Interview with Lukas from JUSTICE CREW

Ahead of their LIVE & LOCAL tour, Justice Crew have released the video for their single “Good Time”

AMNplify’s Pauli Dee spoke to Lukas from the band about the video, the tour and everything in between!

Check it out here!

Pauli: G’day Lukas, how are you going?

Lukas: Yeah good thanks Pauli, yourself?

Pauli: Yeah good thanks mate. I was just watching your “Good Time” video. That was released last week & it looks like you guys had a ball doing that. Was it fun?

Lukas: Yeah it was an awesome day man, it was short! We could’ve kept going for days & days but we ended up doing it in about 12 hours, so it was a pretty good shoot for us.
It was a lot of fun – as you can tell we were just sort of mucking around, it wasn’t too serious, we just had to do all the dancing and then leave the rest to the guys that do the editing, so it was a really good group effort by everyone.

Pauli: Did you get to keep the boombox?

Lukas: Hahaha, no unfortunately we didn’t! It would have looked great on my bench. I think all the boys had their eye on it, but no, unfortunately we didn’t get to keep it!

Pauli: I also saw a video you put up on Facebook up for Halloween – A Thriller/Good time mash-up video. That was really cool!

Lukas: Yeah thanks man – that was another group effort where we just got together & it was in myself and Paul’s neighbourhood & my girlfriend did the make-up for us & we just thought Halloween’s coming up, let’s get into the horror theme & get into the spirit of things so we got all zombied up and mashed Good times with MJ’s Thriller!

Pauli: Is Michael Jackson one of your influences?

Lukas: Yeah of course man. You can probably tell when we do a clip like that, you know, we’ve been watching him since we were kids and the guys was just a genius when it comes to dance and performance.

Pauli: Indeed. I was actually at Sony’s launch for the “XSCAPE” album last year & saw you guys do a performance there! That was awesome.

Lukas: Oh yeah – At the wax museum! Thanks man

Pauli: And you supported Janet Jackson in 2011 – How was that?

Lukas: Oh incredible. I’d say that she’s the biggest celebrity that we’ve toured with & just to be able to say we’ve been on the same stage as her was a blessing within itself, but to get to meet her and shake her hand, she’s actually got like an aura around her and you can just tell that she’s a really genuine person.

Pauli: Did you get to hang out with her at all?
Lukas: Well as you can imagine, it’s pretty hard with someone of her calibre, but we did the whole meet n greet thing and we got to give her little Aussie packs with TimTams and vegemite and stuff in them, so that was really good!

Pauli: She’s only one – You’ve also supported big names like Chris Brown, One Direction and Pitbull – Do you have a favourite of those big shows?

Lukas: I’d have to say that the best tour we’ve been on was the Kesha and Pitbull tour in the states. That was incredible. Pitbull took us under his wing & took us around… it was a 5 week tour & pretty much coast to coast and parts of Canada & we had our own tour bus and it was all decked out like our homes for the next 5 weeks, so that was unbelievable man. It was awesome!

Pauli: So if you could have ANYONE in the world support YOUR show – Who would it be?

Lukas: Ummm, wow… I guess Bieber’s topping off at the moment, so that’d probably draw a crowd, I reckon!

Pauli: You don’t wanna get upstaged though!

Lukas: Hahaha, yeah well for me personally, I’m a bit of a rock fan, so I wouldn’t mind the old Metallica supporting Justice Crew! That’d be kind of cool!

Pauli: Hahaha, it’d be interesting!
You’ve announced your “Live & Local” tour for January to April next year. With 6 members of the band – Is it difficult for you all to be free at the same time to rehearse?

Lukas: No, not at all because this is our life now & anything that happens with the crew comes first, so if we’ve got rehearsals and you’ve got something booked for that day, chances are you’ll just have to re-book that & get to rehearsals and get working out, but if there’s something important that we have to work around then we can work around that, but I think it just comes down to time management and we always manage to get the job done at the end of the day.

Pauli: Have you started rehearsals for the tour?

Lukas: We’ll be starting this week, but it’s actually good because the last few tours we didn’t have a lot of material to perform but this time we’ll be going off the back of the “Live By The Word” album, so we’ll have some live elements in the show & we’re creating a bit more atmosphere as well. There’s still going to be the dancing, there’s still going to be the partying, but I think you’re going to get to know us as people a bit more.

Pauli: Will your fans be seeing any new music?

Lukas: Yeah! Of course. We’ve been going hard for the last few months, creating new music, like the single “Good Time,” there’s plenty more where that came from!

Pauli: Are you saying there’s a new album or EP in the works?

Lukas: Oooh, I can’t say too much about that, but let’s just say you’d be pleasantly surprised!

Pauli: Do you like the recording process? As opposed to performing live?

Lukas: They’re both good in their own respects. They’re too different to try & compare to each other but the process of creating a song is awesome. I really like that back end of things & in particular, the writing side. I don’t really dabble in the production side, but the writing side I do & the other boys do and they’re all working really hard, but seeing it all come together, from the concept to the music to the writing to the production & recording and to the music and the performance & the performance is another element all together.

Pauli: In your performances, a lot of your dance routines look quite vigorous & actually , while I was researching you, I saw on old video of you on RPA with a fractured knee a couple of years ago! … Do you cop injuries often?

Lukas: Hahaha, not as often as you’d think because we try and keep ourselves in good condition. You might have the odd day where you wake up a bit sore because it’s cold or you haven’t warmed up or warmed down properly, but that RPA injury was a freak accident where I wasn’t even doing anything too drastic, I was just doing a little two-step on the floor and it happened so that was just a bad mistake, but apart from that we’re usually pretty good and take care of ourselves really well.

Pauli: So training and exercise is something that’s part of your daily routine?

Lukas: Definitely. It’s not something we have to force ourselves to do because it’s something we love to do anyway. It’s just a hobby so work feels like play to us in that regard.

Pauli: You usually perform on Carols by Candlelight. Are you doing that this year?

Lukas: Yeah, I think we’re working on doing “Santa Claus is coming to town” this year, so that’ll be good & we always love doing the carols because there’s so many people there and so many families come down to watch and the atmosphere at those sort of events is just awesome.

Pauli: Sounds like you’re busy – It’s your birthday next week. Have you got anything big planned?

Lukas: Hahaha, you’ve done your research! We’re actually performing that night, so as I said before, you can’t let anything like that get in the way of work & performing so we’ll be doing shows that night & I guess after we’re done performing, we might go out for a little drop or two, you never know!

Pauli: I reckon you DO know!

Lukas: Hahaha yeah I think I do know too! It’ll be a good night!

Pauli: I’ve noticed you do a lot for young dancers trying to make it in the industry.
What advice would you have for young dancers that want to make it their career?

Lukas: Don’t let anything stop you. You’re always going to have hurdles and bumps in the road before any drastic changes happen, but don’t get disheartened because anything’s possible. We’ve dreamt big, as a crew and as individuals and we’ve realised the dreams we want to achieve & we did that, just with a lot of hard work & persistence, so just don’t stop. Never give up!

Pauli: Good advice.
Mate, I’ve got a thing I do in my interviews called “One Random Minute” where I just run off as many random questions as I can in a minute and you answer them as quickly as you can. Ready to have a go at it?
Lukas: Yep!

Buy the single HERE

One Random Minute:
Pauli: What’s the most played song on your ipod right now?

Lukas: Oh it’s never changed. It’s Enter Sandman by Metallica

Pauli: All-time favourite entertainer?

Lukas: Tech N9ne – He’s an incredible showman.

Pauli: What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Lukas: I haven’t had it yet! I’ve had a coffee, but my girlfriend’s just getting it started now!

Pauli: Favourite dessert?

Lukas: Pavlova

Pauli: Favourite thing to have on a sandwich?

Lukas: Call me Aussie… Vegemite & Cheese!

Pauli: What’s one food you NEVER eat?