When Alice Fox and Jack St. James got together in 2013 to form Avec Sans (which translates to “With Without” in French), theirs was the sound du jour of the fashion world. Before they even played a “proper show,” Dolce and Gabbana (yes, the clothing brand) named them the Band of the Year on its website. The pair also performed a DJ set for the Milan launch of luxury brand Sandro, and they were written about in Vogue and Elle magazines.

Their sound, full of shimmery loops and warm, summery vibes, is the result of St. James experimenting with hacked Launchpad controllers, which he uses not just to produce music, but display light shows as well. Now working on their debut, the duo spoke to MySpace about Avec Sans’ forthcoming debut, coming to America, and their sound, which Fox describes as “intelligent electronic pop music.”

Hometown: Jack is from Trinidad, his whole extended family still live out there. Alice is from Manchester; a little less idyllic, but a great place to grow up as a musician.

Current residence: Shoreditch in East London. It’s a real creative epicenter and there’s so much going on.

How did you two meet and form Avec Sans?

We had known each other a while through mutual friends in music. It took an outsider to suggest we’d work well together, and they were right. We have an amazing working relationship. We only ever fight over production choices and those conflicts always result in something way better than we’d hoped for.

Were you both trained musicians?

We’re both very instinctive musicians, neither of us were classically trained. We’ve both played a whole host of instruments before becoming electronic musicians; we’re very much self-taught.

What does Avec Sans mean? How did you choose that for a band name?

Avec Sans means “With Without” or “With Nothing” in French. We love the French language as it sounds so beautiful and liked the idea of life changing events occurring at the point at which you are truly empty and “without” or truly content and “with.” We write happy-sounding sad songs, so it felt right.

How did you become a fashion world favorite?

I think it very much started when Dolce and Gabbana’s website made us their Band of the Year, before we were really a proper band and when we’d yet to play a live show. From there in we were asked to design a shoe for London brand Swear, to DJ the opening of Sandro in Milan and we’ve been featured across the fashion press and even ended up getting played on New York Fashion Week Catwalks.

Has that influenced the way your create at all?

We love the fact our music has an aesthetic that marries well with design; we take that as a massive compliment. Fashion people really know how to throw a good party too.

Whom would you love to collaborate with?

Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio and Maximum Balloon. We think he’s a creative genius. We’d also love to collaborate with some big designers, people who like elegant, monochrome design with an edge of drama. Coco Chanel or Alexander Wang would be incredible.

Who are your musical influences?

Our influences are really broad. Jack tends to like the heavier end of the spectrum from John Hopkins, Moderat, Apparat, Baths etc and Alice like things a little lighter like LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, Active Child and Arcade Fire etc. But we’re both really big fans of good pop music. We’re not ashamed to say we love Taylor Swift, Ellie Goulding and Lorde.

What's your favorite city in the world to play in?

We played a lot of shows for Lottarox in Italy last year and fell in love with southern Italy. One of our favourite shows was in Puglia in Italy, the venue was sat right on the ocean and we played in the early hours of the morning and then watched the sun come up over the sea. Now, I love Manchester, but it’s not quite so beautiful watching the sun come up over the Manchester Ship Canal.

Jack, how did you come up with the idea to perform with hacked Launchpad controllers? Did you work on light shows before you started performing with Avec Sans?

Before we played live I had no idea whatsoever how we were going to do it. This is my first time playing in an electronic band so I really had to start from square one. All I knew is that I wanted the performance to be very visual and not just be an audience staring at the back of a keyboard.

I spent months doing my research and eventually came across the Novation Launchpad. The way they normally work is that the buttons light up to give you a visual feedback of what is going on in the computer. I just thought to myself, “What if I could trick the launchpad into turning the lights on and off when I want them to?” I went online and bought one and then after a few hours of tinkering figured out how to make the Launchpad be not only an instrument which I could play but a light show. I then made a video and emailed Novation who were super supportive and excited about the idea so sent me two more to play with. From there the live show was born! I can’t thank Novation enough for all of their support and encouragement as well as all of their amazing products!

You both deejay as well. Whose songs do you love to remix?

We’ve remixed people like Hearts, Young Summer, Johnny Stimson and Swiss Lips. It’s always a lot of fun to take someone else’s idea and take it somewhere else.

When we DJ we like playing a lot of stuff by Oliver Nelson, Louis La Roche, Madeon, RAC, Alex Metric and Monsieur Adi. Lots of French disco/electro stuff. It has to be uplifting and fun.