A little over a year ago, in February 2022, the French duo daft-punkone of the most influential and popular groups of the last decades formed by Thomas Bangalter there Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, announced their separation through a video titled Epilogue.
An eight-minute clip featuring the duo as they for many years they hid their image behind robot suits, walking through the desert, wearing their space helmets and leather jackets. After a few moments, one of the members looked at the other, took off his jacket and showed a counter for an explosive. The first member quickly moved away and then exploded.
According to collect NME, Thomas Bangalterin a statement for the BBC, spoke about his career and explained the reasons behind the separation of the electronic duo. “Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters”he told the BBC. “It was a very important point for me and for Guy-Manuel not to ruin everything while it was happening.”.
The artist went on to say that you are passionate about technology like a tool, but which in turn he is terrified of the relationship between machines and humans. “Now that the story is complete, I found it interesting to reveal part of the creative process that relies heavily on humans and not algorithms of any kind”.
Thomas Bangalter in 2019 in Cannes, France.
/ Pierre Suu/GC Images
According to Bangalter, part of the reason for his new distance from electronic music was due to the AI boom and its growth influence on creative media.
“My concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence go beyond its use in music creation”he said, explaining how some Fans they would misunderstand the duo’s intentions.
“In Daft Punk, we try to use these machines to express something extremely emotional that a machine can’t feel, but a human can feel. We have always been on the side of humanity and not on the side of technology… As much as I love this character, as much the last thing I want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot“.
The members of Daft Punk Bangalter and Homem-Christo met in the mid-1980s at a Paris school as teenagers. / Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage
Bangalter and de Homem-Christo met in the mid-80s at school in Paris as teenagers and soon after began working on music together. At first they formed a rock band call Darlinginspired by the song of the same name beach boys.
Under the name Daft Punk, the duo released their first single, The new wavereleased in 1994. The following year, it will be followed by da funkwhich became a European hit and served as a model for his beginning of album, Homeworkpublished at the end of 1996.
The French duo Daft Punk with Beyoncé at an event in New York in 2015. / Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation
In 2001, the electronic group released their second album, Discoveryled by the hit single One more time. This was followed human after all and later, in 2010, they will compose the soundtrack of the film tron the legacy .
In 2013, they released their fourth studio album, Random access memories, the band’s most acclaimed and ambitious record, winner of 5 Grammy Awards and with massive worldwide hits like To be lucky (with over a billion streams) or Thunderbolt (with over 800,000 streams).