French duo Jersey is what happens when you grow up catching BBC Radio signals like lightning in a bottle off the Normandy coast. The brother duo of Carl and Renaud blazed onto the scene by way of their notorious DIY living room raves soundtracked with uniquely indie sleezey French-touch. It’s unsurprising that they quickly went viral. Their latest EP Over&Over is a buzzing transmission of serrated synths and glitchy vocals that makes a compelling case for nostalgia as futures untold. Cuts like Giant Cotton Balls split the difference between punk attitude and electronic precision, while Colors Turn Grey manages to sound like both a lullaby and a panic attack. Their sound is French-touch being touched for the first time all over again, intertwined with UK funk, house, and drum and bass, making one thing clear – Jersey are far more interested in breaking the mould than fitting any scene’s calibration. We caught up with them to find out more about the creation of Over&Over.
Hello Jersey! For those of our readers who may not be familiar with your work – what’s your elevator pitch?
We are Jersey, two french brothers crafting music that makes people dance.
Could you tell us a bit about where your relationship with dance music began? How did you find the sound of Jersey?
In 2007, we bought Justice’s first CD to listen to in the car and it was a revelation for us. We were inspired by the freedom of the French touch as much as we were influenced by the Indie Rock from BBC that our parents used to listen to when we were young. A few years later, we discovered Prodigy and started recording sounds on the family computer.
When did you both start working together, and how does your creative synergy translate into your sound?
We are brothers, and we’ve always wanted to make music together ! It all started with air guitar playing in our bedroom jamming to our favourite tracks, then we started playing for real. After that, we began recording ourselves on Audacity with an old synthesiser. That’s how we started producing music.
You’re about to release your new EP Over&Over – could you tell us a bit about this project? What were the starting points for you or first sparks of inspiration?
We created this EP somewhat in response to our previous one. What’s changed since our first EP is that we’ve been able to travel the world and see people’s reactions live. We gained confidence, and that allowed us to try more things on this EP. It remains cohesive while exploring several new possibilities.
Sonically, Over&Over touches on club sounds from garage to drum and bass, but filtered through this sort of French touch perspective. How do you approach the concept of genre in your work? Is it something that happens organically?
We have a pretty indie approach to musical genres, we like many different things, and we want that to come through. What ties our tracks together is more of a vibe and overall energy rather than a strict adherence to one style.
You’ve built a bit of a reputation for the secret parties that you guys throw – how does the culture and spirit of that DIY party approach inform the direction of your music?
Live music is something very important to us. When we first arrived in Paris, we made money by working in concert venues. Now, we’re happy to know how to do everything ourselves. We have the freedom to organise a concert whenever and wherever we want, with a few friends helping to carry speakers and lights. It creates unique moments that you can’t experience in a regular concert. It’s a special atmosphere that we really love. It’s really why we make music—to share it with people in the most direct and unpredictable way possible.
Is there a particular track on the EP that you feel most proud of, and why?
Colors Turn Grey is one of the tracks we feel the most proud of because it doesn’t sound like anything else we ever did. People never know how to dance when we play it live. We created it because we found it exciting and pretty unique to mix melodic ambient with 200 BPM club music. We’re also quite proud of the combination of the lyrics and the vocal texture.
What does the future look like for Jersey? Any dream projects or collaborations that you’re hoping to manifest?
A big new tour awaits us! We really try to push ourselves each time to deliver a show that we would be excited to see ourselves. Once the tour ends, we’d love to meet new artists and take some time to do collaborations and remixes before diving into the creation of our first album.
