* Daft Punk: Fingers crossed for Random Access Memories.
By Geoffrey Rowlands
French duo Daft Punk’s UK chart-topping single, Get Lucky, sounds like it comes straight from the summer of 1978. Saturday Night Fever is the smash hit movie and the disco era is in full swing.
This audio illusion is hardly surprising when disco-funk pioneer Nile Rodgers is revealed as the man responsible for writing and playing the song’s infectious guitar riff. The former Chic star, who has also produced a string of hits for artists such as Madonna, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross and David Bowie, was specifically chosen by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter to develop the kind of sound they wanted.
“We have a wide taste in music,” said 39-year-old Guy-Manuel. “We might create electro-dance but we love so many artists across pretty much the entire spectrum of popular music. Late ’70s disco is one of our passions so we were very interested in the possibility of collaborating with an absolute icon such as Nile Rodgers.”
Nile is not the only dance music legend to feature on Get Lucky. The vocals are provided by N*E*R*D star, solo artist and production guru Pharrell Williams.
“Pharrell is really amazing,” smiled 38-year-old Thomas. “Everything he does is pure quality. We were blown away by the idea of having Nile and Pharrell on the same track. We’ve actually got them on two songs, Get Lucky and Lose Yourself to Dance. Nile also co-wrote another track, Give Life Back to Music.”
A video of Daft Punk performing Get Lucky with Nile and Pharrell was premiered at California’s Coachella music festival. So positive was the response that word spread across the Internet created a world-wide demand to hear the track. It subsequently broke the US and UK one-day streaming records on Spotify.
“Get Lucky is the lead single from our new album so we obviously hoped people would be interested,” Guy-Manuel remarked. “But the reaction is way beyond anything we could have expected. Topping the UK chart is very special. We made No. 2 13 years ago with One More Time. We were delighted but wished so much that it could have been number one. Now we have reached the summit.”
Although the duo, who never perform without their trademark robot helmets, have since issued live, compilation and film soundtrack albums, their forthcoming release, Random Access Memories, is Daft Punk’s first album of new songs since 2005’s Human After All.
“We took a different approach to the new album,” Thomas revealed. “Rather than the usual computers and sampling, we decided to use as much live instrumentation as possible. Basically, we wanted to work with real people instead of machines.
“Some of the collaborations were with friends. We’ve known Nile Rodgers since 2001. Others were with artists we admired but didn’t previously know. We also hired some of the finest session musicians in the business. Everything went wonderfully well and we couldn’t be happier with the finished product.”
Random Access Memories will be released next week. If the response matches that for Get Lucky, it should become Daft Punk’s biggest hit to date.
