{"id":33867,"date":"2026-08-09T04:08:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33867"},"modified":"2026-08-09T04:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:08:49","slug":"daft-punks-thomas-bangalter-says-writing-the-score-for-tron-legacy-was-depressing-and-limiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33867","title":{"rendered":"Daft Punk\u2019s Thomas Bangalter says writing the score for \u2018Tron: Legacy\u2019 was \u201cdepressing\u201d and \u201climiting\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/daft_punk_tron.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/daft-punk\">Daft Punk<\/a>&#8216;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/thomas-bangalter\">Thomas Bangalter<\/a>\u00a0has said writing the score for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/reviews-movie-11774-321158\"><i>Tron: Legacy<\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0<\/i>was a &#8220;depressing&#8221; and &#8220;limiting&#8221; experience.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1298\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559683&quot;:0,&quot;335559684&quot;:-2,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b>READ MORE:\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/features\/enduring-influence-of-daft-punk-parcels-disclosure-kelly-lee-owens-2891514\"><b>The enduring influence of Daft Punk: &#8220;They gave off this attitude of not giving a fuck&#8221;<\/b><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The musician and producer reflected on working on the 2010\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/brands\/disney\">Disney<\/a>\u00a0film during a recent episode of\u00a0<i>The A24 Podcast<\/i>, in conversation with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/dev-hynes\">Dev Hynes<\/a>, aka\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/blood-orange\">Blood Orange<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that director Joseph Kosinski &#8211; who went on to make\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films\/top-gun\"><i>Top Gun: Maverick <\/i><\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/films\/f1\"><i>F1<\/i><\/a>, had expected Daft Punk to create an entirely electronic score, but Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo actually wanted to use the opportunity to work with a full symphony orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Initially, he was like, &#8216;Oh no I want you guys to do a full electronic score&#8217;,&#8221; Bangalter said. &#8220;By that time, I&#8217;d done that music for 15 years, [so I said], &#8216;No, we&#8217;re going to Hollywood. We&#8217;re gonna use <i>Fantasia<\/i>. Like,\u00a0it&#8217;s\u00a0Disney.\u00a0So\u00a0it&#8217;s\u00a0like a full\u00a0orchestra&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said\u00a0he spent months working on synth tones for the\u00a0score, but\u00a0making it fit with the film was a huge challenge. &#8220;The problem was that when we started to experiment with picture, anything that was\u00a0in the medium range,\u00a0frequency-wise, would conflict with dialogue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was so limiting to feel like, &#8216;Oh\u00a0yeah, I have all these ideas about things that we can really make music. But the whole thing about film score music is to take a step back and have the\u00a0performance\u00a0and not be in the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s always very depressing, actually, when you have all these\u00a0ideas ,\u00a0and you say, &#8216;OK, I&#8217;m\u00a0gonna\u00a0bring that&#8217;, and you end up almost having to go back to a more traditional way of doing it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The tradition is not just\u00a0rules.\u00a0It&#8217;s\u00a0sometimes,\u00a0like,\u00a0common sense.\u00a0It&#8217;s\u00a0the idea of saying, &#8216;OK,\u00a0yeah, you know, we tried that, and it\u00a0doesn&#8217;t\u00a0work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<i>Tron: Legacy\u00a0<\/i>soundtrack was Daft Punk&#8217;s first full film score, and at the time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/daft-punk-123-1302157\">Bangalter called it &#8220;by far the most challenging and complex thing we have ever been involved with&#8221;<\/a>.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/daft-punk-full-tron-legacy-soundtrack-arrives-streaming-services-first-time-2845215\">A complete edition with previously unavailable tracks was released for the film&#8217;s 10th anniversary in 2020<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/daft-punk-celebrate-11-years-of-tron-legacy-soundtrack-with-vinyl-reissue-3129545\">a vinyl reissue followed a year later<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/reviews-movie-11774-321158\"><i>NME\u00a0<\/i>gave Tron: Legacy a two-star review<\/a>, writing: &#8220;Now it\u2019s been rebooted, it is unlikely <i>Tron<\/i>\u00a0fans will have to wait another three decades before they see a third instalment in the saga. Yet however quickly the third movie does\u00a0comes\u00a0around, by the time it does, the aforementioned fans might\u00a0realise\u00a0they\u2019re not quite as keen on\u00a0<i>Tron<\/i>\u00a0as they might have thought they were.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Daft Punk, meanwhile,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/daft-punk-confirm-their-split-after-28-years-2886037\">split in 2021 after 28 years<\/a>, and earlier this year,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/thomas-bangalter-on-if-daft-punk-might-ever-reunite-for-live-shows-3950047\">Bangalter ruled out a reunion as there were still &#8220;other things to explore&#8221; outside of the duo<\/a>. They were still heard a lot this summer, though, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/daft-punks-one-more-time-is-frances-official-2026-world-cup-goal-music-3952069\">their track &#8216;One More Time&#8217; was France&#8217;s\u00a0official goal music at the FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/daft-punks-thomas-bangalter-says-writing-the-score-for-tron-legacy-was-depressing-and-limiting-3961536\">Daft Punk&#8217;s Thomas Bangalter says writing the score for &#8216;Tron: Legacy&#8217; was &#8220;depressing&#8221; and &#8220;limiting&#8221;<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\">NME<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daft Punk&#8216;s\u00a0Thomas Bangalter\u00a0has said writing the score for\u00a0Tron: Legacy\u00a0was a &#8220;depressing&#8221; and &#8220;limiting&#8221; experience. READ MORE:\u00a0The enduring influence of Daft Punk: &#8220;They gave off this attitude of not giving a fuck&#8221; The musician and producer reflected on working on the 2010\u00a0Disney\u00a0film during a recent episode of\u00a0The A24 Podcast, in conversation with\u00a0Dev Hynes, aka\u00a0Blood Orange. He&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/daft_punk_tron.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}