Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo

Guillaume Emmanuel "Guy-Manuel" de Homem-Christo ([ɡi manɥɛl də ɔmɛm kʁisto]; born 8 February 1974) is a French musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, DJ, and film director. He is one half of the French house music duo Daft Punk, along with Thomas Bangalter. He has also produced several works from his record label Crydamoure with label co-owner Éric Chedeville.

Homem-Christo was born on 8 February 1974 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He is the great-great-grandson of Portuguese military figure Francisco Manuel Homem Cristo, who was forced into exile in France in 1910. Homem-Christo was given a toy guitar and keyboard at around seven years of age. He was eventually given an electric guitar at age 14, and uses a guitar when writing music.

Homem-Christo met Thomas Bangalter when they were attending the Lycée Carnot school together in 1987. It was there that they discovered their mutual fascination for films and music of the 1960s and 70s, "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.

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 also a co-founder of the group Le Knight Club, along with Éric Chedeville from Pumpking Records. They are the founders of the record label Crydamoure, named after a variation of the French phrase "cri d'amour" or "cry of love" in English. Crydamoure also published works by Homem-Christo's brother Paul de Homem-Christo, under the name Play Paul. In regards to Crydamoure, Homem-Christo stated:

He produced Sébastien Tellier's 2008 album titled Sexuality. In 2010, Homem-Christo worked with SebastiAn on the Kavinsky song "Nightcall". 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, Homem-Christo and Bangalter collaborated on two tracks with 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. In the years since, Homem-Christo worked on the title track to Charlotte Gainsbourg's fifth studio album and a collaboration with The Weeknd and Gesaffelstein.

Homem-Christo has two children.

Both Homem-Christo and Bangalter have no interest in being celebrities or discussing their private lives. In the rare events of interviews, Bangalter does 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:

Production credits

Albums

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

Tracks