Daft Punk officially split two years ago, but until now the band members — err robots, have remained mum on the reason for their breakup. Co-founder Thomas Bangalter has now shed some light on the decision in an interview with BBC, revealing that he became increasingly uncomfortable with the convergence of music and technology.
“[Daft Punk] 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,” Bangalter explained.
“We tried to use these machines to express something extremely moving that a machine cannot feel, but a human can. We were always on the side of humanity and not on the side of technology,” he added.
But with the rise of artificial intelligence and algorithmic technologies, Bangalter said, “the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot.”
Daft Punk recently announced a deluxe reissue of their final album, Random Access Memories, which features a demo recording of Bangalter workshopping the song “Fragments of Time” with producer Todd Edwards. Bangalter told the BBC that such a recording could only be shared now that Daft Punk is no more.
“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters. It was a very important point for me and [co-founder] Guy-Man[uel] to not spoil the narrative while it was happening,” Bangalter explained. “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.”
On April 7th, Bangalter will release his new solo orchestral album Mythologies.
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