best advice would be working your way up, by restricting yourself to only one virtual synth, one drum machine and a couple of effects and expand only once you mastered them.

Before we started Jupiter we messed around so many plugins, but before we had time to understand how one worked we were already fiddling with a new one. We realized it was counterproductive, so we bought a hardware synth (a Juno-106), and waited until we mastered it to move onto a next one. Once you do that you can really exploit all the potential computer-assisted music has to offer.

There’s a Juicy Lucy in all of us, most people just don’t know it yet.

If you mean analog or software synths (emulating analog hardware), we’d obviously go for the real deal. Not only do they sound better, but having the actual machine in front of you is a totally different experience altogether. We have a handful of those, but their soft counterparts still sound amazing. The good thing with having actual synths around us is that sometimes you’re just playing around like a kid playing with toys, and before you know it you’re building a descent song: this is exactly what happened on “St Petersbourg”. Then again, in terms of budget it’s a totally different story, so we’re happy with our Minimoog plugin. For now!

We definitely hope too! Our friend Anoraak toured Australia twice and each time he came back saying he had an amazing time. We’d love to see koalas too, we heard every Australian person has at least two of those in their living room.

Nu-Disco’s rise over the last 3 years has been meteoric; but it hasn’t reached a point where it has broken the mainstream glass-ceiling. It would be fair to say that disco’s marquee time is still in the late 70’s and early 80’s – but with Jupiter’s debut album ‘Juicy Lucy’ it could be that another relatively unknown French duo have made an album that can finally stand alongside the greats both past and present.

It’s as accomplished as you can get without sounding too much like a nostalgic ride down to Studio 54. At the heart of Jupiter’s debut album are proper songs, songs that could be played on daytime radio alongside the Kanye’s and Beyonce’s of this world. From the Chromeo-esque vocoded chorus’ of ‘Elliot Uppercut’ to their current single ‘One O Six’ their unique brand disco never gets boring and doesn’t just trudge the classics for references – they try reimagining them in a world where dance music is at the core of youth culture.

You’ve got everything from future anthem, and call to arms ‘Set The Course of The Nile’ to hip-hop infused funk of ‘Hula Hoop’, which shows off their ability to make music that is genuinely original, with a peculiar use of effects on Amelie’s voice. By the halfway mark it hits its stride with cosmic keys of ‘Sake’ which effortlessly sits alongside the more bubblegum pop vocals of ‘Oh I’.

‘Juicy Lucy’ is a triumph in every sense of the word, the album snatches every memorable melody from the last 30 years and condenses them into a short, but sweet 50 minutes. It references everything from Les Rhythmes Digital, Chic and Daft Punk to Kate Bush, The Jacksons and Blondie. There are no weak tracks to speak of and Amelie’s vocals are incredible – they’re organic, yet, intisingly foreign – and for what it’s worth she’s not splattered across every song and chorus, but liberally sprinkled like magic pixie dust.

With two of disco’s biggest stars passing within a week of each other, the changing of the guard is happening now. But thankfully, with Jupiter, disco is in a safe pair of hands.

HBF Rating 5/5