Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter Is Glad He’s No Longer A Robot

French electronic duo Daft Punk shocked the world last year when they announced their official split after almost three decades of creating some of the most iconic music in the dance world. 

Fans have been left wondering about the reasons behind their decision, but now one-half of the duo, Thomas Bangalter, has given some insight into why they chose to disband, with a big reason behind it being the rise of AI technology.

In a recent interview with BBC, Bangalter explained that he and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo had worn out the robot characters.

“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters,” he said. “It was a very important point for me and Guy-Man[uel] to not spoil the narrative while it was happening.”

Bangalter added that he wanted the line between humanity and technology to be “absolute”, and became concerned over the rise in artificial intelligence.

"It was an exploration, I would say, starting with the machines and going away from them. I love technology as a tool [but] I'm somehow terrified of the nature of the relationship between the machines and ourselves."

"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.”

"My concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence go beyond its use in music creation," he explained. 

“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. I almost consider the character of the robots like a Marina Abramović performance art installation that lasted for 20 years."

He added, “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.”

Sounds like he's glad he's Human After All...

The details come ahead of Bangalter releasing his first solo album this April 7, the score to the Mythologies ballet.

Recently, Bangalter unveiled the first taste of the new album with L'Accouchement.

Bangalter's 90-minute score was commissioned by Angelin Preljocaj, the founder of Ballet Preljocaj. The ballet held a premiere last year at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in Bordeaux, France. 

"As a substantial lyrical work, Mythologies finds the co-founder of Daft Punk reinventing his approach to composition," read the announcement about Bangalter's upcoming album. The score "shows scant regard for conventional stylistic boundaries" and showcases "a love of Baroque music and traces of American minimalism" (via Variety).

Pre-order Mythologies here.

Recen