international news _ 5th February, 2007
Justice Vs Simian- We Aren't Your Friends
Text by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
French electro-glitch duo Justice chatted to Australian magazine 3D World last week about their meteoric rise to the top of the worldwide club scene and admitted that they're sick to death of the track that made it all possible; their remix of Simian's Never Be Alone.
"We're bored of it now," Gaspard Auge chuckled, " I think it's great that a track can move from the club to the mainstream, (but) that track is like three years old and some people are just hearing it now."
Ex Simian star Simon Lord, who wrote and sang the track's memorable chorus of 'We Are You Friends', laughed when told of Justice's comments, saying 'I guess it's tricky for them because they'll want people to hear their own music, tunes that are purely theirs.'
"I still quite like it," Simon continued, "I still get a kick out of hearing it, particularly in clubs and seeing its effect. My mate sent me some YouTube clippings recently where entire clubs are singing it acapella, which is pretty amazing to see."
Simon said the track was first created 5 years ago then honed by Justice over several different record deals (including DJ Hell's Gigolo), before becoming a crossover hit last year when Virgin signed it. However, its belated success has done little to alleviate his financial situation, he admitted, which remains, despite a new record contract, frugal.
"With Simian we had a deal which supported us then in the interim between Simian and now I've managed to scrounge by on the money we earned in Simian and just from living meagrely," he said.
"The track has grown by word of mouth which has given it a longer shelf life, people have just heard it and found out about it, gradually, untili n the end, Virgin released it because of public demand rather than trying to create public demand which is what they usually do," he continued.
"But did we make any money off it? Err no," he smiled, "It's the same old story, we owed a lot of money to the record company as Simian so it's paid off that debt."
Simon's new single Face (released with his new bandmate, former Wiseguy Theo Keating- aka DJ Touche) is out shortly on Southern Fried (under their band name Black Ghosts).
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