Recently on an episode of popular music podcast Song Exploder, Arcade Fire
frontman Win Butler dove into the making of the band’s 2017 album Everything Now, honing in one what it was like to work with Daft Punk‘s Thomas Bangalter. Butler delves into the process behind “Put Your Money On Me,” recalling recording sessions in Paris at Daft Punk’s studio, which he describes as “one of the last vintage, 70s analogue studios.” Butler, who occasionally moonlights as DJ Windows 98, goes on describing the famously enigmatic Bangalter, claiming,“You would think that Thomas is all about electronic music, [but] he doesn’t actually really like electronic music.”
It might sound like high blasphemy from Butler at first, but upon actual examination, of course Thomas Bangalter doesn’t actually like electronic music. He’s Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk; he’s an icon and a total mystery all at once. Butler at one point describes Bangalter as, “very academic, deep and philosophical.” The list of currently popular electronic music that might even be a blip on Bangalter’s radar is likely infinitesimal at best. By comparison, are we supposed to believe Jay Z is up on Lil Xan’s latest moves? Is Willie Nelson combing through Mason Ramsey’s SoundCloud? Likely not.
The cultural zeitgeist doesn’t always line up with the stuff of legend — and that’s okay. Right now, Bangalter is working with bands like Arcade Fire and his counterpart, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo is currently assisting artists like The Weeknd anyway. If we are lucky enough to get a statement from Daft Punk on the state of electronic music once a decade as we’ve grown accustomed, we should consider ourselves lucky altogether.