As you may know, French duo Jupiter is back this month with a brand new album called “Bandana Republic”! Recorded between Paris and Los Angeles, it sees the duo take a different direction than the disco sound of their first album released in 2012. The second album is often said to be a challenge for a band, and Jupiter didn’t disappoint us. I had the chance to meet them to talk about their inspiration around this album, and a lot of other interesting things.
Hello Jupiter! You just released your second album “Bandana Republic”. How long have you been working on it?
We started working on it about a year and a half ago. At that time, we were looking for our style, we didn’t want to redo the same as the first album. During a few months, we tried different styles before finding the sound that we really like for this album. Then, writing the album took between 6 and 8 months.
Did you feel people were expecting new music from you?
Yes, because we didn’t release any new songs since the first album in 2012. People were probably expecting our second album. On our side, we were always working and writing music, so it didn’t seem long. It’s been 3 years since our first album, that we can sum up that way: 1 year of touring, 1 year to find our style, 6 months to finish the album, and 6 more months to release it (mastering, promo, etc…). We wanted to offer a complete experience, not just EPs. The album format is more adapted to our new style, which is less electronic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6mCnjakHHU
I’ve seen that you worked with a third person to produce this album, can you tell us more about him?
Yes, we worked with Tim, Quarles’ cousin, who played synths on our last tour. We were looking for new inspiration, so we thought it would be cool to work with him. He wrote a few songs from the album.
You went to Los Angeles to work on the album, do you have a special connection with this city?
Yes, we’ve been there a few times before and we really wanted to go to California. We settled down in Los Angeles but we traveled across California. It really worked, we wrote half of the album during our two months stay there. It was really inspiring to see something different from France. But we didn’t have our studio equipment there, so it was raw versions of the songs, and we re-worked on it in France.
Did you have relationships with other artists there?
Yes, we met a few artists, but we didn’t want to reproduce what we know in Paris. Here, we have already our friends making music, so the goal was not to meet again artists from this scene. We wanted to focus on production and find new inspiration, without being influenced by a particular scene.
You released a video for “Do It”, can you explain us the story behind it?
It’s the story of a couple who live in isolation in their apartment, creating their own world. At the end they are bored, so they decide to go out and see the real world. The shooting was really fun, a great experience, but also exhausting. During a scene we were wearing astronauts costumes, and we had to jump on a bed with it, we thought we would pass out!
For the next video, are you thinking about showing your US inspiration?
Maybe, but we think there’s no need to remind again it was recorded in the US. We are thinking about the next video but we don’t know yet what it will look like.
How was your first show for this album, at YOYO in Paris?
It was really nice, our first time playing with a real live band and a drummer. It was a short show, 30 minutes, so we have to rehearse for our next ones. We are looking forward to the next ones!
Do you have other shows planned soon?
Yes, we play this Saturday in Paris, and in Toulouse at the end of May. Big date and tour will be in September.
2 remixes were released for “Do It”, did you choose the remixers yourselves?
Yes, Amélie chose The Svens, and we knew Smok via our manager. We are currently getting in touch with remixers for the next single, we’re looking forward to hear what they will do.
At the moment, which artists do you like?
Amélie: I really like Jacco Gardner, who just released an album as well.
Quarles: Daniel Avery, he released a remix album recently. And I discovered a kind of crazy artist, Jacques, with a weird haircut. I like the song “Tout Est Magnifique”, the video clip is weird too.
Before ending the interview, Amélie, can you tell us more about our side project Bumblee?
Yes, it’s a project I launched because I like to DJ, make mixtapes, etc. With Jupiter, we are moving away from the clubs . It’s been a long time I wanted to launch my project, so it was the right time. I had to put it on standby as I am mainly focused on Jupiter now, but I will release a new mixtape and a new remix soon. I will probably release original material too. Now, I’d like to get back to DJ sets, I really like that.