On April 13th, 2013 at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Daft Punk debuted a teaser trailer for their new album, Random Access Memories: Without warning, a nearly two-minute video popped up on jumbotron screens flanking the festival’s various stages, in which Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers and the Daft Punk robots rock out in heavily sequined get-ups to “Get Lucky,” the album’s lead single. When the screens went black, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were shown tweets from attendees giddy about what they’d just seen. Thomas grinned. “The fun part will be seeing the footage people shot when it hits the Internet,” he said.
Random Access Memories, made in near-total secrecy, is one of 2013′s most eagerly anticipated – and most enigma-enshrouded – releases. According to a special sit-down the duo had with Rolling Stone Magazine, here are 10 things they’ve revealed.
They began working on Random Access Memories in 2008, in Paris, with no clear plan.
The duo were unsatisfied with early attempts at production which was heavily dependant on electronic equipment. Eventually, a new approach emerged: “We wanted to do what we used to do with machines and samplers,” he explains, “but with people.” So apart from one sample of an australian rock record on their that opens the final track, “Contact,” Daft Punk created their own samples entirely from scratch. The only electronics come in the form of a massive, custom-built modular synthesizer that Daft Punk played live on the album, and an arsenal of vintage vocoders on which they manually manipulated factors like pitch, vibrato and legato.
The title captures the duo’s endless fascination with blurs between humans and technology and their endless fascination with the past.
For Random Access Memories, they hired Nile Rodgers, ” a top-notch session players,” says Guy-Manuel, with credits on classic records by Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, and Eric Clapton.
Pharrell, Julian Casablancas, Giorgio Moroder, and Animal Collective’s Panda Bear are among the guest vocalists.
The two songs featuring Pharrell apparently came together after the rapper offered to contribute in any way – even play tambourine – at a release party for Madonna.
The album’s move away from computerized sounds reflects Daft Punk’s “ambivalence” about the EDM craze they helped to inspire.
“Electronic music right now is in its comfort zone and it’s not moving one inch,” Thomas says. “That’s not what artists are supposed to do.” They wanted to make the new album have that distinct signature sound different from today’s EDM.
Keep an eye on those Saturday Night Live commercial breaks.
So far, Daft Punk have debuted two fifteen-second chunks of “Get Lucky” in ads that play during Saturday Night Live, incrementally revealing more of the song. Along with billboards advertising the album, these TV ads represent a throwback impulse that’s guiding the new album’s roll-out.
The new songs came together around the world.
Most vocals and overdubs happened in Paris, but the rhythm sections were committed to Ampex reels in Los Angeles and New York, at Electric Ladyland studio, Henson (formerly A&M) studios, and other venerated old rooms.
While recording, Daft Punk found time in their schedules to jam with Kanye West for his next album.
Bangalter and de Homem-Christo also found time to reconnect with good friend Kanye West to lay down beats on two songs in a “raw” jam session replete with improvised lyrics and primal screams.
The biker gear from the last album and tour is out; sequins are in.
The French robots have also embraced a new look to accompany the album’s throwback sound, ditching Human After All‘s leather jackets for sequined suits by the designer, Hedi Slimane, to keep up with the retro/throwback feel of the album.
They say there are no current tour plans to promote the album.
While the robot duo claim they”have no current plans” to tour, they all-but-confirmed that they will eventually return to the road with a career-spanning set list.
Random Access Memories Track-list:
1.”Give Life Back to Music” (featuring Nile Rodgers)
2.”The Game of Love”
3.”Giorgio by Moroder” (featuring Giorgio Moroder)
4.”Within” (featuring Chilly Gonzales)
5.”Instant Crush” (featuring Julian Casablancas)
6.”Lose Yourself to Dance” (featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers)
7.”Touch” (featuring Paul Williams)
8.”Get Lucky” (featuring Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers)
9.”Beyond”
10.”Motherhood”
11.”Fragments of Time” (featuring Todd Edwards)
12.”Doin’ It Right” (featuring Panda Bear)
13.”Contact” (featuring DJ Falcon)
Source: The Rolling Stone