"You can do some real lo-fi stuff with two drum machines and an old synthesiser"
Thomas Bangalter
Yes, we all know the bedroom studio is 'a thing' and that great albums can be created anywhere, these days, right? But 25 years ago? And twice? Damn you Daft Punk, you've done it again.
We knew it. All that time playing with Lego and dreaming about Star Wars in our bedrooms was a waste of time. We should have been building a studio with a couple of old synths and a drum machine, and creating two of the finest albums ever made instead. Taking a leaf out of Daft Punk's book…
There were always rumours that Daft Punk recorded their debut album Homework out of a bedroom studio, but it turns that both this and second LP Discovery were recorded in just that way and – get this – mixed on an old JVC boombox. And all this was around a quarter of a century ago, when DIY music making was in its infancy.
There were, admittedly, big clues back in the day that the duo were taking the DIY route with their first recordings for Virgin Records.
"We're very keen on recording in the bedroom, not going into studios," Thomas Bangalter told Mixmag in 1997. "It was very seductive to do that with a major record company. You can do some real lo-fi stuff with two drum machines and an old synthesiser."
They even told Melody Maker in the same year: "Our album is cheaper than nearly any rock album. No studio expenses, producers, engineers. We're not saying there is a right way or wrong way to go about things, but this is certainly a way."
But no-one really believed the duo's debut album Homework, let alone its follow up Discovery, went anywhere near a bedroom, such was the quality and impact of both long players. However, in a recent BBC Sounds podcast the truth was revealed.
"That little boombox is what we mixed and recorded both Homework and Discovery on"
Thomas Bangalter
"The myth is that Homework was all in your bedroom, is that true?" asked the BBC's Matt Everitt in The First Time… podcast with Thomas Bangalter as his guest.
"It's true," Bangalter replied. "Homework and Discovery were done in the bedroom, in the same flat as I was watching [TV show] Modern Times and we had [Stevie Wonder album] Songs in the Key of Life constantly on the turntables. This small bedroom, [and] my parents had given me this small boombox for my 11th birthday, a JVC boombox with a little graphic equaliser, and I kept this thing.
"One day when we plugged in a few keyboards and samplers, I found that boombox and I put it on the stack of machines. And that little boombox is what we mixed and recorded both Homework and Discovery on. That was the magic one."
So there you have it. If only our parents had given us a boombox when we were 11 years old, rather than Kerplunk, then we too could have had two platinum selling albums to our names.
Bet we'd beat Daft Punk at Kerplunk any day, though, so we're not bitter.
