What are some of the influences that came into putting [Random Access Memories] together?
Thomas Bangalter: The idea behind this record was to focus on the eclecticism and variety of the music that we like and actually not thinking in any kind of formatted way about music or any musical genres, and that's why we really like this chaotic — initially chaotic — juxtapositions of all the different collaborators that worked on the record and all the different styles and different eras that the music was pointing towards. So we really liked the idea of breaking all the barriers between these musical genres. It's a little bit like a hard drive where things are fragmented and next to something completely different.
A lot of these collaborators are from the golden age of '70s and disco. Is that something you were pulling from when you put thought into this record?
Bangalter: Not really. It's true that we very instinctively and spontaneously reached out to musicians that have touched us, and which we really love. And whether it's Nile Rodgers, or Giorgio Moroder, or Paul Williams, they are really iconic artists and iconic producers and songwriters, and it was a blast to have the ability to interact with them and ... create something new. Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder are really the foundation for modern pop music and dance music, and we were really excited by the idea of getting with them and doing new music together, and also preserving a certain craftsmanship that we loved from these records from the '70s or early '80s that were special for us. But we really tried to create something more composite, something that didn't really exist. And that's the juxtaposition and the idea ofRandom Access Memories: the juxtaposition of different ideas, of putting a Panda Bear from Animal Collective and Julian Casablancas from The Strokes next to Paul Williams or Nile Rodgers.
I'm curious, are there any examples of these records from that era that we can take a listen to?
Bangalter: "Good Times" from Chic is definitely one of these records that we wouldn't stop listening to when we were 10 or 11 years old. It's really what it's about and what dance music and disco music is about, which is having a good time.
So you said you were pretty young when you first heard this song. I'm curious after all these years, does it conjure up the same feelings you had when you first heard it?
Bangalter: It's timeless and universal music. We get the same feeling we get when we were kids, for sure. And I think it's the same for everybody. If you drop that song in any club or birthday party, people are going to fill the dance floor right away. It's instant effect.
And this is something you wanted to bring to your record?
Bangalter: I think it's something we try to do in our music: We are making the music we would like to listen to. So making music for us is a very personal process. We aren't really making music for the audience or thinking about people's expectations. So the music on this record is really the music we wanted to make because it's the music we wanted to listen to. It's true we wanted to create music that could fit in some timeless place or timeless zone, where we can keep a focus on an instant effect that would last. So that's why our creative process takes a lot of time, sometimes years making records, because we like making a song or making a track and letting it rest and seeing if it does indeed have that lasting power.
So you feel that you need to take a step back after you've taken the first step toward a song?
Bangalter: Yes, that's something we usually like. Sometimes we feel this thing instantly, but sometimes we like to let it rest a little bit, like wine. A track like "One More Time" on our second album, Discovery, we recorded it in 1998. While we were making the rest of the record, it sat on a shelf for almost two and-a-half to three years, and by the time the single was out in late 2000, it became the sound of 2000 or 2001. But it had been made three years before, and some people are still listening to it today. But we felt like, at least internally, we had tested the song and somehow tried its longevity internally before releasing it.
This is a very dance-y track with that 4/4 beat underneath. I noticed that not everything on the new record has that 4/4 kick necessarily. I'm curious, did you feel that you wanted to make a record that included things that didn't need to be played in a club? Are there any examples of songs that you can think of that are better suited for bedroom listening or places outside of a dancefloor?
Bangalter: On our albums, there has always been a fraction of the record that is oriented to the dancefloor and "One More Time" is a song like that. And other pieces of music that are not necessarily four-on-the-floor records — a track like "Something About Us" on Discovery — can be maybe similar in tone to new tracks on the record, like "Game Of Love" or "Within" or "Beyond." And at the same time, "Lose Yourself To Dance" or "Get Lucky" might have certain similarities with the spirit of "One More Time" or "Around The World." We usually say that "Around The World" was a song inspired by disco and by Chic, and there are definitely similarities between "Around The World" and "Get Lucky." The main thing is that we really replaced the drum machines by live drumming, but apart from that, the music comes from the same place. We're making music like the soundtracks of our lives and we don't really associate it with a certain environment where music can be listened to in a bedroom or a dancefloor. But this album, Random Access Memories, felt for us like a musical journey, where we were trying to break the different barriers and the different genres and not think really stylistically about four-on-the-floor or not. The process was more spontaneous than that. It's maybe focusing more on the emotion. And if you take a song like "Retrograde," from James Blake, that we really like, when we listen to the song, we don't think about whether it's something we listen to in a bedroom or a dancefloor or in a living room, rather than just feeling touched by the power of the music, whether we're listening on headphones walking down the street or during night times with friends.
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