Les secrets des Daft Punk

Pitchfork: Can you talk a bit about your live setup? What are you guys actually doing up there? How much room is there for improvisation?

TB: Our setup is very different than the live shows we were doing in 1997. Instead of many of the old drum machines, synths, and sequencers we were using at the time, we created similar virtual kits in a software-based environment, controlling the music computers that are offstage via ethernet remote controls inside our pyramid, with moog synthesizers alongside. We have always been thinking about different ways to perform electronic music, i.e. music made with machines. In the end, we really consider ourselves operators of the system that we built for this show.

The show, which is as much a musical experience than a visual experience, is very structured and precise, following a strict setlist. It uses in a way an abstract narration. There is indeed a level of improvisation where we can distort and shuffle the music patterns, samples, and loops in each phase of the show within fixed cue points, but at the same time there is a constant result that we are trying to achieve each night while performing and operating our system-- quite similar in spirit to a broadway show for example: If you go see a musical two nights in a row, the performances are different yet similar.