Hey Guy-Manuel and Thomas (Robot 1 and 2),
It's Erik. Before this goes any further, I need to get an awkward fact out of the way so you can read this and not be blindly confused about if we have ever actually met, as we have not, but I am going to write this like we have (I promise I am not crazy, not stalker crazy. But I guess crazy enough to pen this letter). Anyway, I digress. I miss you guys. I feel like it has been forever. In a way it actually has.
I remember when Homework came out when I was five. So like I guess I really don't fully remember when it came out, but still, I remember hearing it for the first time. I loved rock before hearing a few choice tracks from that initial LP, but from that point on my entire taste in music changed. You showed me how cool electronic music could be. I still had no idea the impact it would have on my life. From that point forward, September 9th meant something to me. It was a personal holiday. I know you two know why.
Let's fast forward a few years past Y2K, which thank god never happened, (I assume with you guys being robots that anxiety level was through the roof) to 2001. I really don't know if anyone in hindsight knew what Discovery would do to the entire landscape of music as a whole. The way you set the tone for an entire decade only one year into it was incredible. I remember listening to the album all the way through at age 9 and I remember being so overwhelmed with emotion from song to song. I remember feeling like I could perfectly relate to tracks that did not have a single word in them. While I loved Homework, I fully realized the power of music that day. Discovery in my mind is still the best album ever made. Not just dance music wise, or in this millennium, I mean ever. The story it tells, the innovation that was used and more than anything the shear emotion that comes from it is unlike anything I have heard before or after. I still make a point of listening to it the entire way through at least once a month.
So a few more years go by and Human After All comes out. I'm 13 at this point and now am trying my very best to be popular in middle school. All in all, I am a pretty sociable kid. I have a lot of friends, both boys and girls and do well grade wise. But one thing always set me apart… I liked that weird techno music. My iPod was always loaded with your music, and when my friends would grab an earbud to listen in, they would give me looks of confusion. I knew though, I knew that while their judgement at that point was rough, that one day they would come around. And in 2006 they did.
Coachella 2006. The moment the world stood still. The pyramid, the lights, THE MUSIC. I remember watching your set and cried because I was not there. It was more than anything I could have imagined. My brother went to your show at Coney Island that year and again I cried because I was too young to go. Then the CD came out. I remember ordering the deluxe edition and waiting patiently every day for it to come in the mail, and when it finally did, I sat, locked in my room and listened to the entire thing twice through, my jaw hanging open, goose bumps covering my body, tears forming in my eyes. It was a spiritual experience. It was by far the best music I had ever heard.
I started high school after that and out of no where I hear Kanye West rapping over Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – I got so excited. He was sharing the limelight and bringing your name into the mainstream. Maybe my friends and classmates would understand my obsession now. The opposite happened. I overheard a girl say “I heard this weird version of Kanye's “Stronger” the other night”, as she was talking about the original. I almost sucker punched her in the back of the head but I thought WWDPD and stopped. As high school continued I had my first love and sang “Digital Love” to her on one of our first dates. When we broke up a year later, I cried to “Something About Us” and “Night Vision.”
I started taking acid and ecstasy with my friends and watching Interstella and listening to your music more in depth. Dance music was beginning to become cool in the mainstream now and I could not be happier. I left school early to go see the premiere of Tron. Even though the entire movie made me want to kill myself for that it was so bad, the soundtrack was dope and you guys had a cameo so that made up for it entirely. Honestly I did not even realize up until this point, while writing this article, how much my life has been impacted by you.
Might Have Been As Bad As Cancer
2005-2013 is a long time to wait for a real studio album. We all thought you were done, and I was so sad. At this point in my life when people asked what my craziest dream was, it was to see you live. You appeared at Phoenix in NYC and I watched on YouTube in envy. Then I heard about RAM – I think I might have cried. Honestly I am pretty sure I have cried over the years directly because of you guys more than really anything else, tears of both happiness and sadness. It got so exciting seeing who was involved and finally the day came.
I listened right through the album again and was blown away. It was a fusion of all of your previous albums in one. It was the last 50 years of music summed up in one overarching piece. Then the Grammy… it was vindication for the electronic music as a whole. You legitimized the genre to the public, even if Pharrell tried his best to undo it with his silly hat. Now all that was left was the tour…
But here we are today still no tour. Now that you know everything that you have done for me in my life, I guess you might be able to better understand why I write this now. I definitely do not want to sound desperate but ha ha where have you gone? Did I do something wrong? Can I please have one more chance…
Music needs you two…the world needs you two…I need you two. So please announce that album coming in 2017 and start announcing tour dates again, please. I hope to see you two soon. We should catch up in person. As once again, I miss you.
Best Regards,
Erik Mahal
P.S. – Totally down for an interview if y'all are. Just let me know.
