Thomas Bangalter has opened up about his post-Daft Punk career – and explained the reasons behind the duo’s split. in one Interview with the “BBC” he also warns of artificial intelligence, or “AI” for short, and tells more about his new album “Mythologies”, which is due out on April 7th.
Thomas Bangalter on Daft Punk and the breakup
On February 22, 2021, the duo Daft Punk: Bangalter and his colleague Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo published a last joint video on that day in which they confessed their breakup. The musician, who co-founded the French electronic duo with Homem-Christo, now explains in a new interview that he wanted to “distance himself from the tech-heavy sound”.
The farewell video:
He tells the BBC: “Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters. It was a very important point for me and Guy-Manuel not to spoil the narrative. I love technology as a tool,” he says.
But, and here the Paris-born artist gives an important reason for the dissolution: “I’m kind of scared of the way the machines are related to us. Now that the story is over, I found it interesting to reveal part of the creative process that was very much human based and not algorithmic.” According to Bangalter, part of the reason for his new distance from electronically driven music is the “Rise of AI and its increasing influence on the creative fields”, as also reported by “NME”.
Daft Punk: “We have always been on the side of the people, not the machines”
The musician admits: “My concern about the rise of artificial intelligence goes beyond its use in music production. At Daft Punk we tried to use these machines to express something extremely moving that a machine can’t feel but a human can. We’ve always been on the side of humanity and not 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.”
Thomas Bangalter now makes ballet music
Following the split, Bangalter announced his first solo album in over two decades. It’s called “Mythologies” and was originally conceived as ballet music. The album will be released on April 7th. Two singles can already be heard from it: “L’Accouchement” and “Le Minotaure”.
As reported by NME, Bangalter says of the forthcoming orchestral LP that he “was drawn to the project” because he “comes from a family involved in the arts.” His mother and aunt were both dancers and his uncle was a dance choreographer.
The musician elaborates: “My mother died about 20 years ago and coming back to this world is associated with a certain time in my life. It brings with it a certain nostalgia, but at the same time it was a whole new adventure. Also, I liked the idea of writing music that wasn’t amplified and didn’t require electricity. It was just me and the music paper.”