An interview with Daniel Vangarde, dad of Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter – Features – Mixmag
What has changed your mind?
Because the record company asked me [Laughs]. I’m not doing new things now, so it’s [talking about] something from the past. I’ll tell you the real reason all of this is funny… when the label asked me to do interviews I said: “No, I have never done it and I will not do it.” But I talked to my son Thomas [Bangalter, formerly one half of Daft Punk], and he said “Why did you say no!?” and I said “Because, I never did it!” and he said “Well, why don’t you do it now?!” and said “Fine!” So I changed my mind.
Well, we’re glad you did! So the album touches on your projects such as Whos Who, Starbow and your collaboration with The Gibson Brothers, etc. How important have collaborations been to you in your career?
I think collaboration is everything… you have to relate with people. Working with good musicians is exciting, when you record live and you do a few takes — suddenly, everyone [who is in the studio] will get that feeling which take is best. You’ll have the technician coming round and going: “Yes! this is the one!” It’s like cinema, sometimes directors will do 30-40 takes to get the best version of the scene. Charlie Chaplin would do 70 takes sometimes. My first collaboration was with Jean Kluger and we created quite a few hits. He taught me to write songs, he’s a little older than me, and he would always say: “You don’t learn in schools, you learn by listening.” I’ve lived by that I think throughout my career. I like to use a recording studio, because even if you’re alone you still need an engineer or someone in there to help you. When you record live, you can have unexpected things happen. You can programme, but you don’t have surprises — it’s just about layering. There can’t be any surprise in layers, it’s all definite from the start – you’re the prisoner of the tempo and rhythm. If you make a mistake, you can get rid of it… but that is terribly boring.
So you want more mistakes in music?
If you listen to all of the great records from the ’60s and ’70s they are full of mistakes, but you don’t notice – when the tempo switches it’s exciting! If the volume is off slightly, it just makes the record better – it comes alive when people come together. I think the new recording technology isn’t as exciting, but the accidents have to come in processing. I used to work at the console in a studio and when you have a lot of faders you can still make little mistakes when you’re mixing. But when you’re using automated processes, that you can listen back to and correct — you’ll correct everything. I stopped using it, the more you correct the flatter it becomes. One thing I will say about technology, is that the CD killed the music. You know, [sings the hook to ‘Video Killed The Radio Star‘]. I met the guys that wrote that song actually (Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley) when I was when I was releasing the Gibson Brothers with Island Records in London. But yes [sings new version: “CD killed the music”].
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Can you tell us about some of your favourite collaborations?
I worked with very few artists really, but the Gibson Brothers and La Compagnie Créole — I worked with them heavily. I was involved in producing the songs, the look, the shows. At the time it was good, when it was not good anymore then I stopped it. Creating songs, you can only do it if the relationship is good. I had good relationships though, like the track I made with Black Blood — ‘Aie a Mwana‘, but that was only one recording session, one time.
You said then you were involved in the look, can you tell us about that?
I think the look is important. When we started with the Gibson Brothers, they were French but they wanted to have that American look. They came to the studio with Chevrolets, every three months they’d change cars — always second hand, but different cars. Whereas I’d be turning up to the studio with my old Volkswagen that lasted 20 years. [Laughs] The first look they had was these pink jackets with mirrors, they looked like stars. I bought those jackets.