international news _ JONTY SKRUFFF _ 24th Novemober, 2005

Winter In Brazil- Not Such A Daft Punk

Daft Punk superstar manager Pedro Winter chatted to Skrufff this week about his latest protégés Justice and their upcoming tour of Brazil and confirmed that he'll be showing off his own considerable deck skills at both ampgalaxy and Rio's Dama de Ferro on the upcoming trip.

"I don't consider myself as an artist or only music business guy, I'm an entertainer and I like to see people jumping around when I DJ," said Pedro, "I want them to dance with me and to laugh at me, I want them to head-bang."

The wild haired Parisian's day job managing Daft Punk, Justice and running his own ultra-cool label Ed Banger Records, is one of France's most influential and powerful music industry moguls though started his career as a skateboard obsessed college drop out, he admitted.

"I went to university and did three months of law school then quit to go partying. I learned my business working day to day with Daft Punk," said Pedro, "it was all on the job training."

Often described as the third member of Daft Punk, he's now applying the same rinciples to building Justice's career, though stressed the filthy house French pair are very much their own men.

"Sure there's an easy comparison with Daft Punk- there are two of them, they're French, they've weird names and I'm involved with them but every year the press comes up with a new Daft Punk. There are no new Daft Punks, though Justice are definitely sons of Daft Punk's era," he said.

"The Justice boys know what they want and most importantly they know what they don't want. We don't say no to everything like we used to with Daft Punk but we're taking our time, they're a new band, having been going for just three years and I don't want to rush things," continued.

"The Daft Punk boys really like Justice though sometimes they think they're a bit noisy. Justice generally are getting more and more attention, firstly from remixes (they've already done Britney Spears, Daft Punk, Fatboy Slim and Franz Ferdinand) and also for their DJ sets."

Justice first made waves with their Gigolo signed anthem Never Be Alone, more recently attracting plaudits for their energy packed filthy disco mash-up EP Waters Of Nazareth, as well as acclaimed remixes such as Vicarious Bliss.

"With Justice, as soon as I met them I knew I would work with them, their music is modern and dirty and I liked their energy immediately, I signed them within a week of meeting them. The guys are smart and young, I knew they needed help but not that much help," he explained. "I need to feel a band from the heart, I like real people and don't need a fake shit band."

Pedro and Justice play Rio de Janeiro @ Dama de Ferro on Friday November 25 and Sao Paulo @ ampgalaxy on Saturday November 26.(Jonty Skrufff)