“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters.”
If you’re hoping for a Daft Punk reunion in the future, we’re not likely to get that lucky.
French super-producer Thomas Bangalter, one-half of Daft Punk, recently sat down with BBC News for a candid interview about life after the robots. The exploratory conversation comes ahead of his first post-Daft Punk album, Mythologies.
To the dismay of longtime fans, the duo in 2021 released an eight-minute video to celebrate their shape-shifting career—and call an end to it.
“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters”, Bangalter told the BBC. “It was a very important point for me and Guy-Man[uel] to not spoil the narrative while it was happening.”
“Now the story has ended, it felt interesting to reveal part of the creative process that is very much human-based and not algorithmic of any sort,” Bangalter continued. “It was an exploration, I would say, starting with the machines and going away from them. I love technology as a tool, [but] I’m somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves,” he added, raising concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence in music creation.
David Black
After Daft Punk’s shocking split a few years ago, their future hung in the balance. But fans holding out for a reunion shouldn’t hold their breath, at least not in 2023.
“As much as I love this character, the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot,” Bangalter added.
For Bangalter, his next step was going back to his roots and childhood. His mother and aunt were dancers, and his uncle was a dance instructor. Angelin Preljocaj, a renowned French contemporary choreographer, approached Bangalter about scoring a ballet and he immediately obliged.
Bangalter’s ballet score premiered in Bordeaux last year and is now being released as an album, Mythologies. He released its first single, “L’Accouchement,” earlier this year.
Next month, Daft Punk will release a special “10th Anniversary” edition of Random Access Memories, which will feature never-before-heard music from the legendary duo. They recently shared the album cut “The Writing of Fragments of Time,” a collaboration with Todd Edwards.
You can pre-order Random Access Memories (10th Anniversary Edition) here. The album is due out on May 12th via Columbia.