Despite spending decades dressed as a machine, Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter is not at all interested in using artificial intelligence to create music.
In a June interview with Yana Peel, president of arts, culture & heritage at CHANEL, that was posted online July 29th, Bangalter said he wasn’t interested in the creative use of AI. “AI really focuses right now on the results. It’s all about the output. My creative process is absolutely not about the output,” Bangalter explained. Stream the full interview below.
Bangalter described using AI as a shortcut to create music, “a way to bypass the creative process,” and a means to an end that takes away surprise and humanity in music. “The output is really the whole journey to maintain that process in a spontaneous and intuitive and instinctive way,” he told the crowd at an arts festival in Basel, Switzerland.
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“It is actually the creative process that I find the most interesting,” Bangalter said. “Why would I want to bypass the moment that I’m passionate about?”
Elsewhere in the interview he discussed Daft Punk’s origins in rave culture and their albums “Homework,” “Discovery,” and “Random Access Memories.” He also said that getting to work with Nile Rodgers, which the band did on this latter album and their biggest hit “Get Lucky,” was a childhood dream. He also discussed his move toward orchestral music.
Bangalter released Mirage, an album of music he composed for a ballet of the same name, in June.
