‘I Wanted to Feel Courageous, Even If It Meant Risking Everything Going Down In Flames’: Madeon on His First New Album In 7 Years
Categoria: Musica
The producer's third studio LP, Victory, is out today (June 26).
Por Billboard | 26/06/2026
It was late 2024 and Madeon was at home in Los Angeles, nursing a broken heart. His relationship had recently ended, and not well. But within the constellation of emotion the situation conjured, he eventually identified an opportunity. “I noticed that this distinct moment in the aftermath is one of trying to redefine who you are, so you can perform a new version of yourself to others, but also in a sense to yourself,” the French producer says. “I remember trying to be more cynical or appear stronger or cockier than I truly was… as a defense mechanism. It occurred to me, ‘Oh, this is a version of myself that might be worth taking a snapshot of, because it will transform.’” And so he got to work on the music that would ultimately form his third studio album, Victory , out today (June 26.) The project comes seven years after 2019’s revered Good Faith and presents not only the emotional arc of a painful split, but a new realm of the Madeon universe. While his 2015 debut Adventure was tight electronic informed by French Touch and Good Faith was glowing with gospel choirs and rainbow visuals, much of Victory sits more in an experimental electro/punk/pop lane, with songs like album opener and lead single “Hi!” referencing the artist’s longtime interest in and personal memories of the genre. (“I remember having so much fun making it and thinking there was no responsible way it could come out,” he says, given that the song is so different from his normal output. “Then I sent it to Porter Robinson, and he was like ‘That’s kind of awesome,’ so I decided it would not only be a song, but the lead single, which felt bordering on irresponsible.” Victory is also his most fashion-forward work to date, with the corresponding photography presenting the artist in architectural haute couture. “It felt like fashion was a really good match with some of the album’s themes and the idea of concealment and self-expression and the way you can make yourself look more powerful or aggressive than you are underneath,” he says. It’s a tool he first saw used by Lady Gaga when he was working on her 2013 album Artpop , for which he co-produced three songs. (He also later worked on her Chromatica .) “It felt like this whole other vocabulary that I then didn’t really have any access to, and so it felt like an uncharted world.” Talking to Billboard on a recent Wednesday afternoon, the artist born Hugo Pierre Leclercq wears smart trousers, a white button down and a maroon tie, looking more formal (or maybe more French), than most of the crowd at this busy Hollywood lunch spot. Underneath his thick beard, the baby face fans have known since Madeon rocketed into the dance world in the early 2010s remains visible. He arrived to the scene among a cohort of artists like Porter Robinson and Zedd as part of the first generation of electronic producers raised almost entirely on internet culture. Words like “prodigy” were thrown a