Sunday night, the prestigious 56th Annual Grammy awards were held and the night was a promising one for Dance Music in particular, as recipients showed how electronic music acts are making a foray into mainstream music. In particular, the revered French Electronic Duo Daft Punk swept away the night with a mammoth 5 awards – a win for every category they were nominated for. Their album ‘Random Access Memories‘, perhaps the most hugely anticipated album ever on social media, was trending for months prior to its actual release. And despite the mild criticism it initially received, it was wildly celebrated hence and critically acclaimed for its unique studio recording and mastering process. Dissing the universally accepted Digital recording and mastering process, the duo opted to go vintage with an all studio-recording process, where live instruments were mixed together to create a very pure & true sound! We did some digging and found the four men who were an integral part to that process and here’s what they had to say.

Peter Franco, Mick Guzauski, Florian Lagatta and Daniel Lerner point out that RAM is not your typical Electronica album. From the very onset, the decision to return to the studio and reject any digital processing or recording may have been a move deemed by many as old school. But these experts insist that the creative freedom it allowed the artists was beyond compare. Use of the funky disco guitars, airtight drums and analog synthesizers that soundtracked bygone eras from the 70’s & 80’s was best rewarded as it won the coveted the “Best Engineered album, non-classical category”. 

“I remember setting up mikes for one snare drum for them and Thomas said it sounded too modern, it’s got to be warm and he didn’t want that edge,” said mixing engineer Mick Guzauski. “I haven’t had an experience like this since the mid-’80s.”

A majority of the album was recorded at the Henson Studios in Hollywood, where the band keeps office. The studio itself is held at high nostalgic regard for the Grammy winning engineers. Besides hand-designed electronics like modular synthesizers and vocoders, the album was software & manipulative hardware free . They collaborated with veteran artists such as Nile Rodgers, disco legend Giorgio Moroder, the Oscar-winning songwriter Paul Williams besides the other Grammy winner Pharell Williams.

“Anyone can record in their house, it’s so cheap and simple to make a record today,” said Peter Franco, “But there’s a process that’s been lost. All of my favorite albums were done in these kinds of studios. I think Daft Punk wanted to have that experience and see what they could do here.”

While modern pop and dance music uses techniques such as digital compression in order to amplify the sound quality, Daft Punk insisted the use of vintage recording method, such that each layer on the sound becomes unique and crisp, much like a pre-fabricated component that can be pure in isolation as much as in unison with the other layers. Applauding the efforts and praising the duo for accepting the challenge to compose music in the classical style, the engineers were more than satisfied with the final output themselves. Describing the sound as dynamic and intense, as hearing it live.

“I’ve never heard music that shows up the most subtle differences in gear like their music. When they play back the disc in clubs, because the recording is not squashed like 90% of electronica music seems to be, the record bursts through with punch and dynamics.”

Sometimes, in order to start a trend or create something beautiful & original, you have to start from scratch. This fearless approach of Daft Punk is probably what has symbolized them as the absolute electronic music pioneers of our times, and winning the prestigious Grammy’s is simply a testament to that! You can read the full interview here.