Daft Punk

Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo met on the grounds of their lycée in Paris in 1987. The two became good friends and formed the guitar-based band Darlin’ with Laurent Brancowitz (Phoenix) in 1992.

Stereolab released two of their tracks on a multi-artist Duophonic Records EP and invited the band to open a few shows in the UK, but local press was less than receptive. When one critic offhandedly referred to the music as “a bunch of daft punk”, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo were amused at the brilliance thrust upon them after investing so much time and effort into naming the project.

Darlin’ broke up, Brancowitz pursued other efforts with Phoenix, and Bangalter and de Homem-Christo began experimenting with drum machines and synthesizers under their new name.

In 1993 Daft Punk met Stuart Macmillan of Slam, co-founder of the label Soma Quality Recordings, at a rave at EuroDisney. It was there that the duo handed off a demo that eventually saw light as Daft Punk’s first single, “The New Wave”, a limited release in 1994.
​The single also contained a track called “Alive“. Nurturing the electronic influence, Daft Punk recorded the buzzing “Da Funk” in 1995 and it became their first commercially successful single the same year.

The band signed with Virgin Records in September 1996 and “Da Funk” and “Alive” served as the framework of Daft Punk’s 1997 debut album Homework. If one’s legacy is quantified by the cultural shift in the wake of an achievement, then Daft Punk’s Alive 2006/2007 tour is among their most significant contributions to music and society in a broader sense.

A spectacle launched at Coachella 2006, their live production was unlike anything seen previously, two androids piloting a gigantic, glowing pyramid of sensory stimulus. Sessions across the globe were recorded directly analog tape, and that physical manifestation of art in an increasingly intangible world is fundamental keystone of the album concept. For the first time in their career, Daft Punk have committed to primarily using live instrumentation in lieu of samples, and even the visual effects from the official video trailer that debuted at Coachella 2013 were achieved with mirrors and lights instead of pixels and programs.