“The last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot”
April 4, 2023 | 8:03 a.m. Eastern Time
Daft Punk officially broke up two years ago, but so far the band members, err robots, have kept quiet about the reason for their breakup. Co-founder Thomas Bangalter has now shed some light on the decision in an interview with BBCrevealing that he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the convergence of music and technology.
“(Daft Punk) was an exploration, I would say, starting with the machines and moving away from them. I love technology as a tool (but) I’m somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between machines and ourselves,” Bangalter explained.
“We tried to use these machines to express something extremely moving that a machine can’t feel, but a human can. We were always on the side of humanity and not on the side of technology,” she added.
But with the rise of artificial intelligence and algorithmic technologies, Bangalter said, “the last thing you want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot.”
Daft Punk recently announced a deluxe reissue of their latest album, random access memories, which features a demo recording of Bangalter working on 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 fact and fiction with these robot characters. It was a very important point for me and (co-founder) Guy-Man (uel) not to spoil the narrative while it was happening,” Bangalter explained. “Now that the story is over, I found it interesting to reveal part of the creative process that is largely human-based and not algorithmic of any kind.”
On April 7, Bangalter will release his new solo orchestral album. mythologies.
