In the run-up to the new millennium, Daft Punk transformed from shy Frenchmen into inhuman icons. The robot era, as Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo told it, began with a studio accident on September 9, 1999 that blew up their equipment and changed the essence of their being. 

As the story went, the culprit was the little-known '9999' bug, which erased all the music they'd been working on in human form. Their only choice was to carry on as androids. "I think everything was erased," Bangalter told The Face magazine in 2000 with a palpable shrug. "We had to start all over again." Details were intentionally hazy, but one thing was made clear: the robots weren't new characters or alter egos. Daft Punk was still the same Thomas and Guy-Manuel, reborn with circuit boards and chrome headgear. 

Daft Punk's robot reinvention set the stage for their much-anticipated second album, Discovery. Released internationally in March of 2001 by Virgin Records, Discovery was a clear evolution from the duo's 1997 debut album, Homework. That record was a rough and ready riff on US house and techno with a distinctly French accent, spawning instant classics like "Da Funk", "Around The World" and "Rollin' & Scratchin'". On Discovery, Daft Punk went maximalist, bringing in '80s-tinged pop, funk and arena rock alongside a shinier house sound. 

"We didn't want in any way to do what we did on the first album," Bangalter told Big Shot in 2001. If Homework made Daft Punk into much-imitated house heroes, Discovery signaled their arrival as pop superstars, charting the duo's course for the next two decades. 

Discovery came out of an intensely creative period for Daft Punk. After releasing Homework in their early 20s, the childhood friends toured non-stop throughout 1997, playing to dark, strobe-lit rooms from behind a hardware bank. (They didn't wear masks on stage, but stayed in the shadows.) The pair began concerted work on Discovery in 1998, returning to their Paris studio crowded with drum machines, vintage keyboards, guitars and synthesizers. 

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"We don't argue about who's playing what," de Homem-Christo told Mix in 2001. "You can get the sound of a guitar with a keyboard or the opposite." As well as lifting samples from dusty soul and disco records, the duo sampled their own studio jams. "We don't use too much of the sound of the instruments; it's really more about how we put effects on it after that," de Homem-Christo added. 

From 1998 into 2000, Daft Punk channeled the open-hearted passions of their childhood years, without worrying about what was cool. "When you're a child, you don't analyze music," Bangalter told Remix Mag in 2001. "You just like it because you like it." 

Daft Punk released the album’s lead single, "One More Time", in November of 2000. With producer and singer Romanthony's bright, autotuned vocals riding an exultant house melody, the song introduced Daft Punk's youthful vision. As disciples of New Jersey house and garage, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo were thrilled to meet Romanthony at the Miami Winter Music Conference in 1996. Together, they created one of Daft Punk's signature hits, which went on to earn a Best Dance Recording nomination at the 2002 GRAMMYs (the duo's third in the category, following "Da Funk" in 1998 and "Around the World" in 1999). 

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The months between "One More Time" and Discovery allowed fans to obsess over Daft Punk's new appearance. The duo developed the robot design with music video directors Alex and Martin (including initial anime-inspired helmets with hair), then engaged special effects guru Tony Gardner at Alterian Inc. to make them real.

Bangalter's look was modeled on the robot Gort from 1951 sci-fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still, while de Homem-Christo's helmet featured a vertical LED display. The design continued to evolve in the years after Discovery, leading to the reveal of the red light-up helmets atop the pyramid at Coachella in 2006. 

"We didn't want to do 15 house tracks on one album," Bangalter said of Discovery in his Big Shot interview. For all its scope and ambition, though, the album is a celebration of dance music at its heart—a feeling that's never clearer than in its first four songs, each released as a single. "One More Time" defies the cliche of the moody album opener, starting instead at warp speed. 

From there, listeners are treated to the in-your-face guitar and bells of "Aerodynamic", the doe-eyed synth-pop of "Digital Love" (co-written by Daft Punk ally DJ Sneak) and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", which twisted a funk riff from Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby" into a house steamroller. Most artists would avoid front-loading all the hoped-for hits, but Daft Punk knew they had plenty more in the tank. 

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After the rush of its opening salvo, Discovery keeps switching the dial. Between the racing "Crescendolls" and thumping "Superheroes" (which sounds like a buffed and polished leftover from Homework), "Nightvision" offers an airy breather. "Something About Us"—released as the 'love theme' for Daft Punk's 2003 animated movie, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem—sounds like a template for the cruisy vibe of the duo's fourth and final album, Random Access Memories. 

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One of the album's best stretches covers the rubbery bass of "Voyager" to the Giorgio Moroder-inspired synth excursion "Veridis Quo" to the freakout funk of "Short Circuit". In this stacked middle, there's a personal favorite for every kind of Daft Punk fan. 

Daft Punk closed Discovery with two deeply-felt songs. "Face to Face" features vocals by New Jersey garage pioneer Todd Edwards, while Romanthony returns on the ten-minute closer, "Too Long". (Daft Punk namechecked both artists in a roll-call of their musical heroes on Homework cut "Teachers".) The songs are the most faithful evocations of classic house on Discovery, keeping the natural depth and clarity of both voices. 

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"Their music had a big effect on us," Bangalter explained to Remix Mag of Edwards and Romanthony. "Because they mean something to us, it was much more important for us to work with them than with other big stars." Notably, Daft Punk followed Discovery with the October 2001 release of Alive 1997, featuring a live recording from their post-Homework tour. Between the warmth of "Face to Face" and "Too Long" and the raw energy of Alive 1997, the duo took care to honor the past. 

Discovery took on a new light six years later with the release of Alive 2007. The duo's second live album, recorded in Paris midway through the pyramid tour, features songs from every Daft Punk era spliced together live. In these newly adrenalized versions, familiar song elements—from the jet-fueled "Da Funk" bassline to the indelible melody of "Music Sounds Better With You" from Bangalter’s Stardust project—turn up in unexpected and thrilling ways. 

After years of rinsing Alive 2007, it can be hard to hear the original "One More Time" without expecting the burst of "Aerodynamic" guitars, or "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" without traces of "Around The World" and an arena-tooled kick-drum. While Alive 2007 makes every Daft Punk song sound like it came from the same supercharged album, we can thank Discovery for the show's tingliest moments. 

Discovery had an immediate impact on 2000s music. The album brought wider attention to the French house scene, which led Daft Punk's then-manager Pedro Winter (aka Busy P) to establish Ed Banger Records as an outlet for artists like Justice, DJ Mehdi, Cassius and Breakbot. Kanye West sampled "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" on his 2007 single "Stronger", then convinced the duo to make a cameo during his GRAMMYs performance in 2008. (Daft Punk later appeared as producers on West's searing 2013 album, Yeezus.) 

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A new generation of dance acts, including Disclosure, Madeon and Porter Robinson, are indebted to Discovery. Others, like Deadmau5, took inspiration from the robot aesthetic for live shows. Following Daft Punk's "Epilogue" in February, Porter Robinson summed up his feelings in a tweet: "Thinking about how every stage of my life would have gone so differently if it weren't for Daft Punk." 

One of the most intriguing documents of the Discovery era is a promo video the duo shot in Japan. Fully outfitted in their new get-up (complete with backpacks containing their power supply), the robots pose with manga artist Leiji Matsumoto and roam the streets of Tokyo. In voiceover, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo tell the story of the album in tentative English. Their goofy dancing and natural speaking voices recall a more innocent time before Daft Punk became truly reclusive. 

"It's the first album we're making as robots," Bangalter explains over footage of the pair pranking shoppers and riding the Tokyo subway. "It's a mix between the new chip we have in our brain and the fact that we still have a heart and a heartbeat." Electronic music with a beating heart: that's the magic of Discovery. 

Tron: Legacy At 10: How Daft Punk Built An Enduring Soundtrack

When it comes to American dance music culture, few events carry the cool cache of a HARD party. Founded on New Year's Eve of 2008 by DJ and former label A&R Gary Richards, the name HARD has become synonymous with taste-making, offering fans an enviable mix of influential headliners and cutting-edge up-and-comers.

HARD parties have been a breakout platform for luminaries like Justice, Skrillex, deadmau5, and more, and the HARD Summer festival is one of the brand's most celebrated flagship events. In 2017, HARD was absorbed into the Insomniac festival family — the same company that brings fan-favorites EDC Las Vegas and Electric Forest to life — which ensures the stage production, on-site activities and other ancillary fun are sure to be supersized. How many festivals do you know that offer a Ferris wheel and a swimming pool?

Coming to Los Angeles' Hollywood Park near SoFi Stadium on Aug. 3 and 4, this year's lineup continues the tradition of blending authoritative artists, legacy DJs and unique back-to-back headliners with buzzy newcomers in a variety of genres and styles. 

Whether you wanna rave out with club king Jamie xx, bang your head to bass with Zeds Dead, get tropical with Major Lazer, see what it sounds like for UK grime star Skepta to DJ, or just sing along to mid-2000s belters courtesy of dance-pop crossover queen Nelly Furtado, there's something to please every palette. Of course, in true HARD tradition, we seriously recommend exploring the undercard, because the biggest name in electronic music tomorrow is probably playing one of the HARD side stages today.

While you wrap your head around the stacked lineup, check out a quick guide to 10 must-see acts below.

A legend on the decks who can play blissful disco or teeth-shattering techno with a smile, Boys Noize is a must-see on any lineup simply because he loves doing the job. He recently teamed with Skrillex on the anthem "Fine Day," and released an entire EP with alt-rap icon Rico Nasty. He's also the producer behind Lady Gaga's beloved Ariana Grande collab, "Rain On Me," and Playboi Carti's "Unlock It," but he's likely to unleash a massive set of hard techno bangers for the L.A. crowd — though you never can tell which direction he'll take you in next, so come with an open mind.

As the top-billed headliner for Saturday night, Disclosure should need little to no introduction to any modern dance music fan — but that doesn't mean you should sleep on their set.

Howard and Guy Lawrence emerged on the scene as seemingly an instant success. The brothers' debut album, Settle, almost single-handedly changed the landscape of popular dance in 2012, moving the taste du jour away from the big-room EDM and bass-heavy trap sound toward a UK garage revival that still carries, and helped launch Sam Smith's career in the process.

In the 12 years that followed, Disclosure has continued to push the envelope — and themselves — working with cross-genre heavyweights including Lorde, Khalid, Miguel, Kelis, Slowthai, and The Weeknd, as well as incorporating international sounds and styles into their club-driven house grooves. Earlier this year, Disclosure returned with the dance floor-ready single "She's Gone, Dance On," announcing themselves as arbiters of disco-laced funk and good-time DJs for 2024 crowds. Surely they'll be in top form come HARD Summer.

If you like your dark techno to come with a side of hip-shaking Latin rhythms, Miami-bred duo INVT is the experimental sound machine you can't possibly pass up. Luca Medici and Delbert Perez have been best friends since they were kids, and that closeness comes through in their tight experimental sets, blending booming bass with glitched-out techno synths, cumbia rhythms, dembow beats, and acidic edge.

INVT are — as the name may imply — extremely innovative, leaning into their own productions and edits to curate an approach that feels hypnotic, exciting and unique. If you're not afraid of beats that go really hard and get a little weird, this is a set that can set your wild mind ablaze.

What happens when you put two of the most unique and hard-hitting producers in electronic music together on one stage? Deadmau5 is one of the scene's leading icons, and Rezz (who released her debut album of deadmau5's Mau5trap label in 2017) shifted bass music culture with her gritty, techno-fueled, half-time sound. The two share a love of dark, stomping, left-field noise, and after years of teasing possible collaborations, those shared interests merged on the 2021 collaboration "Hypnocurrency." Two years later, they released the booming, dystopian 2023 single "Infraliminal" — not just a brilliant rework of deadmau5's 2012 track "Superliminal," but the official introduction to Rezzmau5.

Rezzmau5 haven't released anything since, and live performances from the duo have remained few and far between. But the monolithic duo just warmed up their trippy joint live show at Tomorrowland 2024, which was set in "the mythical realm of Silvyra," a world "filled with creatures, plant life, and people living in harmony." Whether or not their HARD set follows the same storyline, it's certain to shake the skulls of every dancer at Hollywood Park. Prepare your body for something deep, dark and maniacal.

There aren't many electronic acts that bring the same level of frontman energy that Elderbrook boasts on stage. A multi-talented performer, the UK artist sings and plays instruments, creating a rock-show experience unlike most sets at heavily electronic festivals like HARD. He leads the crowd in heartfelt sing-alongs to hits including "Numb," "Something About You," "Inner Light" and, of course, his megahit CamelPhat collab "Cola."

Bouncing between his microphone, synthesizers and keyboards, samplers and drum pads, his one-man band performance is sure to draw a serious crowd. If you're ready for a break from the hard-edged rave noise and want to ascend to heavenly heights, Elderbrook is the man for the job.

Nothing is more fun than watching two best mates go absolutely nuts on the decks. And when two stellar DJs go back-to-back, everyone wins, because they spend the whole set trying to impress each other. 

Chris Lake is one of the most influential producers in tech house. Fisher is one of the most unhinged and energizing DJs one can ever witness. Together, the besties deliver an over-the-top party with an arsenal of mind-numbing drops, weirdo grooves and just-plain fun vibes that make you wanna hug your friends and dance 'til you sweat. The set is called Under Construction, but make no mistake: these two have completely mastered the blueprint.

If you like your sets to be playful cross-genre explorations of sounds from around the world — tied together by booty-shaking beats and booming bass lines — JYOTY is sure to check all your boxes. She knows how to lead a great party because she spent her childhood frequenting the unmatched clubs of Amsterdam. And with an ethos built around playing whatever the heck she wants, she's comfortable dropping a bit of hip-hop into some Brazilian bops, mixing it up with hard breakbeats, blistering rave synths and more.

If you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it, but no one brings the house down quite like Kerri Chandler. A pioneer of the original deep and garage house movements, Chandler was a foundational DJ of the '80s scene, holding down a residency at the legendary Club Zanzibar in New Jersey and founding the MadHouse Records label. If you want to feel the soulful spirit that made electronic music what it is, Chandler's dreamy mix of feel-good melodies served over kickin' club beats are a direct line to house music's roots.

You know how Mary Poppins had a magical bag that held everything from a hat rack to an ornate mirror, a house plant and a Tiffany lamp? Well, California DJ Mary Droppinz comes equipped with a magical USB that's positively bursting with mean beats and original edts.

This woman can blend everything from grimy bouncing bass to ethereal orchestral house, Spice Girls reworks, drum'n'bass bangers, reggae upbeats, '90s R&B remixes and chart-topping hits of the moment twisted into face-melting heaters. You can try to guess where she'll go next, but it's better to just let her take control and follow the vibe through all the devious twists and turns. The one thing you can count on? You'll leave her set dripping with sweat.

Disclosure aren't the only brilliant UK brothers on the HARD Summer lineup. Overmono's Tom and Ed Russell hail from Wales and make some of the most inspired club records of our time.

With backgrounds exploring hard techno, drum'n'bass and rave, the brothers combined their talents in 2015 and have since created an enviable blend of soulful atmospheres and frenetic breakbeats that feels nostalgic and sentimental, but still very heavy. Overmono's 2023 album Good Lies is a great play from start to finish, and a good way to get prepped for their critically acclaimed live set. If you need a big-name co-sign, Overmono was recently featured on Fred again..'s "Stayinit" with Lil Yachty on the vocal. That's the caliber they're rockin' with — and the prestige they'll bring to HARD Summer.

Back in 2011, the Parisian artist Charles de Boisseguin was making funky music by himself. But he knew that his music was too groovy to restrict to recordings. He wanted to do more than be a DJ; de Boisseguin wanted the chemistry of a full band.  

He formed L'Impératrice, a six-piece modern disco and funk project featuring de Boisseguin on keys, Hagni Gwon on keys and strings, drummer Tom Daveau, bassist David Gaugué, guitarist Achille Trocellier, and vocalist Flore Benguigui. The group released their third album, Pulsar, on June 7.  

Prior to Benguigui's arrival in 2015, L'Impératrice were purely instrumental. "Vocals were another instrument we wanted in our music, but we discovered we had to change our way of composing,"says Gwon. "When you don't have any vocals, you're free to put everything you want as a musician. Sometimes too many things. But when you have vocals, you have to be very balanced. It wasn't easy at first." 

However, L'Impératrice's creative process coalesced and, soon, their floaty, dance-forward style  had garnered a passionate international fanbase. In support of their second album, 2021’s Tako Tsubo, they played all over North America, Europe, and the UK to sold-out crowds and packed festival stages at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Outside Lands. "It's not usual for a French project or band, especially a band, to be known abroad. So, it’s like a dream coming true all the time," Gwon notes. 

Pulsar — L'Impératrice's first self-produced effort —was inspired by these international travels, and showcases the band's diverse backgrounds and interests. "It's kind of paradoxical, because it's the first album we made ourselves. But it's the first time we collaborated with that many people," Benguigui says. 

On Pulsar, Benguigui writes and sings in three languages; Neapolitan vocalist Fabiana Martone sings in Italian on the joyous dance jig, "Danza Marilù." Hip-hop/neo soul singer Maggie Rogers' somber and soulful tones are a harmonious addition to the seductive "Any Way." The Flatbush Zombies’ Erick The Architect increases the velocity of his rhymes to accommodate the band’s upbeat funk on "Sweet & Sublime." 

"We wanted to bring back the raw energy of the live shows. To make it a bit rougher, uptempo, more representative of what we are doing live," Gwon says, adding that no producer outside the band would truly know such intricacies. "That's something that only we could think about."  

With Pulsar out in the world, L'Impératrice is putting renewed focus on their live show. They'll begin a tour of North America and Europe in September, and are ready to give their international fans everything they have. Following a tour rehearsal at Coopérative de Mai in Clermont-Ferrand, members of the band chatted with GRAMMY.com about working with different collaborators, writing in multiple languages, and the legacy of funky French music. 

One of the songs on the album is called "Love from the Other Side." What is it like for you to have love from the other side, i.e., from fans all over the world? 

Trocellier: It feels amazing. We’re very lucky. 

Benguigui: We don't really know why. I sing in French most of the time. In the beginning, they wanted me to translate the French lyrics and do English versions. The first album actually was also released in English which really didn't work abroad.  

Gwon: At the first concert we did in New York, people were telling us, "Why are you singing your songs in English? The original ones are in French, and we like them better than the ones in English." So just be yourself. 

Benguigui: So we decided not to be worried about it and just let this happen. And actually, it's very surprising how much people love the French language abroad. 

You shouldn't change your original intentions in order to satisfy the audience. 

Benguigui: Exactly. I think it also really changed the emotion of the vocals. If it's in a different language, it can really be a different song. It’s too important to change. 

When I sing in French, I'm more likely to use metaphors and images. For example, the song "Pulsar" is a very metaphorical song about the state I was in when I was writing it. When I'm singing in French, it's somehow closer to me; because it's my language, I need to hide behind some images. In English, I'm way more straightforward because it's not my language. I'm a bit more first-degree in English. Sometimes it’s nice to be first-degree. 

Gwon: I think we are lucky to be at the right period of time. Thirty years ago or 20 years ago, that [interest in foreign language music] wouldn't have been possible, even in the U.S. But now everyone is much more open to other languages. It's not a handicap. It's something that is great.  

Funky French music has always had a huge audience in America: Daft Punk, Justice. Kavinsky. What is it like to continue that legacy? 

Trocellier: It's an honor to be close to these guys. 

Gwon: We don't even know how to place ourselves compared to them, because for us, they’re big influences. We grew up with their music. We are very happy when people tell us that we might be in the same circle. 

Benguigui: There's also a bit of pressure to feel like we represent France abroad. It's nice to be able to spread French culture in countries that might not have heard loads of French music before.  

This album has more English vocals than either of your past albums — both from Flore and your featured artists. Why was it time to explore that language? 

Benguigui: We really rarely say, "Okay, that should be in English or in French." It happened, actually, once on this album. But it was for the Italian song. These guys made the demo, and they were like, "We feel this like an Italian groove." It should be Italian. 

Daveau: An Italo-Disco groove. 

Benguigui: I happened to be in touch with [Fabiana Martone] at that moment. So we made it happen. But it's really the only case. When I make the melody, I'm mumbling over an instrumental, and that’s when I can feel the language I'm gonna use. It was the same for the guests we have on this album: We knew these people liked our music, and so they happened to be English-speaking, or Italian-speaking for Fabiana. It was a nice coincidence, but it could have been a French guest if it was the right one at the right time for the right song. 

Gwon: It's more about the vibe of the track; the vibe that Flore feels when she composes her melody. Maybe one or two times you started with another language. 

Benguigui: [Lyricaly] I can't say the same things in my native language and a foreign language. It's a different way to show feelings. That's why I used the Spanish phrase in "Me Da Igual." I felt I needed this language to hide something or to present it in a different way.  

On "Any Way," before we had Maggie Rogers, you guys were saying we needed something kind of dramatic in the vocals, and it's not really my thing being dramatic. So we were thinking of some vocalists, and all the references that came into our minds were English. So that's also why we had the huge honor to have Maggie on this track. 

Honestly, I was a bit paralyzed when I was with her because she's so talented. She was making the melody and lyrics at the same time. We had just met, and she was just so confident. She knew how to do her job. She's so on it. I was just in the corner watching and being absolutely amazed.  

I added my vocal parts afterward. So that was not a magical moment of the two of us singing together, because, honestly, I was petrified. But it was very interesting. I learned a lot watching her. 

"Sweet & Sublime" with Erick The Architect is on the faster side for a rap song. Were you intending to have a rapper on this track, or did that unfold later? 

Gwon: Flore made a demo where she was semi-rapping, and so we kept that. But we are also very fond of hip-hop. We thought it might be time to ask someone to add this little touch of hip-hop. 

Benguigui: But it was tricky because we didn't have much time. And so, as a security, I recorded two verses. There was a bit of space after my first verse for some rap if someone was interested. And so we sent it to Eric, who we really like. We had not met him before, actually. We met him through FaceTime, and we explained the vibe of the song. 

I remember telling him this is not another love song. It's a song about friendship; it's a song about your gang, but in a very non-violent and positive way. He came back to us with one verse after my first verse. We listened to it, and it was too good to have him just at the beginning. So we asked him, "Okay, man, we're gonna remove my second verse. Can you please just come back in the song later?" He did it. And it sounds super cool.  

This was your first album you produced on your own. What was it like to experiment in this way without the limitations of another producer? 

Trocellier: It was a big relief. We were very happy about trusting ourselves, and at the same time, it was a bit scary because we never worked like this on albums. 

Gwon: For the instrumentals this time, we made small teams. And then we mixed up all the teams. So, during the whole process of the album, everyone worked with everyone. That was the first time it was so well balanced between everyone.  

It has been 12 years now that we’ve worked together. We know what we can do. And we know what we can't do. If we want things that we can't do, we know that we have to ask other people, but for what we can do, let's try to do it ourselves. 

Justice On Creating New Album 'Hyperdrama': "We'll Always Try To Make Everything Sound A Bit Like A Space Odyssey" 

GRAMMY-winning French electro duo Justice have always moved to the tune of their own drum machine.

Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay's debut release, 2003's "We Are Your Friends," was a radical reimagining of a tune from experimental psych-rock group Simian. Originally a remix made for a Parisian college radio contest, "We Are Your Friends" didn't win, but grabbed the attention of Daft Punk's manager Pedro Winter, who had just founded his impactful indie dance label Ed Banger Records. The track eventually became an anthem of the bloghouse era.

Response to their second single — 2005's glitchy, fuzzy "Waters of Nazareth" — nearly made them reconsider their decision to switch careers from graphic design to electronic music. Two years later, the duo had another major hit — along with their first GRAMMY nominations and some international chart success — with their third single, "D.A.N.C.E.", a joyous bop sung by a youth chorus. 

While their core influences of disco, electro, funk and psych rock remain, Justice is not interested in rehashing the same sounds. They are interested in making you feel, and the sounds that get them the most excited in the studio are the strange and boundary-pushing ones.

They're beloved for their high-production live show, where they mashup and reimagine their biggest tunes into a frenzy of sound and lights. They debuted a new live show at Coachella 2024, which features a dizzying new light contraption created over 18 months by their long-time lightning designer Vincent Lérisson. After each studio album, they produce a live album from the subsequent tour, a costly and time-consuming project which they recently told Billboard nearly bankrupts them every time. Yet their last, 2018's Woman Worldwide, won a GRAMMY award for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

Justice is just as meticulous in the studio. For their first studio album in eight years, Hyperdrama, (out on April 26 on Ed Banger/Because Music), they created hundreds of versions of each track and spent an extra year on the album stitching the best parts together. While they've produced for and remixed plenty of big names over the years, the new album is their first to feature recognizable stars like Tame Impala, Miguel and Thundercat, along with Rimon, Connan Mockasin and the Flints.

GRAMMY.com caught up with Xavier de Rosnay to dive deep into the creation of Hyperdrama, the album's new collabs, Justice's new live show, and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

How were your performances at Coachella?

It was good. It was only the second show of the tour. And the beginning of the tool is generally where there's a lot of space for improvement. We could definitely feel that we did better [on weekend 2] than the week before because we were a bit more relaxed, a bit more accustomed to the stage setup and to what we used to conduct the music and everything. Everything felt more fluid. But there can be a difference between what we feel and how the crowd feels, and that's impossible for us to say.

How did you envision this new live show and what are you excited about bringing it around the world?

The way we envision it is as has been the same since the beginning, it's just now we have access to a larger array of technologies to be able to do that. We've always liked the idea of instead of hiding the technical aspects of the stage, enhancing them in every way possible. Everything you see on stage at the beginning [of the show] is stuff that is very mechanical, technical and that are meant to be on stage. As it evolves, everything is moving and lit up.

We hope that there's a lot of moments where the audience can actually get lost [in the moment] and not fully understand what's happening on stage because of the way things are lit. We know the matrix of the stage in and out, but sometimes we see things we don't really understand because it creates a dimensional space that is difficult to comprehend at times. For us, that's the best, it's when we have kind of magic moments.

And musically, same thing, it's always the same as from the beginning but better, freer, bigger. Justice live is Justice's greatest hits; we're not the kind of band that won't play the hits and will force feed the weird [tracks]. For us, it has to be a big party, it has to be fun from top to bottom. Although it's only our fourth album, now we feel we have enough of a catalog to make something that is relentless and fun from the beginning to the end.

I definitely feel a cinematic journey on the new album, is that intentional? And what's the story you're trying to tell with Hyperdrama?

Well, it's intentional in the way that the most powerful music is music that brings images to the mind. Classical pieces of music, like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, are the biggest hits ever and they have no drums, no beats, no lyrics. But they've been the biggest hits for centuries because they have a very powerful, evocative strength. For us, music is first and foremost meant to reveal this. So we never make music with the idea that it has to be for dancing or pop or anything, we always make music to try to convey powerful emotions. Although we didn't work with a theme like cinematic in our mind, we're happy to hear that some listeners are feeling that way.

The way the album is structured is very classic in the sense that it's structured like a lot of narrative forms. The beginning of the record, let's say the first third, is setting the tone and feeling at home. After our first album, we entertained the idea of starting every album with the theme of "Genesis," a bit like when you go to the cinema and hear the 20th century theme.

You feel good for three, four songs, you go on cruise control and then things start to drift a bit. For [Hyperdrama], that's "Moonlight Rendez-Vous" and "Explorer" — when things start to turn wrong a bit and, and then you go into a sort of vortex, like on "Muscle Memory," "Harpy Dream." In a film, that would be when the goofy sidekick of the protagonist dies. At that moment, you think everything is at its worst, then you have the final drop with "Saturnine" and "The End," which is a bit like the homecoming and happy ending situation — you're back at home again and hopefully you end on a positive note.

Is it kind of a Justice Space Odyssey?

Yeah, totally. I think for as long as we make music, we'll always try to make everything sound a bit like a space odyssey. It's funny that you mentioned space odyssey because [Hyperdrama] has four different sections that are very distinct. That's something that we love too — connecting things that don't really make sense at first glance.

Within some tracks, for example "Incognito," we're going from this almost psychedelic funk intro, and then you have a straight cut and you're in the future, everything is electronic. Things don't really make sense at first, but you listen to it and you get used to [this kind of transition].

And that was something where we really worked on a lot on this album, to make those different universes coexist and sometimes in a not very peaceful way. It can be a bit off-putting at first listen, but that's what's great with the record. You can feel it's a bit strange and you return to it and hopefully you start getting used to these kinds of things until they become almost natural.

The two of us have been working closely for a long time, so getting surprised and sometimes getting a bit unsettled is really what we're looking for in the studio. Generally, when we start to track and we're having a laugh because we are feeling we're going too far, it's something we've haven't done before, or we're making something ridiculous, that's a very good sign. These are typically the things we're looking for when we write a track or produce a song. 

"Incognito" feels very classic Justice, although you've said Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode" kind of inspired its shifts. How did "Incognito" come together and how did it shake up your songwriting process? 

I think the "Sicko Mode" thing is getting a bit bigger than what it is. It was not like we had an epiphany hearing that song. We think it's a great track, but for us, it was more of a reminder that it's always possible in any context to approach things in a very naïve way in a sense, and that it's possible to escape the canon of classical structures and classical writing and still achieve something that is surprising and free and that is legible for a vast amount of people. The principle of juxtaposing things that are foreign next to each other is not new, but to see it on such a big song always gives us a lot of hope about music in general. 

"Incognito," "One Night/All Night," "Generator," "Afterimage" and "Dear Alan" all work a bit on that principle that we had where we recorded several versions of the same track, of the same riff separately. For "Incognito," we had a plan of the song very precisely from the demo. But when we produced it, we recorded the intro and outro, that was one track that we mixed and produced separately. All the electronic parts were another track, all the disco parts in the middle were another. We produced and mixed them separately and only during mastering, we brought them back together. We really wanted to feel like it was separate songs that we'd put together.  

Would you say you are perfectionists? 

No, because there is no such thing as perfection. For us, the best we can do is make something that we feel good about, and this is when we know it's done. It's not perfection because we're not looking to make something that checks all the boxes of what perfection should be. 

Most of the music that we listen to is not perfect to any extent. But for us, it's perfect when it's faithful to the original feeling and idea we had when we started putting those songs together.

I've been really obsessed with "One Night/All Night." What was it like working with Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, and how did you find that mesh between your sounds?

We didn't think of "One Night/All Night" as a song with vocals at first.  We played [the demo] for Kevin and he was like, "I can hear something in that one." His vocal topline really adds some sort of weird sadness and melancholy to the track. The main riff is so simple, I think the simplest we've ever made, the dun dun dun. That's what is great with collaborating, a topline can very much shape a song. We fell in love with that new emotion that he brought to the song.

We really wanted to sound like we had found an unused Kevin Parker song, and sampled it and made a futuristic song with it. So we re-recorded the disco parts; it's almost like the disco part in the middle was the original record and what's before and after is the modernized version of it. And in the intro, his voice is in a key that is a bit off-putting. It builds up slowly and when the first chorus hits, you have his real voice that is instantly recognizable and very powerful and everything comes together — it's a beautiful moment to us.

It was really fun working with him. I mean, it was fun working with everyone [on Hyperdrama]. We almost felt like a mouse in a hole just looking out at things; you get to see everybody's idiosyncrasies and the way they think about music.

Why did you want to make a sonic tribute to Alan Braxe on "Dear Alan"? 

It's more of an inside joke than anything, but in the realm of electronic music, he's been an inspiration for us from the beginning. He's always had this kind of melancholic thing to his music that a lot of other bands from the French Touch first wave don't really have. For us, the French Touch first wave is more like shiny club music that's very euphoric. Alan Braxe was always a bit less dance-y but a bit more melancholic and elegant in a way, and that touches us a lot more than straight dance music. 

We also love his persona. The guy has been releasing maybe one song every three years for the past 20 years. This guy is even less productive than we are. But every time he puts one song out, it's always a gem, it's perfect. I don't think he's ever released one bad track.

The track is based on the sample of "Dear Brian" by Chris Rainbow. Chris Rainbow is a musician from the '70s and '80s that was doing post-Beach Boys music and "Dear Brian" was to Brian Wilson. For a long time, the working name of our track was "Dear Brian" and when we had to give it a proper name, we were like, Okay, the vocal sample reminds us of Alan Braxe, let's call it Dear Alan. It's a way for us to pay tribute to Alan Braxe and also Chris Rainbow.

When you think back to 2007 and "D.A.N.C.E." and having that kind of fast success on a global scale, what memories remain for you from that early era of Justice?

The truth is that it was not fast. There were four years between the moment we started the band and "D.A.N.C.E." and our first album came out. It was four years of doubts and thinking we were doing artistic suicide, for real. All those tracks took a lot of time to actually reach an audience.  

In the meantime, we did our first commercial suicide with "Waters of Nazareth" in 2005. We felt really bad about that track for a couple of months because we had no positive feedback about it. When we would play at festivals, as soon as the song would start, the technical people from the festival would run on stage to see if everything was plugged in correctly. Finally, a year after, it started to reach the underground, people more coming from rock music that felt there was something cool about it. 

Once that was settled, we released "D.A.N.C.E." which was not at all what people wanted us to make, because that was a disco track with a kid singing on it. It took some months, but then it made [an impact]. Then we made "Stress" and had a huge backlash on the video.

Our first album sold a lot of units, but it was over the course of maybe two years. It was really at the end of 2008, beginning of 2009 that it had reached its kind of cruise speed. So, retrospectively, it looks a bit like we came out of nowhere and found a spot for us, but it was made over five, six years; it was a proper development in a way. 

How do you feel you've grown as individuals and as producers since that early Justice era?

 We didn't grow up too much, to be honest. Every time we go back to the studio, we start a bit from zero again, mainly because we try to get rid of old habits every time we start something new. We also change the instruments that we use. The first months of Hyperdrama were really almost like R&D. We were trying to find new ways of making sounds. We didn't produce much music then, we were just trying things and getting accustomed to the new setup. We learn everything as we're making a record and especially on this one. We also wanted to get rid of all habits we have in terms of writing and producing. 

To us, knowledge, a lot of times, can be the enemy of the good. We're trying to find the good balance between, of course, using what we've learned throughout the years to make things that get better hopefully with time and at the same time not to get stuck into patterns that can make you feel old. We're very aware that we're entering a phase of being an old band in a lot of ways. 

We really hope that Hyperdrama does not translate as an old record made by an old band. Hopefully it still sounds fresh and naive and playful, as if it was a record from a young man.

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In April 1993, journalist Stuart Maconie coined the term Britpop for a Select magazine article celebrating the UK's fight back against the dominance of American rock. Remarkably, London four-piece Blur weren't even mentioned in the story. And yet, frontman Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James, and drummer Dave Rowntree would provide the catalyst for the scene's mainstream breakthrough.

Just a year later, Blur released what many consider to be Britpop's defining statement. Parklife served as a colorful, vibrant, and incredibly infectious love letter to all things Anglocentric, drawing upon the nation's great cultural heritage while also foreshadowing what was to come. And it instantly struck a chord with homegrown audiences desperate for guitar music that wasn't drowning in abject misery, and better reflected their day-to-day lives.

Remarkably, Albarn had predicted Parklife's success four years earlier. As he declared to music writer David Cavanagh in 1990, "When our third album comes out, our place as the quintessential English band of the '90s will be assured. That is a simple statement of fact."

Three decades after its game-changing release, here's a look at how Parklife forever changed both Blur's career trajectory and the history of British rock.

It Kickstarted Britpop's Greatest Rivalry

In one of those great rock coincidences, Blur's third LP hit the shelves just 24 hours after "Supersonic" gave a then-relative unknown Manchester outfit named Oasis their first ever UK Top 40 single. And the two bands would remain intertwined (perhaps begrudgingly so) from then on, culminating in the most high-profile chart battle in British music history.

You could argue that Oasis' Noel Gallagher threw the first stone, describing Parklife as "Southern England personified" in a manner that suggested it wasn't exactly complimentary. And according to his manager Alan McGee, Definitely Maybe cut "Digsy's Dinner" was written as a deliberate "piss-take of Blur."

An increasingly bitter war of words then broke out in the summer of 1995 as the "Country House" versus "Roll With It" war swept the nation. Blur emerged victorious, although Oasis had the last laugh when (What's The Story) Morning Glory spent 10 weeks atop the UK album chart.

It Brought Storytelling Back To Indie Pop

Heavily inspired by Martin Amis novel London Fields, Parklife was inhabited by a cast of intriguing fictional characters, essentially doubling up as a series of short stories. "Tracy Jacks," for example, is about a golf-obsessed civil servant who ends up getting arrested for public indecency before bulldozing his own house.

"Magic America" is the tale of Bill Barret, a Brit who commits to a life of excess during a Stateside holiday ("Took a cab to the shopping malls/ Bought and ate until he could do neither anymore"), while "Clover Over Dover" explores the mindset of a manipulative boyfriend threatening to jumping off the titular white cliffs.

Over the following 18 months, everything from Pulp's "Common People" and Space's "Neighbourhood" to Supergrass' "Caught by the Fuzz" and The Boo Radleys' "It's Lulu" were combining classic British guitar pop with witty Mike Leigh-esque vignettes of modern life.

It Originated The Big Indie Ballad

Dramatic ballads aren't necessarily the first thing that come to mind with Parklife, a record famed for its jaunty, "knees-up Mother Brown" ditties. But it boasts two examples: "To The End," an alternate Bond theme featuring a burst of Gallic flair from Stereolab's Laetitia Sadler, and the swoonsome "This Is A Low." Turns out the "mystical lager-eater" the record was designed to embody could also get a little vulnerable from time to time.

This appeared to give all of their laddish peers some pause for thought. Oasis, the most fervent advocates of the "cigarettes and alcohol" lifestyle, later scored their biggest hit with acoustic ballad "Wonderwall." And bands including Cast ("Walkaway"), Shed Seven ("Chasing Rainbows") and Menswear ("Being Brave") all enjoyed UK hits revealing their softer sides. No doubt Coldplay, Travis, and every other sensitive post-Britpop outfit that emerged in the late 1990s were taking notes, too.

It Paid Respect To The Greats

The Britpop scene was renowned for its slavish devotion to the first time British guitar bands ruled the airwaves, the Swinging Sixties. Oasis freely admitted they modeled themselves on the Beatles, while the likes of Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shaker and The Paul Weller all released albums that sounded like they'd been discovered in a vintage record shop.

And while Blur would later distance themselves from the past with a sense of invention (which Albarn would also parlay into his various side projects, including the virtual band Gorillaz), they were more than happy to get all nostalgic on Parklife. See "Far Out," their only track to feature James on lead vocal, which resembled the trippy psychedelia of Pink Floyd in their Syd Barrett era, and the Sgt. Pepper-esque brassy instrumental "The Debt Collector," while there are also echoes of the Walker Brothers, The Kinks, and Small Faces. Suddenly, retro was the new cool.

It Turned Blur Into Britain's Biggest Guitar Band

The UK Top 10 success of 1991's "There's No Other Way" proved to be something of a false start for Blur, with the band soon falling by the wayside like every other baggy pop outfit that emerged at the turn of the decade. "Popscene," the 1992 single intended to revolutionize both their career and British guitar music in general, stalled at No. 32, while 1993 sophomore Modern Life is Rubbish sold just 40,000 copies.

But Parklife single-handedly turned Blur into Britain's biggest guitar band, reaching No. 1 in their homeland, spending 82 weeks in the Top 40, and eventually becoming a million-seller. It went on to pick up four BRITs, a Mercury Prize nomination, and has been recognized as an all-time great by Spin, Pitchfork, and Rolling Stone. Further proof of its glowing reputation came in 2009 when Royal Mail selected it as one of 10 albums worthy of commemorating on a postage stamp.

It Spawned A String Of Classic Singles

Parklife's campaign was kicked off in March 1994 with "Girls and Boys," a glorious dissection of British vacationers — which, surprisingly in the days when genre-hopping was frowned upon — evoked the '80s synth-pop of Duran Duran and Pet Shop Boys. Rowntree was even replaced by a drum machine, not that he particularly minded, luckily.

This indie floorfiller was followed up by the hugely underrated "To The End" and then the much-quoted title track. Everything about "Parklife" the song is larger than life: the Cockney geezer narration from Quadrophenia's Phil Daniels, the festival-friendly sing-along chorus, and the brightly colored video in which James — perhaps tipping his hat to Queen's "I Want to Break Free" -– donned soap opera drag. But fourth release "End of a Century," a melancholic tale of domestic drudgery complete with mournful trombone solo, once again proved there was a depth beyond their cheeky chappy personas.

It Made Brits Proud To Be British Again

Unable to connect with the oppressive angst and flannel shirts of the grunge movement that had plagued their first major North American tour in 1992, Blur first started to embrace their inherent Englishness on the following year's Modern Life is Rubbish. Unfortunately, this throwback to the original British Invasion was met with a resounding shrug of the shoulders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Undeterred, however, the band doubled down on all things Anglocentric on its follow-up, from its original title of London, to its greyhound racing cover art, to its celebrations of bank holidays, Club 18-30 holidays, and shipping forecasts. This time around, they managed to capture the zeitgeist (at home, at least), as the rise of New Labour and the forthcoming hosting of Euro '96 made everyone proud to be British again. Within 12 months, the UK charts were littered with homegrown guitar bands selling the idea of the English dream — and it all started with Parklife.

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