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Stepping out from behind the camera, Yoann Lemoine became one of the few music video directors to embark on a recording career of his own, with a number of releases under the guise of Woodkid.
Born in Lyon in 1983, he studied illustration and animation at the Emile Cohl School before landing jobs on Luc Besson's Arthur and the Invisibles and Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. In between shooting promos for the likes of Katy Perry ("Teenage Dream"), Taylor Swift ("Back to December"), and Lana Del Rey ("Born to Die," "Blue Jeans"), he recorded the Iron EP and the Run Boy Run EP. His self-directed video for "Run Boy Run" won Lemoine an MVPA Award for Best Director of the Year, and a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video. His debut album as Woodkid, The Golden Age, arrived in March 2013. The album received largely enthusiastic reviews, and fared well commercially, rising to number two on the French album charts, and going Top Ten in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. The young creative went on tour to support the album, with a groundbreaking performance at London’s Brixton Academy alongside the BBC Orchestra. 2014 started off well for Woodkid, with his having been invited to perform and partake in a discussion about the New York minimalist movement with Philip Glass at the Museum of Modern Art of Saint Etienne. Later that year he won the award for Best Stage Performer at the Les Victoires de la Musique. He returned in 2016, having collaborated with German pianist Nils Frahm on a soundtrack for French photographer JR’s short film Ellis. During July of 2016, he delivered another highly innovative performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, which featured a whole host of guests including Son Lux and Guillaume Brière. ~ Jon O'Brien & Rob Wacey, Rovi