Few creative minds have reshaped music quite like Thomas Bangalter. As one half of Daft Punk, the Parisian composer and producer helped define the sound of a generation from behind a helmet. Now, in a rare and candid episode of CHANEL Connects—recorded live at the Fondation Beyeler during Art Basel—Bangalter opens up about life after the robots.
In a rare and remarkably open episode of CHANEL Connects—recorded live at the Fondation Beyeler during Art Basel—Thomas Bangalter sits down with Yana Peel, CHANEL’s President of Arts, Culture & Heritage, to reflect on life after Daft Punk. The Parisian composer and producer walks listeners through his post-robot era, including “Warehouse Artifacts,” his immersive Art Basel finale created alongside artist Julien Charrière and Keinemusik’s Rampa. Tracing his creative roots back to his teenage years, Bangalter recalls long afternoons spent with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo inside the Centre Pompidou library, getting lost in Andy Warhol prints and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis long before a single Paris rave pulled Daft Punk into existence.
Looking back on the iconic discography that followed, the conversation dives into the sheer craft behind Homework, Discovery, and Random Access Memories. Bangalter reflects on the studio magic that birthed hit tracks like “Get Lucky,” working alongside legends Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder to capture lightning in a bottle. But rather than resting on past Grammys, he detail his sharp left turn into orchestral composition, swapping electronic synthesizers for acoustic arrangements. From scoring the Mythologies ballet for the Bordeaux Opera to his recent work on Mirage with Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa, Bangalter proves his commitment to evolving as a composer is as fierce as ever.
What ties this whole journey together is a deep appreciation for public space, artistic ritual, and full-circle moments. Bangalter recounts a vivid 1985 memory of watching Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap Paris’s Pont Neuf—an image that stayed with him for four decades until he returned to that exact same bridge to collaborate with the street artist JR. Ultimately, the episode serves as a captivating look into the mind of an artist who continues to embrace the unpredictable, proving that taking off the helmet was never the end of the story, but simply the beginning of a whole new movement.
“It’s a deeply thoughtful conversation about artistic ritual, legacy, and why staying unpredictable is the ultimate creative force.”
Catch the full live recording on the latest episode here.