The scene takes place in the streets of Amsterdam, one afternoon in July 2007. Daft Punk is in town.
Incognito.
Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo take a walk a few hours before their gigantic show.
With his face uncovered.
Ideal for not being recognized when you are more famous behind a robot helmet.
Kavinsky is with them.
The French musician, revealed to the general public thanks to his song "Nightcall", popularized thanks to the film "Drive", ensures the first part of the tour of the electro duo.
And this time, he is the one we recognize.
“A guy approached me and wanted a photo with me,” the musician told us in 2014. He handed his camera to Thomas and Guy-Manuel so that they could take us.
He had no idea it was Daft Punk at all!
"
Will daily life be more and more normal for the two Parisians who have just announced their separation?
Daft Punk takes off the mask or rather the helmet, ideal protection for the most famous anonymous people in the world.
Millions of albums sold, planetary hits like "Get Lucky" or "One more time", five Grammy Awards at a crazy party in Los Angeles alongside Stevie Wonder and in front of Paul McCartney.
And then the epilogue, in the middle of a video posted on YouTube on February 22.
One robot explodes, the other goes off into the desert.
Images borrowed from the film “Electroma” released in 2006, directed by Daft Punk.
A feature film where robots who live in a world of robots want to become men.
“Human after all”, “humans after all” announced the title of the tandem's third album a year earlier.
They had already planned their end
This does not mean that the two boys will explain their separation.
Mastering their communication perfectly for more than 25 years, saving their appearance, the two Daft Punk do not intend to spread out in the press to tell the end of their adventure, while their albums suddenly rose in the record sales rankings. since their surprise announcement.
“They won't be giving interviews.
It's all in the video.
They had already planned their end in
Electroma
”, affirms with certainty one of their collaborators.
Always discreet, even more secret than usual, the two sound wizards have not taken many people into their confidence.
“Thomas called me the day the video was uploaded,” says Pedro Winter, who managed the pair for over ten years.
I was in shock like everyone else.
And surprised because this kind of group is not on the same time slot as the others.
He has his own pace, even a 10-year break can be forgiven.
"
We were not far from it.
Daft Punk's last album, "Random Access Memories" dates back to 2013, his last tour in 2007. And his last public appearance at the Grammy awards at four with The Weeknd, following their collaboration for the hits of the Canadian singer. “I Feel It Coming” and “Starboy” in 2016.
VIDEO. Daft Punk split after 28 years of collaboration
Since then, the Web has been buzzing with rumors about robots.
A few weeks ago, some were betting on their presence at halftime of the Super Bowl once again with The Weeknd.
Missed.
Last year, a photo with a list of songs co-signed by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, but also some prestigious names like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, appeared on social networks.
A document that seemed very official with the header of the Columbia record company, that of Daft Punk, even announcing May 26, 2020 as the release date of a new album.
Wrong path.
"I don't feel any heartbreak"
“For me, it was fake news,” comments Antoine Ressaussière, friend with the group since he organized one of his first concerts at the Transmusicales de Rennes in 1995. This separation will also allow all questions to be stopped.
Being close to them, you can not imagine the number of times I was asked:
Okay so, the Dafts, where are they?
The more they were silent, the more there were fantasies.
"
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So there won't be any more.
If not on the real reasons for this separation.
“I don't explain it, I take what the group gives us, an epilogue, a splendid staging of pure art.
It's up to us to fantasize, to question ourselves ”, boot in touch Pedro Winter who agreed to answer a few questions but only by email.
Some undoubtedly know but do not want to express themselves and have preferred to decline our requests for interviews.
Others think they know.
“They hadn't worked together for a while,” dares someone close to the musicians.
This announcement does not surprise me.
They each plotted their own path, no longer worked in pairs.
" Not false.
On the one hand, Thomas Bangalter took part in Matthieu Chedid's last album for whom he co-wrote the single “Superchérie” in 2019. Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo composed “Rest” on Charlotte Gainsbourg's latest album released in 2017. As if this sacred union had been untied in recent years.
"I don't feel any heartbreak, I can't imagine an outcry either," confides a relative.
They need to express this separation officially, perhaps in order to assume artistic differences.
"
"I hope they will continue to do things in the cinema"
Unless robots, yet at the cutting edge of technology, no longer feel in tune with the world of music.
“I'm not sure that the importance of streaming, this competition to be omnipresent on platforms, is their thing, decrypts a recording professional who has worked with them for a long time.
We often see them as marketing aces.
For me, it has always been mostly creative aces and kids having fun.
When I learned of their separation, I also realized that they were almost 50 years old
(Editor's note: 46 and 47)
, that they were old ”
How to keep the flame after all these years?
No doubt by going to something else as shown by the robot walking in the direction of the sun in the testamentary clip of February 22.
"I did not take it as an obituary", comments Patrice Gellé, producer for the BBC of the excellent documentary "Daft Punk Unchained" broadcast in 2015 on Canal + and again available on Culturebox and France.tv.
“I hope that they will continue to do things in the cinema which would be a pretty logical continuation.
For me that's not the end of Daft Punk.
"
Others nevertheless imagine them remaining in the shadows.
“The stage isn't really Thomas' thing.
His ideal model is to make music played by others and not to be a performer in the foreground ”, comments a close friend of the group.
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"I can clearly see them each working in other disciplines: dance, cinema, but also with real singers and singer to produce and compose albums, predicts Alain Artaud, boss of Labels, a subsidiary of Virgin which marketed the first record. of Daft Punk in 1995 and remains in contact with the band.
Like Thomas did with -M- or Guy-Manuel with Charlotte Gainsbourg.
We'll see.
With them we've always been used to twists and turns.
You are never surprised to be surprised.
"
