Thomas Bangalter spoke publicly about the reason behind his split from Daft Punk, his musical duo with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of almost 30 years.
Speaking to the BBC, Bangalter revealed that the increasing intersection between humans and technology was what caused Daft Punk’s demise and that the core of the duo was that there should be a clear division between the two. “Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robotic characters. That was a very important point for me and Guy-Man[uel] so as not to spoil the narrative as it happened,” he said. “It was an exploration, I would say, starting with the machines and away from them. I love technology as a tool [but] I’m kind of afraid of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves.”
He also shared his concerns about the increasing use of artificial intelligence and how it could “go beyond its use in music creation”. Bangalter shared, “2001: A Space Odyssey might be my favorite movie and so on [Stanley] Kubrick presented is so relevant today because it asks the very question we need to ask about technology and human obsolescence.”
“We tried to use these machines to express something extremely moving that a machine cannot feel, but a human can. We have always been on the side of humanity and not on the side of technology. “As much as I love this character, the last thing I want to be in the world we live in in 2023 is a robot.”
Elsewhere in the music, KAYTRANADA and Aminé have a joint project on the way.