Tiesto Disses Daft Punk, Hangs Out With A Pioneer

Michael Buckner / Karl Walter, Getty Images

Ahh, as if the EDM world wasn’t already ablaze with drama. We here at EDMTunes truly try to stay away from the drama and TMZ style reporting, but this, this is big. Speaking on the phone with the Huffington Post about EDC Vegas and the chance to meet electronic music pioneer Girgio Moroder, Tiësto started dropping bombs about Daft Punk’s new album, saying :

“It got so much attention because it’s so different and it’s an attitude album, It’s cool to like Daft Punk. Even if you’re not into the song, as soon as you hear [“Get Lucky’”], you see all the cool people go, ‘Oh yeah, this is cool, that’s my song,’ and they don’t really even enjoy it. I’m destroying them now,” Tiësto catches himself. “Sorry Daft Punk.”


He goes on to say that while he likes the band’s old stuff and solo productions by Thomas Bangalter, the new stuff isn’t so good, citing the Tron soundtrack and now Random Access Memories.

“But because it’s Daft Punk and they’re supposed to be cool and they had the amazing pyramid at Coachella a couple of years ago and the helmets — they’re fucking cool. But the music doesn’t deliver on the hype so much. Tiësto says he’s observed this firsthand at a party. “Get Lucky” came on and these girls got excited and started dancing to it so he approached them. I said, ‘Lemme ask you a question; do you really like this song?’ And they went quiet and were like, ‘Uh…it’s all right, it’s all right,’” he laughs. “That’s what I mean. Because it’s Daft Punk and we want to believe the hype; we are cool people so we have to think this is cool.”

I have to agree, the music doesn’t meet the hype. But then again, what could? Trying to top Discovery for Daft Punk is like the Beatles trying to top Sgt. Peppers, Pink Floyd trying to top Dark Side or Zeppelin trying to top Led Zeppelin IV; it’s impossible. Especially with the kind of hype and pressure that was put on it. For months people were talking about the legends coming out of retirement to blow our minds, to give us music gold, to save the industry from the dullness that was setting in. They were supposed to change the game, called in to be our heroes to save EDM from becoming mainstream and eventually redundant. But, contrary to popular belief, they are just two guys, and they can only change the scene so many times. Daft Punk changed the game once, and it’s up to the new producers on the scene to change it.

But in EDM there are certain taboos, and denouncing anything the kings of the land do is definitely #1. No matter what we think of Daft Punk, we don’t say it out loud and we definitely do not say it on record. With RAM Daft Punk went in a new direction to expand the scope of EDM music. It may be met with brashness, but only time will tell how much we truly enjoy the album.

As for Tiësto, he’s one of the top 5 DJ’s in the world right now and the highest grossing, so he is entitled to say whatever he wants about whoever he wants. Do I recommend saying anything negative about Daft Punk? No. But then again, I don’t think he really cares, because he got to meet one of the pioneers of electronic music Giorgio Moroder at EDC Vegas. Moroder watched Tiësto’s entire 3 hour set and then went backstage for shots with the DJ. How cool is that?

“He’s one of my youth heroes, he’s such a talented producer and to meet him, yeah, it’s one of those things, like, so cool. He comes to my show and he stayed the whole set actually; I played for three hours and he was there for three hours. He’s in his seventies and still rocking strong. We did shots together and it was fun to hang out together. I was honoured that he came actually.”

Source: Huffingtonpost