Daft Punk at Industry. Reminiscing with Matt C.

In the spirit of celebrating Daft Punk’s epic career, I thought I would share just one of many stories with you. It was 1997 and I was sitting at my desk at Industry at some point on a weekday afternoon. I honestly can’t remember exactly how the phone call came about but I took a call from Pedro, who was Daft Punk’s manager. We had a great conversation and he told me that DJ Sneak had been raving about the club in France and that Daft Punk wanted to play our venue when they came to Toronto on their world tour. I asked him how much they would like to get paid and he simply said, ‘how much do you pay Sneak?’ Well Sneak used to spin for us for a fraction of his usual fee so I told him the number and he said, ‘Fine. They’ll take you up on that offer.’ My jaw dropped as this was probably the best negotiation and also the easiest that I have been involved with to this day. Their music was already making waves globally, but at this point, was only really known by the DJs of the world. Their video for Da Phunk (the one with the dog in it) had yet to be released. Of course, as everyone knows, the album was an absolutely massive success and caught on immediately.

The show at Industry was one of the best that we ever had. The place was packed to the rafters and it was a night that no one in attendance will ever forget. This week, I feature the track that I played most often off of their Homework album, ‘Alive.’ Enjoy! I have attached a couple of photos courtesy of Joga (thanks for documenting so many nights) from DJ Sneak’s birthday party at Industry.

The first one is with Thomas Bangalter on the left and DJ Sneak on the right and to the right of Sneak you can catch me smiling from ear to ear. The second photo has Junior Sanchez on the right and me making some sort of announcement as I always did. I actually sang Happy Birthday to Sneak on the microphone to the entire packed house that evening. To top it off, Thomas, myself, the Gerbz and Rory Levy all took off to Negril, Jamaica the next day for an impromptu vacation. What great memories!