Daft Punk win the Record of the Year at the 2014 Grammys
Earlier today, the band's publicist confirmed the news after the release of a farewell video, Epilogue. The news came as a shock to fans around the world, even though the band has not released any new material together since 2013. But then, they have only produced four studio albums across the 28 years they have been together as Daft Punk. Around the time of their debut 1997 album, Homework, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo also began to hide their faces.
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Even though they have appeared in public with masks or helmets since then, there is one easy way to tell them apart – Thomas is notably taller.Â
They announced the split by rereleasing video footage from the 2013 album Random Access Memories where their helmets are also colour-coded – gold for Guy-Manuel and silver for Thomas.
And one other piece of trivia before we look behind the masks: their 2013 smash paid hommage to the funk and dance sounds of the 1970s and 1980s but did you know that Thomas' father wrote the 1979 European chart topper D.I.S.C.O. by Ottawan?
READ MORE:Â Daft Punk announce split: French duo release Epilogue farewell video - Watch it here
Daft Punk bandmates Guy and Thomas met in 1987 at secondary school in Paris.
In 1992, they started a short-lived pop-rock trio called Darlin' with Laurent Brancowitz. All three played guitar but they found little success.
Thoams later said: "The rock n' roll thing we did was pretty average, I think. It was so brief, maybe six months, four songs and two gigs and that was it."
Perhaps the most important thing to come out of the experience was a bad review from Melody Maker which called their music "a daft punky thrash."
Thomas and Guy-Manuel ended the band but kept the inspiration for a new name.
They formed Daft Punk in 1993, exploring a new drum-machine and synth sound.
Early singles Da Funk and Alive appeared on 1997 debut album Homework and throughout those early years the pair actually toured and performed without masks. But after the album's release, they no longer showed their faces and retreated from interviews and public appearances.