In those days, before the internet's mindless voracity, bands could hide away with ease.

Their 1997 debut Homework had profoundly influenced pop music, and the world was eagerly awaiting its successor. I'd been fortunate enough to be sent to LA by The Face Magazine to write the first piece on Discovery and Daft Punk's comeback. As an actress she'd had a brief role in You Only Live Twice. At the time, her mum, Yasuko Nagazumi, was a kind of producer and agent in Hollywood, a fixer who made things happen. I think the property had been found for them by the mother of Miki Berenji, the singer of the 90s indie band Lush. Philippe Zdar of Cassius was also in town and would pop in from time to time on his morning jog. They'd brought their close-knit Daft crew with them from Paris – including Cedric Hervet, manager Pedro 'Busy P' Winter and Gildas Loaec, who now runs Kitsuné – and their stuff was all over the house. A swimming pool adjoined the terrace, shaded by an avocado tree.ĭaft Punk were renting the property while they developed the promotional campaign for their second album, Discovery, for which they'd decided to present themselves as robots. From the terrace you could look down on the house and gardens of a famous actress whose name escapes me. We were up in the Hollywood Hills, in the living room of an attractive, open-plan, possibly mid-century residence overlooking Los Angeles. Bangalter told me this on the evening of November 24, 2000.

Daft punk flat earth