Daft Punk: We Were the Robots

Shortly after launching Jockey Slut—the magazine that would eventually become one of the most influential and respected publications in electronic music—its founders, John Burgess and Paul Benney, received a demo tape from a completely unknown French duo formed in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who went by the name of Daft Punk. They immediately arranged what would become their first interview, marking the beginning of one of the most dazzling and exciting careers in music of the late 1990s and early 2000s. In addition to this seminal first interview, Daft Punk: We Were the Robots compiles all the material the magazine published about the group throughout their career (which ended abruptly, and to everyone's surprise, in early 2021) and provides a comprehensive account of the band's milestones: their albums and hits, of course, as well as the evolution of their highly distinctive stage presence, when from 1999 until the end of their career they appeared dressed (and hidden) in two elaborate and ultra-sophisticated robot costumes. From then on, the legend only grew, until the duo established themselves as one of the most acclaimed electronic music projects of all time and broke records when they released "Get Lucky" in 2013, which featured collaborations with Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers. This book, in color and lavishly illustrated with photos and documents from the history of Daft Punk, brings together, in addition to the various articles and interviews that appeared in Jockey Slut magazine (later renamed Disco Pogo), other articles and pieces specially commissioned for this volume, including the foreword by David and Stephen Dewaele (2manydjs) —another of the most successful duos in electronic music—, an interview with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, as well as the parallel history of French electronic music —what was called "French touch"—, which Daft Punk not only starred in with their music, but also with the labels they ran: Roulé (Bangalter) and Crydamoure (Homem-Christo), among many other materials.