Daft Punk’s new single “Get Lucky” has already set Spotify records, showing just how excited their fans are for the band's first album in eight years.
GQ met up with the mysterious duo (real names Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) to learn how the time off has affected them. The guys also talk about getting older, the evolution of dance music, and the challenge of putting out another great album.
Bangalter on growing old and still making quality music:
“We’re making music for twenty years. How many bands and acts do you have that are still making good music after twenty years? It always sucks—almost always, you know?”
de Homem-Christo then adds: "So our new album is supposed to really suck."
…on Daft Punk's influence on electronic music:
“It’s always this thing where we’re constantly waiting for something that will come in electronic music that says, ‘Daft Punk sucks!’ That’s actually much more interesting and exciting than someone who is paying homage.”
...on their new album, Random Access Memories:
“It’s maybe not ‘Kill the father.’ But it’s like: Things have to move on.”
Skrillex on seeing Daft Punk in L.A. in 2007:
“[That’s when] I realized I really wanted to make dance music.”
GQ's Zach Baron on the new album:
“At a moment when mainstream pop has never sounded more like Daft Punk, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo went the other way, crafting a gold-plated homage to the pop music of their youth, the kind of sweet and sad and sexy sounds that ruled radio waves years before most of their fan base was even born. It’s extremely impressive musically, weirdly pedantic in places—unless you think there’s merit in listening to Giorgio Moroder haltingly talk about his early days as a German club warrior over a click track—and probably a little overgenerous to guys like Panda Bear, who basically gets to sneak a solo track onto one of the most anticipated albums of the past decade. I would say the disco-connoisseur-y songs outnumber the potential pop smashes by a ratio of about 4 to 1, but there are definitely a couple of potential pop smashes. I have no idea who they imagine Random Access Memories being for, besides themselves, but there is something seductive about that, the band’s ability to do something so totally, breathtakingly self-indulgent—it makes you want to try to see it their way.”
