Daft Punk devastated many fans in 2021 with the announcement of their breakup. They barely offered an explanation, only sharing an 8-minute video titled “Epilogue,” which ended with a message that read, “1993-2021.”
Now, Thomas Bangalter, one-half of the electronic duo, spoke about the decision to disband in a new interview with BBC.
“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters,” he explained. “It was a very important point for me and Guy-Manuel to not spoil the narrative while it was happening.”
“I love technology as a tool [but] I’m somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves,” he added. “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.”
“I almost consider the character of the robots like a Marina Abramović performance art installation that lasted for 20 years,” he continued. “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 concluded, “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.”
Lucky for fans, Daft Punk are releasing a 10th anniversary edition of Random Access Memories.
Random Access Memories 10th Anniversary Edition is out 5/12. Find more information here.
Thomas Bangalter is a Warner Music artist. .
