LOS ANGELES – “Normally I’m never at a loss for words. This is a shock to me.”
That was Nile Rodgers, grateful for the Album Of The Year honor (among others) that Daft Punk earned for “Random Access Memories” at the 2014 Grammy Awards last night. Since the French duo — er, sorry — the two robots don’t speak, collaboratoris like Rodgers and Paul Williams have partly been their intermediaries during this rare media turn.
So of course, they had to field questions about how we never see the actual humans under the space helmets.
“That’s their concept. My old band, Chic, we had a concept that was similar. KISS wore their makeup,” Rodgers explained. “This is their persona, they’re into it, I respect them. That’s just what they do.”
“I love that they’re anonymous,” Williams said.
The songwriter talked about early discussions on “RAM,” how he discussed stories about life after death with DP’s Thomas Bangalter.
“We didn’t know how it was going to figure into ‘Random Access Memories,’ we just began to work,” he said, then extolling their place in the electronic music universe.
“I’m 73 years old, the last thing you expect is a phone call from a couple of robots to come make a record.”