Credit: Alamy

Thomas Bangalter explains Daft Punk split: ‘The last thing I would want to be is a robot’

Tue 4 April 2023 12:33, UK

One-half of the robot duo Daft Punk, Thomas Bangalter, has shared why the electronic pioneers split. Alongside Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Bangalter and Daft Punk announced their split in 2021.

Bangalter has now shared the reason behind the duo’s disbandment, citing the current social climate for art as one of the contributing factors for the breakup, explaining that he was keen to remove himself from the idea of technology-driven music.

The group were famed for their innovative use of electronic music, which, alongside their disguise as robots, contributed to the band being regarded as at the forefront of technology’s advance into music. It was something the musician became keen to move away from.

“Daft Punk was a project that blurred the line between reality and fiction with these robot characters,” he told the BBC in a recent interview. “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. 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.”

It wasn’t so much the instruments or software used to craft music that worried Bangalter but the increasing influence AI was having on art in general. “My concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence go beyond its use in music creation,” 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… 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.”

Thomas Bangalter’ new album, Mythologies will arrive on April 7th.