14 Things I Learned From Daft Punk’s ‘Unchained’ Documentary

Last night, like many, I sat down to watch the US premiere of the highly anticipated Daft Punk documentary on Showtime. Directed by Hervé Martin-Delpierre, Unchained is a remarkable achievement, taking an extended look at the early beginnings and esteemed 30-year career of Grammy-winning French duo Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter.

Along the way, this insightful 90-minute film includes exclusive interviews, rare footage and personal insights from leading artists like Kanye West, Giorgio Moroder, Pharrell Williams, Pete Tong, Chic’s Nile Rodgers, former manager Pedro Winters, and many others.

While watching, here are a bunch of interesting things I learned about the mysterious French duo who conquered the world on their own terms.

1. In 1992, the two 17-year-old French musicians formed a four-piece rock band called darlin’ including future Phoenix guitarist Laurent Brancowitz. Their first single was entitled “How You Satisfy Me.” Upon its release, a journalistic at Melody Maker called their effort a “daft punky thrash.”
2. On November 10, 1992, they attended their first rave in Paris on the roof of the Centre Pompidou.
3. On April 1994, they released their first-ever dance EP, “The New Wave” as Daft Punk on Slam’s Soma Records. They lifted their band name from that bad review two years earlier.
4. Thomas Bangalter considers technology to be an unseen member of the band.
5. Even early on, they were astute business people. Their original record deal with Virgin France gave them total creative freedom and control over their music and image.
6. They played their finished debut album Homework for Virgin record executives on a boombox in their apartment.
7. The very first appearance of the fabled robots was in Michel Gondry’s 1997 music video, “Around The World.” The French director said that he wanted them to look like Robocop.
8. After the release of Homework to rave reviews, Madonna, Janet Jackson and George Michael all wanted to collaborate with the duo but the band politely declined.
9. LA-based special effect designer Tony Gardner designed the original Daft Punk helmets in 2000.
10. Their third album, Human After All was recorded in only two weeks which was a welcome return to the raw, pulsing electronic sound forged on Homework hits like “Da Funk” and “Around The World.” At the time, Daft Punk did absolutely no promotion for the album. “We thought the album would speak for itself,” said Banghalter, back in 2013.
11. In 2006, Daft Punk got paid $300,000 to play Coachella where they debuted their famous LED pyramid stage set-up. Forty thousand festival attendees saw the show in a tent that only fit 10,000.
12. In 2007, Skrillex saw the Daft Punk live show at the LA Sports Arena and it inspired him with their live performance and also how they blended their music into new live mashup versions which is something that hadn’t been done before.
13. Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories was recorded at New York’s historic Electric Lady Studios. Originally built by Jimi Hendrix in 1970, the Greenwich Village studio has played home to notable artists like Bob Dylan, John Lennon, U2, The Strokes, Lana Del Rey, and many others.
14. The genesis for Random Access Memories came out of the band working on Disney’s Tron: Legacy soundtrack in 2010. Mixing their sound with a full live orchestra gave the duo confidence in the studio working with accomplished musicians like Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder.

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