The Weeknd is one of the great serial collaborators of that time and is generous in his praise for the artists he worked with, ranging from Ariana Grande and Lana Del Rey to Travis Scott and SZA. But when asked about Daft Punk – who announced his separation on Monday, and with whom he collaborated on two songs in 2016 for his album “Starboy” – during interviews for his Variety cover story last year, his voice took on tones of admiration.
“Oh my God – this is different,” he said. “These guys are one of the reasons why I make music, so I can’t even compare them to other people. Their brand and how seriously they take their art and image and everything – they are almost not even real ”, he laughed, taking the irony of that statement in light of the duo’s longstanding concept of being robots. “But seriously, they are very strategic, very intelligent and do not stick to anything they think is wrong.”
The pioneering electronic music duo – Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo – met as a teenager in Paris and formed Daft Punk in 1993. Intentionally enigmatic, the duo has been a pioneering force in dance music since the mid-1990s. 1990, most notably through his debut album “Homework”, his exciting 2006-7 tour (immortalized on the album “Alive 2007”) and his 2013 album “Random Access Memories”, which spawned the single “Get Lucky” (No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100) and won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 2014.
“Working with Daft Punk was like, ‘Whatever you want!’” Weeknd recalled with a laugh. “I just wanted to go into the studio with them – I didn’t even care if we made music, I just wanted to be friends. I met Guy-Man first, at parties in LA, and I actually partyed more with him than I worked with him. He told me, with loud music playing over drinks, how much he liked my job. “
“And we went to the studio in Paris and played both songs – ‘Starboy’ and ‘I Feel It Coming’ – within four days. ‘Starboy’ was his first number one American song, and ‘I Feel It Coming’ is there as one of my favorites for sure. It’s one of those songs that I can’t believe I did, it’s so warm! “
The audience agreed: “Starboy” reached the first place on the Billboard Hot 100 and “I Feel It Coming” reached the second place.