Daft Punk releases Episode 1 of Collaborator Series: Giorgio Moroder

Continuing the trend of creeping teasers of their mega-awaited, ultra-top-secret album release, superstar legendary dance duo Daft Punk released Episode 1 of their Collaborator Series on their website today, starring Giorgio Moroder. Giorgio is an award-winning composer, songwriter, and producer. He has worked with Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Cher, and Donna Summer, on the more-relevant “Love to Love You Baby,” the 17-minute disco hit that is essentially credited with starting the disco craze of the 70s. Giorgio starts out by telling a little history on his first encounter with synthesizers and the Moog machine. He says digital is easier, but Daft Punk wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t just pushing notes or chords. The drums and bass will have warm and full sounds. This would still be something new and a step forward. He then moves on to describing the feel of dance music; back in the beginning, it was a new kind of rhythm with the bass drum and the 120 bpm is exactly double the speed of our heart beat, and Moroder describes how we are getting into that feel according to our hearts. He explains his sights in Ibiza; 5000 people and seeing the DJ act like the conductor of the crowd. He says that this is the legacy of dance, that dance is now the pop of the world. Moroder says the first time he heard a Daft Punk song was a mere 5-6 years old and he struggled to recall, “One More Time,” and that this was his favorite song, “It has a beautiful feel.” He describes the boys as perfectionists; they go into every detail and spend weeks to find the right sound and take a few days to do the right vocals. He says he would not do that, that he is not a details guy and that his recordings would be done in basically a few hours, but he does agree that if you don’t go into the details, for them, it simply won’t be successful. In the studio, Daft Punk had laid out three microphones. Giorgio questioned the technician on why this was necessary, to which he got the simple reply, “One microphone was from the 60s, one from the 70s, and one from today.” Giorgio replied, “But nobody will hear the difference.” “Thomas would hear the difference.” This episode hints at why Daft Punk has taken so long with all their endeavors: the albums, the tours. Every detail is minutely scrutinized and considered. It might hint as to why they are releasing hints so subtly, even though, surely, they must know the anticipation is simultaneously, killing us softly. Check out the episode above.