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Martin Guttridge-Hewitt
18 May 2023, 12:55

Daft Punk tribute book, We Were The Robots, released by Disco Pogo

The duo's first ever interview, handwritten notes and doodles, deep dive essays into seminal moments and a conversation with James Murphy all feature

Cover of Daft Punk We Were The Robots

A new Daft Punk tribute book, We Were The Robots, has been released and is available to buy now, charting the outfit's early years through to the sudden split in early-2021. 

The publication includes the first ever interview with the seminal French electronic duo, featured in legendary dance music and club culture magazine Jockey Slut in 1994. A second interview with the title, conducted via fax one year later, also features, with doodles and handwritten notes. 

Elsewhere, oral histories chart the pair's formative era, putting out music on Scottish institution Soma Quality Recordings, and the period in which they were working on the groundbreaking albums 'Homework' and 'Discovery'. A host of archival articles also feature, alongside new long reads on 'Human After All', 'Random Access Memories', and the act's landmark Coachella performance in 2006.

This is in addition to in-depth explorations of Roule Records, the artists' 'extra-curricular activities', and conversations with Tony Gardner, the designer behind Daft Punk's iconic robot headwear, and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy. The latter was inspired by the track, 'Daft Punk Is Playing In My House'. 

'We Were The Robots' comes from the team behind Jockey Slut, which last year relaunched as the new bi-annual outlet Disco Pogo. The crew – led by Paul Benney and John Burgess — also started the original Bugged Out! parties, booking Daft Punk to play the club night on a number of occasions during their tenure.  

“Daft Punk are one of electronic music’s greatest ever acts and we are lucky to have witnessed their ascendance, close up, from the very start. The book has been a labour of love since they split and we are happy to finally get it out there," said Burgess. 

You can order a copy of the book here and read about the book launch taking place later this month in the Instagram post below. 

Earlier this month, Daft Punk unveiled a new 10th anniversary edition of 'Random Access Memories', including 35 minutes of unreleased demos and outtakes. In April, one half of the duo, Thomas Bangalter, dropped his first album since the split, 'Mythologies'. The record is an orchestral ballet score for the Angelin Preljocaj piece of the same name.