What does it mean to be a "Daft Punk"?
"Daft Punk" is not a name we chose ourselves. We saw it in a review of the first band that we had called Darling about 10 years ago. The review was in an English magazine, and the journalist did not like the record, and he said this is "daft punk" music. So, we thought it would be legitimate when we created a new band that we take the name that was chosen for us. It was a name that was abstract and fitting, and we liked it.
Tell us the story of how you became robots.
We became robots during the 1999 September trip, on 9/9/99. We were just making music in the studio, when suddenly there was a flash. It is not something that can easily be explained. It was not like an explosion, but there were lights and gold and silver powder was everywhere. When we finally woke up, the silver and gold powder became our robot faces. We do not know exactly what happened because when we woke up, we were just robots. What's funny is that we really like this look, so we're happy with it.
Now that you guys have become robots what sort of superpowers do you have?
We do not yet know all of the superpowers we have. We can flash some words and little animations on our faces, which is how we communicate. And we make music and try to make good music, which is maybe a superpower. But we may have some more and hopefully we will find them.
If you had to fight against a giant monster attacking your home, would you win the battle?
We are not sure if we would win the battle, but if it's a bad monster that is not only attacking our homes but the entire village, we would tell all the people of the city to unite against him.
What are your favorite robots in the world and why?
I think that becoming a robot makes you like a family with the other robots. We didn't have a chance to meet everybody, but we met a few of them that we liked a lot, especially the robots from the early '50s movies, who were really funny. We wanted to be friends with the Star Wars robots, but they were too busy for us.
What's your favorite show on Cartoon Network and why?
We really like The Powerpuff Girls and the design of this cartoon, which is really dynamic.
If you could create a cartoon series for Cartoon Network, what would it be about?
We are already working on some Japanese animation videos. Three videos are done and we are really into that stuff, so in a way, we are already trying to do a series of cartoons.
A lot of action animation fans may not yet be fans of dance music. Can you tell them why the two should go together, or why an animation fan would want to dance?
We think that dance music is really about rhythm and dynamics. What we like in cartoons and what we think most people like are the rhythm and the speed of the cartoon. In cartoons and music, you are able to be free to do what you want to do. You can be as innovative and imaginative as you want to.
What would a Toonami [animation] fan who's never heard your work before discover when they listened to your new album [Discovery]?
We think the music we made on Discovery has been done in a cinematic way in our minds. We were visually seeing the music and trying to find ideas that were appealing to people's imagination. An animation fan would find this mixture of elements and story in our music.
With Leiji Matsumoto you guys have managed to work with one of the top Japanese animators. How did that collaboration happen?
In the beginning, we were trying to find ideas to make videos on the Discovery album. We thought about Mr. Matsumoto and we tried to approach him and did not get an answer. After a few months, we were still trying to find ideas, and he just called us back and said he would like to meet us to work with him. We were really happy. His response was a really good surprise.
Did you help develop the story of the videos?
Yes, we developed the stories of the videos ourselves with a friend from Earth.
France was into Japanese animation way before the U.S. got into it. Did you watch Japanese animation as kids?
Yes, we watched a lot of Japanese animation when we were kids. I think that is one of the biggest memories for us and many French people our age. We really wanted to do something with that because it was really pleasing to us, like a childhood dream come true. We knew that it could be the same for other people and hoped they could relate to the Japanese animation we had in Europe.
Is there anything that you used to love as kids that would be unknown to American audiences?
The biggest one for us was Matsumoto's Captain Harlock and we know some people in the U.S. have seen it. This was the main cartoon we were influenced by when we were kids.
What's your favorite Japanese anime series of all time and why?
It is really hard to pick the favorite Japanese anime of all time since there are so many good ones. There are really great ones like Captain Harlock, Grandizer, Candy Candy, and many others. It really relates to our past and our child memories. There is not one we prefer. They are all magical to us now that we are grownups.
What's your favorite new anime series and why?
We are fonder of old cartoons and animes. The modern Japanese ones like Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell are good, but we really like the old-school style of Japanese anime.
Anime fans are often into new trends before anyone else. Anything cool you guys think that Toonami fans should be checking out?
Musically, the fans of Toonami should check out N.E.R.D., produced by the Neptunes. Check it out!
Would you guys ever consider doing a soundtrack for anime?
What we are doing with the cartoons on Discovery is, in a way, an answer to your question because we are making the anime after the soundtrack has been made. It is quite the same and very exciting. Right now we are working with Matsumoto for the fourth video for our album, so that is like making a mini-anime with the soundtrack already finished. But we would be really interested in writing more music for animation.
How has animation affected your music?
We have always been great fans of animation since we were kids. At around the age of 5 years old, we would watch Captain Harlock. This show was made by Leiji Matsumoto, whom we are working with 20 years later. So we are finally working with a big source of our inspiration. The music we have been making must have been influenced at some point by the shows we were watching when we were little kids.
You're already on the Internet with the Daft Club. Tell us more about that.
The Daft Club is a way for people who bought Discovery and have a PC to download more music and exclusive content online once they have the album in their hand. They have a small plastic card, which looks like a credit card, with a number on it that they can use to log on. They download some technology to play exclusive tracks online and new content is added frequently.
What musicians inspired you?
Numerous musicians have inspired us, from Jimmy Hendrix to AC/DC to John Williams to Stevie Wonder to Dr. Dre to Basement Jaxx to The Who to the Beatles to Herbie Hancock to Supertramp and many more from electronic music, hip-hop, classical music and funk. Also, the Buggles song "Video Killed the Radio Star" is a great track and will definitely become an even more important classic after many years go by.