Madeon

Career beginnings

Leclercq started composing music at the age of 11,^[2] producing hands-up under the name of "Deamon" and Wayne Mont until 2010 when he began producing house music under his current name, Madeon, which is an anagram of his previous nickname. He won a remix competition for "The Island" by Pendulum the same year.^[5]

He went on to remix other electronic artists tracks the following year. A clip of him performing his mash-up "Pop Culture", uploaded to YouTube on 11 July 2011, propelled him to international fame. It featured samples from thirty-nine songs mixed together on-the-fly using a Novation Launchpad. The clip went viral and reached over six million views in just a few days.^[2]

During live performances, apart from the Launchpads, he also uses Allen & Heath's Xone:K2, Novation's Launch Control XL and Ableton Live.^[6] His first live performance was in Paris in April 2011 where he was a support act to Yelle,^[2] and his UK debut was at The Nest in Dalston, London where he performed alongside the likes of Jacques Lu Cont.^[6]

Leclercq has been featured several times on 15 Minutes of Fame, a segment of Pete Tong's radio show on BBC Radio 1, with both his debut single "Icarus" and his remix for deadmau5's "Raise Your Weapon" given their first full play on the show. His live recorded performance debut was for Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 gala event in Hull on 27 January 2012, where he played a 20-minute-long set.^[7]

A debut EP was scheduled to be released at the end of 2011,^[2] but then cancelled in favour of multiple singles.^[8] The first single, "Icarus", was released on 24 February 2012 on his independent label popcultur.

In 2012, he was invited to play four major American festivals, the Ultra Music Festival in Miami,^[9] Coachella in California, Lollapalooza in Chicago and Electric Daisy Carnival in New York,^[10] as well as several UK dance music festivals, including the Dance Arena at the BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend; he also provided support for Swedish House Mafia's headlining set at the Milton Keynes Bowl.^[11] Leclercq was listed at number 54 on DJ Mag in 2012.^[12]

Many of his songs have been used in media franchises: "Icarus" was featured in the US show Dancing with the Stars in May 2012 and 21 May 2013 (finals with Aly Raisman) and on the in-game soundtrack of Forza Horizon; "Finale" and "Imperium" have been featured in EA Sports' FIFA 13 and FIFA 15 respectively. "You're On" was also featured in Pro Evolution Soccer 2016. "Finale" has also been included in the opening cinematic of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale; "The City" appears in EA Sports' NHL 15, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and "Technicolor (Club Extended)" in Need for Speed Rivals. "Finale" and Leclercq's remix of "The Night Out" by Martin Solveig were featured on the official soundtrack of ESPN's Winter X Games XVII event in Tignes, France and both received several plays on air.^[13] "Finale" continues to be used as the bumper music for X Games broadcasts.^[14]

In August 2016, the new gameplay trailer of EA Sports' FIFA 17 was released, featuring Madeon's remix of "Song 2" by Blur,^[15] which was also featured in a BBC Radio 1's Essential Mix in 2012. Leclercq's collaboration with Porter Robinson, "Shelter" was included in the FIFA 17 soundtrack.

He toured with Lady Gaga as an opening act during her Born This Way Ball.^[16] Leclercq has cited The Beatles and Daft Punk as his greatest musical influences.^[2] Madeon released a new single on 3 August 2013 titled "Technicolor."^[17] Madeon worked with Lady Gaga on three tracks, "Gypsy", "Mary Jane Holland", and "Venus" on her third studio album, Artpop.

On 25 February 2014, Leclercq released a track available for a free download on his website called "Cut the Kid", stating that it was created circa 2011 or 2012.

2015: Adventure

Madeon live in Brussels, 2015

In September 2014, Leclercq released "Imperium" as the lead single from his debut studio album, Adventure. On 8 December 2014, Leclercq released the second single from the album, titled "You're On", featuring Kyan. On 9 February 2015, Leclercq released the album's third single, "Pay No Mind," featuring Passion Pit. The album's fourth single, "Home," was released on 10 March 2015. On 24 March 2015, the final single of Adventure, "Nonsense," was released, featuring Mark Foster of Foster the People. On 27 March 2015, Adventure was released.^[18] The album peaked at number 43 on the US Billboard 200^[19] and at number one on the US Dance/Electronic Albums chart.^[20]

In mid-2015, Leclercq embarked on his first headlining tour, Adventure Live, consisting of 22 stops in North America.^[3][14] The tour ended on 9 May 2015. Leclercq further promoted his debut studio album on his Pixel Empire US Tour in early 2016, which ended on 21 February 2016.^[21]

2016–present: Upcoming second album

On 11 August 2016, Leclercq released with his close friend Porter Robinson a new track called "Shelter". He also announced along the way a new back-to-back live tour scheduled for fall 2016 dubbed as the Shelter Live Tour.^[22]

On 13 November 2017, Leclercq announced that he would be releasing his next project in 2018.^[23] Further hints about the project were not officially revealed until 20 August 2018, when Leclercq's creative director was interviewed via a Madeon-inspired podcast called the Pixel Empire Podcast.^[24][25]

On 30 January 2018, Leclercq stated on his Instagram and Twitter that he had moved to the United States to finish his upcoming album. He has since been seen at a few Brownies & Lemonade parties.