Casino Square is one of those cases where you think you’ve got the genre all figured out—then you hit play on Temple Of The Mind and get hit with a full-on “wow” moment. French group, based in Caen and Le Mans, blending post-rock, jazz, rap, trumpet, synths—it sounds like a puzzle on paper, but the tracks come together as a complete picture. Dusty, slow, and deliberately unmodern.

Casino Square’s origins—stemming from Antony Josse’s heavy-rock past and Alexandre Leguillon’s jazz sensibilities—already signal an eclectic approach. Add to this mix the distinct vocal styles of Emmie and Jay Ree, and you’ve got a recipe for musical chemistry that’s wonderfully unpredictable. How did this diverse crew find common ground without sacrificing their distinct identities? And what’s it like to collaborate remotely, balancing musical intimacy against physical distance?

As I prepared for our chat, it struck me how Casino Square manages to walk a fine line between homage and innovation, carefully avoiding the pitfalls of nostalgic imitation. I was fascinated to dive deeper into their creative process, but most intriguing was their philosophy: keeping beats raw enough to stand alone, a tribute to classic producers while still exploring new sonic territory. Without giving too much away, let’s just say my conversation with Casino Square touched on everything from artistic isolation in smaller French cities, the merits of EPs versus albums, and the timeless tension between artistic exploration and commercial realities.

Hey guys! Your new record, Temple of the Mind, doesn’t feel like a throwback.  It feels like a resurrection with surgical updates. The beats, the atmospheres, the horns — they all breathe 2025 air, even while they nod to the smoky rooms of Bristol ’95. What was your guiding principle when building Temple of the Mind? Were you aiming for a revival, a reinvention, or something else entirely?

Antony: At the very beginning, it was just Alexandre and I, and honestly, our main goal was to rip off Ki-Oku by DJ Krush and Toshinori Kondo as best we could! More seriously, we really wanted to revive trip-hop in the raw, minimalist way the pioneers did. But as soon as we laid down the first tracks, it became clear that our wider influences were filtering through, beyond the genre’s usual codes, and yeah, that definitely added a sense of modernity. I brought in a post-rock flavor, while Alexandre leaned more toward jazz-infused moods, those are deep-seated parts of who we are we can’t deny. Then Emmie and Jay Ree joined on vocals and took us into worlds we hadn’t even imagined. That’s the real strength of this band: each person brings something unique that nudges the tracks off their original path in unexpected ways.

There’s this fascinating tension in the EP — Emmie’s ethereal delivery versus Jay Ree’s grounded, rhythmic precision. That contrast hits especially hard on title track “Temple Of The Mind.” How did you two approach writing and arranging vocals together? Was it chemistry from day one or more of a deliberate balancing act?

Jay Ree: For context, I joined Casino Square pretty recently and remotely. I’ve known Alex since the Bad Fat days, and he sent me a couple of instrumentals to write freely over, including “Temple Of The Mind,” which originally went by the name “Dyonisos” That title spoke to me, Greek mythology resonates with me. I wrote and recorded everything in my home studio and sent them the vocals and lyrics. Then Emmie laid down the melodic chorus, contrasting with my grimy dancehall-style verses, simply because that’s what she felt and it was what the track needed. We hadn’t even met at that point! But our voices really complement each other. For me, it’s simple: either it clicks or it doesn’t, no use forcing it, otherwise it won’t last. And here, you can clearly hear it works.

Emmie: For me this was the first time I’d worked in a musical style where the music takes precedence over the vocal melody. The goal isn’t to craft a catchy tune everyone’s going to sing all day, but rather to create an overall harmony where the voice holds equal weight with the instruments. So working with Jay made perfect sense, his flow and lyricism are so rich and singular, they naturally elevate the project and spark new ideas. I started my career in the music-hall scene, playing the classic lead showgirl role where everything revolves around performance. That’s actually where I met Alexandre! With Casino, it’s a more subtle collaboration, everyone has their space, and we’re free to explore ideas that might not be “commercially viable” in the usual sense. That’s super refreshing. Now that we’ve really learned to work with each other, I think the next tracks will go even further.

You brought in members of Lost In Kiev on a couple tracks — a post-rock band known for massive, cinematic soundscapes. Did they bring any unexpected textures or ideas into the process?

Antony: I’m a sound engineer, and I produced and mixed two Lost In Kiev albums: “Nuit Noire” and “Persona”. We’ve stayed good friends ever since, so it felt natural to ask Jérémie to play drums on the tracks that needed a “real” kit. In the end, he recorded on four songs, though only one made it onto “Temple Of The Mind”. The others have either already been released or are yet to come. Our approach with guest musicians is to give them as much creative freedom as possible and to really listen to what they bring, even if that means heading in a completely different direction than we originally planned. It can be surprising, but it’s always super constructive. It was a bit different with Maxime. He and I had started working on a duo EP for a French radio station. That project never came out, but two of the demos became the foundation for Casino Square tracks, including one that will be released in the future. In any case, working with Max and Jérémie is a real pleasure, they both have a strong artistic vision and always come with spot-on ideas.

There’s a subtle violence in your trumpet lines — they sneak up in the ambient haze and suddenly punch through like a needle drop. What role does the trumpet play in your composition process? Do you build tracks around it, or does it emerge after the structure is locked?

Alexandre: At the very beginning, when it was just the two of us, the trumpet took on the role of lead, like the vocalist. So it was very present in the verses and choruses, and especially during solo sections. That’s shifted a bit now that there are four of us. The trumpet leans more toward accompaniment and harmonization these days. As for our composition process, there’s no set rule. I might bring in a full melodic line that the vocalists either use or not, or sometimes just a rhythmic idea that complements Antony’s beat. Even though the trumpet isn’t a rhythmic instrument per se, the idea is to contribute as many elements as possible, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and then each member draws from that as they see fit. So sometimes a track will be built around the trumpet, but just as often it sparks something else, a synth line, a guitar riff, a chorus harmony for the singers, and so on!

The production on Temple of the Mind is rich but never overdone — each layer earns its place. How do you approach building these layers? Do you go in with a clear structure, or is it more of an in-the-moment thing that evolves during the sessions?

Antony: Most of our tracks start with a beat or a sample idea. I have hundreds of little sketches floating around, and I share them on a cloud. Some evolve into full tracks, others remain octets on a hard drive. Then everyone adds their own touch, and what started as a simple beat can morph into something intricate and progressive, like “Across The Line”, or go the opposite way, stripped down to the bone and turned into a hypnotic loop, like “Temple Of The Mind”. We always come back to the beat to fine-tune it to the max. One of our big references is DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill. On albums like “Black Sunday” or “Temples Of Boom”, the beats are so surgical, so precise, in sound design, in rhythmic placement, that you could honestly listen to them without anything else layered on top. Same with some of our other influences, like Portishead or Archive. That’s one of our mantras: the beat has to be good enough to stand on its own. That’s also why we like to release some “deconstruction” versions of tracks, they are kind of minimalist remixes to highlight all the tiny details we put into the beats that tend to get buried once vocals and other instruments are added. We stole this concept from the awesome band The Young Gods, they released a beautiful ambient self-remixed album called “Heaven Deconstruction” in the mid 90’s.

Trip hop tends to live in the shadows — it’s rarely in the spotlight but always lurking, always evolving. Do you feel part of a new wave of artists trying to reshape or reintroduce the genre for a modern audience, or are you just making the music you love without worrying about genre identity?

Antony: Since Casino Square’s first releases, we’ve discovered a whole scene we didn’t really know existed, more international than French, actually. In France, the bands that claim to be trip-hop tend to make very synthetic electro-chill. Here, the term “trip-hop” doesn’t seem to include words like “urban”, “nocturnal”, “melancholic”, or “dusty”, but for us, that’s the very foundation of what we’re trying to do. Electronic-based music always evolves alongside tech innovation, but to sound truly trip-hop, you can’t be too sleek or polished. The trip-hop sound is dusty vinyl samples that crackle, and 12-bit samplers with hardly any memory, not the latest Apple setup loaded with every plugin on earth. We even thought about naming our first EP “Technologic Regression”, that says a lot about where our heads were at! Honestly, what we hear nowadays reminds us more of the U.S. indie hip-hop scene than trip-hop, producers like Kenny Segal (Billy Woods, Hemlock Ernst) come to mind.

The cities you’re based in — Caen and Le Mans — aren’t necessarily known as hotbeds of trip hop. Do you feel isolated in what you’re doing, or more connected because of that distance?

Alexandre: In the artistic circles we move in, we’re kind of the only ones making this kind of music. On the one hand, that gives us a strong artistic identity. On the other, it makes it harder to build bridges with other artists, like putting together shared gigs lineups, remix projects, collaborations, that sort of thing. Most of the collabs we’ve had so far have been with international artists. Right now, for instance, we’re working on a great track for the next EP of a Greek producer called Muff Dada.

Now that you’ve got two EPs under your belt, are there plans to take this to a full-length album soon? Or do you feel the EP format gives you more freedom to explore without overcommitting to a longer narrative?

Antony: We’d love to release a full album, something with a narrative arc that reflects all the different sides of who we are. Right now, we’re deep into writing and already have enough material to fill an album. But it’s not that simple, the whole project needs to feel coherent. For example, we’ve got an 11-minute track that’s ready, but it’s hard to fit that kind of piece into an EP. On a one-hour album though, it would make a perfect closer. An album gives you room to explore new territory, like ambient music, which we love, but that might break the momentum of an EP too abruptly.  I like the format of the Pink Floyd records in the 70’s. They was “full length” albums but their duration was only about 35 minutes, the length of two sides of a vinyl. They can contained 17 minutes tracks with ambient parts as well as some short folk songs with a dog singing…I guess the artistic freedom they had back then is not longer possible now.  The music industry has radically changed, and let’s be honest, with how fast things move these days, it’s worth asking whether it’s still relevant to lock yourself in a studio for three months to polish 60 minutes of music, when thousands of tracks are released on Spotify every single day. It’s a real dilemma.

What’s the live show like for Casino Square? When and where can people actually experience this sound in person?

Alexandre: We’ve done a few shows as a duo, then as a trio with Emmie. But the full-band setup hasn’t hit the stage yet. We’re hoping to line up a bunch of gigs starting in October. You’ll have to keep an eye on our socials, we’ll announce the dates there when the time comes.

You’ve worked with some serious pedigrees in the French scene — from Headcharger to Zenzile and Napoleon Maddox. How have those past projects shaped what Casino Square is now?

Antony: Musically, Headcharger is pretty far from what we do, there’s not much direct influence there. But the fact that I toured with them for 12 years definitely helped us build a solid network of contacts.

Alexandre: With Zenzile, the influence is more about production techniques, especially how they use effects on trumpet, like reverb, delay, harmonizers, and so on. As for Napoleon Maddox, I work with him on another project. His involvement in shaping Casino Square came through lots of conversations, about his musical background, his roots, and especially his references in hip-hop, rap, and jazz.

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