Woodkid, portrait of an eminently well-chosen artist by Mylène Farmer

• Mylène Farmer unveiled her new title this Friday, Forever.

• A new track composed and produced by the artist Woodkid.

• From her childhood in Lyon to her collaborations with Lana Del Rey, Rihanna or Moby through her demanding music, why did Mylène Farmer make the right choice?

Four years after her last album

, Mylène Farmer unveiled her new title this Friday on music platforms, composed and produced by her friend Woodkid.

Titled

, the first extract from the singer's twelfth album, on which Woodkid worked alongside Moby, Archive and AaRO, tackles, on a heady rhythm, a painful and vengeful breakup.

“It's going extremely well.

We can't talk about it, because I imagine you know the secret that surrounds this project, but it is an absolutely wonderful project.

She's great !

It's an honor for me,” Woodkid commented on Radio Canada on July 5.

Portrait of the artist from Lyon, of Polish origin, with multiple internationally recognized glasses and caps, who fits so well into the world of Mylène Farmer!

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A child “fascinated by things visual and sound”

Born on March 16, 1983, Yoann Lemoine, known as Woodkid, was born in Tassin-la-Demi-Lune (Rhône) and grew up around Lyon, near Villefranche-sur-Saône.

“I was born to a French father and a Polish mother.

My childhood was marked by summer trips to Poland, just after the fall of the Wall, ”he explains to

.

Eastern European imagery is an influence he still claims in his work today.

And to continue: “I have always been fascinated by visual and sound things.

As a child, I spent hours analyzing the shadows cast, understanding how it worked.

I tried to put my eyes at the height of a glass to cancel the perspective.

»

His father, an advertiser, gave him a Macintosh as a teenager: "I learned Photoshop and started making digital images," he told

in 2020. He learned about applied arts at the Emile-Cohl school in Lyon where he obtained his designer designer diploma with honors.

He then moved to Great Britain to study screen printing at the University of Swindon.

A “lucky” music video director

He moved to Paris in 2004 and cut his teeth working on the film

for Luc Besson and understood that he could not be “employed under someone's orders.

He made a series of sketches for Sofia Coppola for the film

in 2006. "The drawing frustrated me with its lack of movement, so I started making films," he explains to Liberation in 2013.

In 2007, he directed his first clip,

for Axelle Renoir.

"I first made music videos for friends, then for Yelle, and then word of mouth worked: Moby, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Drake, Lana del Rey", sums up -he.

In particular, we owe him the clips for

pour Yelle,

for Nolween Leroy,

for Moby,

and

by Lana Del Rey,

for Drake and Rihanna or even

for Katy Perry.

On the fact that artists from all over the world are snatching his talent, he declares: “The first time, I didn't understand.

When Katy Perry's email arrived in my inbox, I thought it was a joke.

Then when I understood that she really wanted me, I felt lucky and also hyperpaumé “, he is still surprised in the columns of

.

Woodkid, "an old thing that I thought was cool"

“As in parallel, I was trained as a musician, I started to inject music into my videos.

Then in 2008, I met Pierre Le Ny, manager of the independent label GUM, who signed me”, he launched the Woodkid project.

“It's a name that connotes childhood (kid, child), and something organic (wood, le bois).

If I want to make very metallic and very adult music, it becomes a bit more complicated.

It's an old trick that I found cool and that I would change very gladly if I could today, ”he explains to our colleagues from

.

An exposure to “sudden fame”

His first single, released in 2011,

, a success seen over 20 million on YouTube, was featured on the trailer for the video game

, by Dior Homme for the men's fall-winter 2013 collection show and by Volvic for its 2015 advertising campaign.

“Meeting Lana del Rey was founding.

In 2011, his debut single,

, was released alongside mine,

, and we were both exposed to sudden stardom.

We share the same musical values: we try to produce beautiful, serious songs that go beyond the summer hit,” he told

.

A gay artist in search of “meaning”

In 2013, he released his first album, titled

, which sold some 800,000 copies.

Meanwhile, Woodkid was able to manage, or generate, the expectation by distilling two other clips,

, a song taken from the soundtrack

of Xavier Dolan 's film

.

"I'm gay and it's important for me to find meaning in it, especially in my music," he told

.

The piece

is intended for a boy, it's explicit.

It's true that I've been credited with affairs – with Lana Del Rey, for example – but I've never claimed to be with girls.

If there's one thing I've never lied about, it's that one, "said the man who signed the 2010 campaign against AIDS for Aides, Graffiti, seen by more than ten million people. times on YouTube.

"In my first album, I wanted to highlight everything I could have suffered, what we try to impose on boys as strengths: religion, military imagery, and to bring out childhood who goes into rebellion with that… Being homosexual is the rejection of a certain idea of ​​the world, of refusing this model, the desire to build one's identity as one wishes, to do one's shopping in identity, in the masculine and the feminine, not meeting a standard”, he further explains.

He confides: “It's a very intrusive project, very heavy to manage emotionally. I had to refuse very tempting offers, I said no to Madonna and the Rolling Stones.

Not out of snobbery, but to devote myself entirely to the album.

»

In 2013, however, he also signed the artistic direction of the new album of the American artist John Legend, produced by Kanye Wes and that of the clip

by Pharrell Williams as well as the concert of the American artist at Coachella.

A “liberating” dark spirit

In 2014, he released a farewell song entitled

and announced that he now wanted to devote himself to cinema.

A year later, he signed a duet with the Swedish singer Lykke Li,

, for the soundtrack of the film

.

In 2015, artist JR

secured his services for a single titled

and Woodkid collaborated with Rihanna on her album

.

In 2016, he composed the soundtrack of the feature film

by Jonás Cuarón and began his collaboration with Nicolas Ghesquière with whom he did around ten fashion shows.

The same year, he met the experimental pianist Nils Frahm.

They compose together the material of the EP Ellis, a series of minimalist pieces published on the jazz and experimental label ECM.

His second album,

will be released in 2020 in the midst of a pandemic: “I love symbols, it's something very exciting in terms of storytelling.

S16 evokes toxicity, the idea of ​​infection and the murky feelings floating around in the air.

I thought the album was going to come out in a more peaceful moment, but it's true that it takes on another meaning today, ”he analyzes for

.

Percussions, powerful bass and a kind of mechanical roll in the background... No wonder Mylène Farmer chose this artist with a thousand talents to compose her electro-pop requiem evoking control, demons and hell.

"At home, the dark spirit of my work is a liberation", he already explained to

in 2013.

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