Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’ Channels Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Brothers
Todd Edwards is the next featured collaborator in the ongoing Creators Project series on Daft Punk‘s upcoming album, Random Access Memories. In this clip, the New Jersey house producer talks about working with the French electronic duo and exploring the history of their genre. Turns out, this was a particularly impactful project for Edwards: he spent three weeks in Los Angeles working with Daft Punk and the experience was so inspiring, he moved there.
“They wanted to pick up this West Coast vibe, and at first, I didn’t know what that meant. I’m from Jersey; I’ve gone to LA like twice in my life,” says Edwards. “But they were saying, like, you know, going back to the time of Fleetwood Mac, and the Doobie Brothers and. . . the Eagles.”
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Edwards praises Daft Punk for their vision, and he’s one to know: he co-wrote and sang on the duo’s Discovery track “Face to Face,” a process he repeated on Random Access Memories. Like previously featured collaborator Giorgio Moroder, Edwards was highly intrigued with Daft Punk’s interest in working with instruments. “They reversed gears and went back to a time that no one’s really focusing on,” he says. “I think that younger producers are gonna be blown away by what they’re hearing. It’s not gonna be possible to do what they did, but you can take ideas from that. . . let’s experiment with analog gear again.”
Though Edwards feels Daft Punk are extremely forward-thinking, he also notes that the duo are reaching back into history for old-school methods. “They’re future classics; they brought the sound of something that’s been lost for a long time. Ten to 15 years ago, you had to make your own music, whether it was picking out samples or playing keyboards or whatever instruments you were using; it was all coming from inside you or inside someone else,” he says. “When the music becomes focused on the effects that are being used or the presets of sounds, it’s just computer – there’s no soul there. It’s kind of ironic: two androids are bringing soul back to music.”
Random Access Memories will be out May 21st.