Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter calls his Tron: Legacy score depressing and limiting

Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk has described writing the score for the 2010 film Tron: Legacy as both depressing and limiting, NME reported on August 8, speaking on a recent episode of The A24 Podcast with Dev Hynes, also known as Blood Orange.

Director Joseph Kosinski, who went on to make Top Gun: Maverick and F1, initially wanted an entirely electronic score. Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo pushed back and chose a full symphony orchestra instead. "We're going to Hollywood. We're gonna use Fantasia. Like, it's Disney. So it's like a full orchestra," Bangalter recalled telling him.

The choice created its own problems. Bangalter said he spent months developing synth tones for the score, only to keep running into the same wall: "Anything that was in the medium range, frequency-wise, would conflict with dialogue," he said, forcing the duo back toward a more traditional approach.

The compromise stuck with him. "It's always very depressing when you have all these ideas and end up going back to a more traditional way," he said, adding that film scoring often comes down to common sense: knowing when an idea simply doesn't work against the picture.

The Tron: Legacy soundtrack was Daft Punk's first full film score, and Bangalter called it, at the time, the most challenging and complex project the duo had taken on. It got a complete edition with previously unavailable tracks for the film's 10th anniversary in 2020 and a vinyl reissue the following year. Daft Punk split in 2021 after 28 years together, but their music hasn't gone quiet: their track One More Time served as France's official goal music at this summer's FIFA World Cup.

Bangalter ruled out a Daft Punk reunion earlier this year, saying there were still other things to explore outside the duo. The Tron: Legacy interview arrives as he keeps surfacing in new projects, following an unconfirmed pairing with Fred again.. and Joy Anonymous reported earlier this month, part of a steady stream of activity in our electronic coverage.