Background and career
Thomas Bangalter (French pronunciation: [tɔmɑ bɑ̃ɡaltɛʁ]; born 3 January 1975) is a French musician, record producer, DJ, and composer. He is best known as one-half of former French electronic music duo Daft Punk, alongside Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. He has also recorded and released music as a member of the trio Stardust, the duo Together, and as a solo artist. Bangalter's work has influenced a wide range of artists in various genres. Bangalter owned the music label Roulé until its liquidation in 2018. Since Daft Punk's breakup in 2021, he has made more public appearances, and released music under his solo label, Alberts & Gothmaan, an anagram of his name. He has provided compositions for several films, leading the soundtrack to Irréversible, as well as several ballets, including Mythologies and Mirage. Outside of music production, his credits include film director and cinematographer. Bangalter is the son of former French music composer and artist Daniel Bangalter, known professionally as Daniel Vangarde.
Bangalter was born on 3 January 1975 in Paris. He began playing the piano at the age of 6, taking lessons from a music staff member of the Paris Opera. Bangalter has stated that his parents were strict in keeping up his practice, for which he later thanked them. His mother, Thérèse Thoreux, was a classical dancer and choreographer, as well as his aunt and uncle. His father, Daniel Bangalter, known throughout his professional career as Daniel Vangarde, was a songwriter and producer for performers such as the Gibson Brothers, Ottawan and Sheila B. Devotion. As expressed by Bangalter, "I never had any intention to do what my father was doing". Bangalter's father is French Jewish, but the family did not consider themselves religious.
Bangalter met Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo while attending the Lycée Carnot in 1987. They discovered their mutual fascination with films and music of the 1960s and 1970s, "very basic cult teenager things, from Easy Rider to the Velvet Underground." They and Laurent Brancowitz eventually joined to form an indie rock trio called Darlin', in which Bangalter performed bass guitar. Bangalter felt that "It was still maybe more a teenage thing at that time. It's like, you know, everybody wants to be in a band." A negative review from Melody Maker magazine referred to their music as "a daft punky thrash", which inspired Bangalter and de Homem-Christo's new band name. Shortly before reaching the age of 18, the newly formed Daft Punk became interested in electronic music, which led Brancowitz to leave the group in pursuit of efforts with fellow Parisian band Phoenix. In 1993 Bangalter presented a demo of Daft Punk material to Stuart Macmillan of Slam that led to their first single "The New Wave". Daniel Vangarde provided valuable advice for the duo. "He helped us by presenting to us what the situation was with the record industry and how it worked. Knowing that, we made certain choices in order to achieve what we wanted." Vangarde was thanked for his efforts in the liner notes of Homework. The title of the album is partially attributed to the fact that Homework was recorded in Bangalter's bedroom. As he remarked, "I had to move the bed into another room to make space for the gear." In the years following the 1997 release, Bangalter focused on his own record label, Roulé ("rolled" in French). The label released singles by Romanthony, Roy Davis Jr., and Bangalter's own solo material among others. In 1996, Bangalter was in a DJ collective known as Da Mongoloids, consisting of Armand Van Helden, Bangalter, and Junior Sanchez, under the record label Strictly Rhythm. They played DJ sets, and Van Helden released a solo song named "Spark Da Meth" under Da Mongoloids' name, crediting Bangalter as a special thanks. Bangalter's solo works were released on two vinyl-only EPs titled Trax on da Rocks in 1995 and 1998 respectively. The songs "Outrun", "Extra Dry", and "Turbo" from the EPs later appeared in the video game Midnight Club II. The track "On da Rocks" was featured in a "Da Funk" behind-the-scenes video included with D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes. Bangalter collaborated with Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond and in 1998 released the club hit "Music Sounds Better with You" under the name Stardust. Just as for Homework, the single was recorded in Bangalter's home studio. Around the same time of "Music Sounds Better with You", Bangalter co-produced Bob Sinclar's second single titled "Gym Tonic". The single caused a minor dispute as it contained samples from a Jane Fonda workout tape, which led Fonda herself to refuse permission for the single to be released officially. A British act called Spacedust released a re-recorded version of the track, titled "Gym and Tonic" under East West Records to wider commercial success. "Gym and Tonic" topped the UK Singles Chart in Spacedust's native United Kingdom in October 1998 after "Music Sounds Better with You" had peaked at number two on the same chart two months earlier. During 1998, Bangalter and de Homem-Christo collaborated with Romanthony in what would become the first of the Discovery sessions. One of the tracks produced, "One More Time" became a hit Daft Punk single in 2000. Bangalter also performed on a Yamaha CS-60 synthesizer on the track "Embuscade" in Phoenix's debut album United, which was released the same year. He also teamed up with DJ Falcon under the name Together to release their eponymous 2000 single.
Bangalter produced the score to the film Irréversible, released in 2002. A soundtrack album of the same name was later released featuring Bangalter's tracks as well as the works by Gustav Mahler, Étienne Daho, and Beethoven used in the film. North American pressings of the album feature only the Bangalter tracks. Three of the tracks from the Trax on da Rocks EPs were released on the album: "Outrun", "Ventura", and "Extra Dry". 2002 also saw the release of the Bangalter-produced track "113 Fout La Merde" for French hip hop group 113. Bangalter can be seen dancing in the music video, wearing his Daft Punk helmet.
Together released the single "So Much Love to Give" in 2003. The Eric Prydz track "Call on Me" based on Steve Winwood's song "Valerie" was mistakenly thought to be a Together release. According to DJ Falcon, Together had previously sampled "Valerie" similarly in their solo mixes prior to Prydz's track, but they had no intention to release it as a single. In 2005 Daft Punk released their third studio album, Human After All. As de Homem-Christo noted, "Every album we've done is tightly linked with our lives. [...] The internal, personal stuff Thomas went through during Human After All made it closer to where he was at the time". Bangalter was the sound effects director for the 2009 film Enter the Void, his second work with filmmaker Gaspar Noé following Irréversible. He initially had been approached by Noé to compose the soundtrack of Enter the Void, but Bangalter was preoccupied with work on the Tron: Legacy score at the time. Bangalter instead provided various clips of drones and ambiance for the film to be accompanied by music by other artists from the 1960s and 70s. He is billed in the credits as sound effects director, and the film features his track "Désaccords" originally composed for Irréversible. In 2010, Bangalter and Homem-Christo were admitted into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an order of merit of France. The two were individually awarded the rank of Chevalier (knight). In 2011, Bangalter directed and choreographed a short film featuring Élodie Bouchez that served as an advertisement for the fashion line Co. A year later, Bangalter scored the short film First Point directed by Richard Phillips and starring Lindsay Lohan.
In 2013, Bangalter and Homem-Christo released their fourth studio album, Random Access Memories. One of the collaborators on the album, Giorgio Moroder, recalled that the duo had a perfectionist approach; he had recorded his vocal contribution on multiple microphones despite the fact that only Bangalter would notice the difference. In 2016, Daft Punk produced and co-wrote two songs from The Weeknd's third studio album, "Starboy" and "I Feel It Coming," the former of which became the duo's first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In June 2017, Daft Punk also produced and co-wrote a single for the Australian electropop band Parcels. Bangalter was one of the producers on Arcade Fire's album Everything Now, which was released in July 2017. In 2018, he worked with Noé again, providing two tracks for the film Climax, including the previously unreleased “Sangria.” He also co-produced and co-wrote two tracks from Matthieu Chedid's 2019 album Lettre infinie, while also mastering the album. Later in 2018, Alan Braxe and Benjamin Diamond revealed that they and Bangalter returned to the studio to work on a remastered version of "Music Sounds Better with You" for the song's twentieth anniversary. Bangalter's label Roulé was liquidated the same year. The remaster released on 28 June 2019.
