Daft Punk drummer says a lost album is ‘coming out of the locker’
"I’m told they’re working on it," the band's session drummer said of a shelved 2018 project.
Daft Punk are “working on” a shelved album from 2018, according to their session drummer.
The legendary French duo released their final album Random Access Memories in 2013, before announcing their breakup in 2021. Last year, they released a “drumless” version of Random Access Memories.
In a new interview with alt.news 26:46, drummer Quinn – who worked on Random Access Memories – said he believes that the duo are still working on an album that they initially scrapped back in 2018.
Quinn revealed that he spent “four, five days at Henson studios” with Daft Punk in that year, and that he was “the first person, the very first person” to be called in by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo to work on the record.
He expanded: “Thomas [Bangalter] had this keyboard, and actually had a computer program, and he was just experimenting. He was just hitting things. We were literally just trying to get vibes across. He was on the beautiful mixing board in there. I’m out in the studio, I started on my weird drum set… Whatever he would give me, I would answer and try to come up with something.”
“That unnamed record, I think will be a lot of spontaneous things. I remember playing this one thing — my piano board, the insides of a piano — I put my kick pedal on the strings and played it like a kick drum. I remember those guys really loving that. I don’t know if it’ll make the record. It was the craziest, weird-sounding things.”
Of the likelihood of the album being released, Quinn added: “I keep checking in. I’m told they’re working on it. It’s coming out of the locker. I asked Daft Punk permission to talk about it for another article, ’cause they’re very secretive as you know. And the greatest guys.”
Last year, Bangalter said he was “relieved” with the way that Daft Punk’s time together ended, telling BBC Radio 6 Music: “The question I ask more myself is why we did end it rather than how it could last for so long. It’s a lot like a story or mini saga – sometimes there’s a TV show that has a special place in people’s hearts and it keeps that place, and it runs for one, two, three, four, five, sometimes 10 seasons.
“There’s a moment where it ends and I think it’s actually interesting to have this opportunity to start, have the middle and to end it… [I was] relieved and happy to look back and say: ‘OK, we didn’t mess it up too much.’”