Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo

Guillaume Emmanuel de Homem-Christo was born on 8 February 1974 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. His parents owned and ran an advertising company together in Paris, and his father gained an appreciation for music by playing rock bands and records such as Led Zeppelin and the Eagles' "Hotel California" every Sunday, exposing Homem-Christo to Western rock influences from a young age. Homem-Christo has Portuguese ancestry, and he is the great-grandson of Portuguese poet Homem Cristo Filho, as well as the great-great-grandson of Portuguese military figure Francisco Manuel Homem Cristo, who was forced into exile in France in 1910. He has a younger brother, Paul, who is also a producer and DJ who goes under the name Play Paul. Homem-Christo was given a toy guitar and keyboard at around age 7. He was also given an electric guitar at age 14; he still uses a guitar when writing music.

Homem-Christo met Thomas Bangalter when they attended the Lycée Carnot in Paris in 1987. It was from there that they discovered their mutual fascination for films and music of the 1960s and 1970s: "very basic cult teenager things, from Easy Rider to the Velvet Underground". The two and Laurent Brancowitz eventually joined to form an indie rock trio called Darlin', in which Homem-Christo performed guitar. Bangalter felt that "It was still maybe more a teenage thing at that time. It's like, you know, everybody wants to be in a band." A negative review referred to their music as "a daft punky thrash", which inspired Bangalter and Homem-Christo's new name. The two soon became interested in electronic dance music after going to a club in 1992. Homem-Christo is credited for designing the Daft Punk logo in the liner notes of Homework (1997), the duo's first album. Regarding Daft Punk's creative process and working with Bangalter, Homem-Christo commented that "he's much more of the tech guy than I am. We did everything together. But I have more distance". He added, "I'm more critical of everything we do. We're two-halves of one solid combination. There's balance there – completeness between us, yeah". Homem-Christo is a co-founder of the group Le Knight Club, along with Éric Chedeville from Pumpking Records. They were also the founders of former record label Crydamoure, until it became defunct in 2003. The label's name, Crydamoure, is named after a variation of the French phrase "cri d'amour" or "cry of love" in English. Crydamoure published works by Homem-Christo's brother Paul, under the name Play Paul. They also published records by Deelat, Raw Man, The Eternals, and many others. In regards to Crydamoure, Homem-Christo stated: Myself and Thomas have the same tastes in music. When I make records for Crydamoure it's a different style than what may end up as Daft Punk music. I know what Thomas likes, and he knows what I like. Crydamoure is not so production oriented, even if it's not too far from Daft Punk. The Daft Punk material is more orchestrated and slightly different. I may be working on a sample for Crydamoure, and maybe no one else can hear the difference, but we know. It's very precise. Daft Punk produced three projects in the 2000s, their sophomore album Discovery (2001), their third album Human After All (2005), and the soundtrack to TRON: Legacy (2010). The duo also did a world tour in 2006 and 2007, eventually releasing an accompanying live album, Alive 2007. In between these projects, Homem-Christo produced Sébastien Tellier's 2008 album Sexuality. He also has one cameo for each track, 'Kilometer' and 'Divine'. In 2010, Homem-Christo and Bangalter were admitted into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an order of merit of France. The two were individually awarded the rank of Chevalier (knight). Homem-Christo also worked with Sebastian on the Kavinsky song "Nightcall", released in 2010. In 2012, he was featured on Tellier's album My God Is Blue on the track "My Poseidon". Following the release of Daft Punk's fourth album Random Access Memories in 2013, Homem-Christo and Bangalter collaborated on two tracks with Canadian artist the Weeknd, "Starboy" and "I Feel It Coming", with the former gaining the duo their first number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and the latter, co-written by Chedeville of Le Knight Club, peaking at number four. Homem-Christo and Bangalter both contributed writing and production credits to the 2017 song "Overnight" by Parcels. This would be Daft Punk's final main production work as a duo, as Daft Punk would go on to split in February 2021 after years of inactivity. Homem-Christo worked on the title track to Charlotte Gainsbourg's fifth studio album Rest, released in 2017. He contributed to the 2018 song "Hurt You", a collaboration with the Weeknd and Gesaffelstein. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Homem-Christo created a curated playlist called "Star of a hero" for Italian brand MEDEA, containing tracks from The Beach Boys, the Weeknd, George Duke, and Thundercat, among others. On 22 February 2021, Daft Punk released a video on their YouTube channel titled "Epilogue", featuring an excerpt from their 2006 film Electroma, in which one robot self-destructs and the other walks away, as their song "Touch" plays over a sunset sequence, indicating their disbandment after a 28-year career of performing as their robot personas. Daft Punk's long-time publicist Kathryn Frazier later confirmed that the duo had split up. Friend and collaborator Todd Edwards later clarified that Bangalter and Homem-Christo remain active separately. The two still share a studio and equipment. In July 2023, American rapper Travis Scott released "Modern Jam," written and produced by Homem-Christo, from his album Utopia. In November 2025, Spanish singer Rosalía released "Reliquia," co-written by Homem-Christo, from her album Lux.

Homem-Christo has two children: a daughter and a son. He and his wife divorced in 2010. Homem-Christo has no interest in being a celebrity or discussing his private life. Even though his former bandmate Thomas Bangalter had started making more public appearances after Daft Punk's disbandment, Homem-Christo remains largely out of the spotlight. In the rare events of interviews, Bangalter did the majority of talking to journalists. With regard to working and collaborating with other artists, Homem-Christo sees it as a matter of timing and creativity, rather than fame and opportunity. He once stated in an interview: Well that depends on what we want to do at the time. It depends. I don't know. Yeah, exactly. There are all these considerations you're talking about. But yes, it just depends on the moment you're asked. If you feel it and if you feel something creatively interesting then it's possible. For everything that we're asked to do, if we have a creative answer and think we might bring something to a project then we can do it. But if we don't have any ideas or don't think we can push the envelope by creating with anybody... well, if you take Sébastien Tellier for example it is one of the few collaborations where I had the idea that I could do something and bring something to it. But it's all about the moment and the situation. When it feels right to us, when we feel it we do it, and when we have the time. There's so many factors.

Waves (2000) Waves II (2003) Sexuality by Sébastien Tellier (2008)