Daft Punk Daydreams

Oh man. Daft Punk. 

I’ve a lot to thank them for. I first listened to them in eighth grade, about seven years ago. I was struggling with anxiety, though I couldn’t label it at the time.

Instead I kept to my school work, throwing everything I had into being as “smart” as I could be. Around this same time I got my first iPhone. I could listen to music more often, untethered from my laptop — though I still used that as my music source when I was working on homework. 

I listened to a pretty wide variety of things, but on the forefront of my list was video game music and Daft Punk.

The earliest memory I have of listening to Daft Punk was just after I got some brand new earbuds for Christmas. They were the nicest earbuds I’d ever used. I know I’d heard of Daft Punk before that day because I remember picking them specifically to test the earbuds’ low ends. 

Still, I remember very clearly the experience of turning “Aerodynamic” on for the first time sitting in a Toys ‘R’ Us parking lot. It was… cathartic. Yeah. Something about the repetition, the tolling of a bell, the grit. It all spoke to me. 

Looking back, this experience is one of the big reasons I got into making music in the first place. It was one of those moments where you unconsciously realize what it is you want to do with your life.

Daft Punk provided a sense of escapism. A sense of release. They were one of the only artists that I remember thinking “I want to remember this name and listen to more of their music.” 

Usually any new songs I found were just neat one-off tunes from bands I didn’t really get behind, but Daft Punk was an aesthetic I adored. An aesthetic I love and cherish. 

I’d call it emotion in what should supposedly be emotionless — I suppose that’s as concise as I can be with it. When I bring my own tendencies to daydream to Daft Punk’s early albums, I find that I get the same sense of release that one gets when going to bed for the night and dreaming good dreams.