Gaga For New French House

Avicii should watch his back. There's a new child DJ star on the rise – and he's here for 2013's Future Music Festival. Like his precocious pal Porter Robinson, Madeon (AKA Hugo Leclercq), from Nantes, France, was DJing while most of his peers were concentrating on school.

On his inaugural Australian trek for Stereosonic 2011 (and, Leclercq says, his "first real tour"), the electro-houser was in theory too young to go partying. Yet he found the experience of a travelling festival "exhilarating". "I very much loved it," Leclercq says in impeccable grammar book English (he later apologises for speaking quickly). Leclercq was "curious" about Oz. "I was quite impressed to see how current and excited the crowd is there," he recalls. "I'm looking forward to come back – plus Future Music has a pretty incredible line-up, so it's gonna be quite a fun run of shows." 

Leclercq, 18, has an Australian connection. In 2010 he won a competition remixing Pendulum's The Island. "The Pendulum remix I did was actually my first released piece of work, so it's kind of one of the ways my career really started." He's since met members of the now reincarnated Knife Party on the road.

Leclercq, making music as a pre-teen, achieved viral notoriety on YouTube, the aspiring DJ harnessing the MIDI controller Novation Launchpad to create his Pop Culture mash-up (39 songs in three minutes) in 2011. It's had nearly 20 million views. He'd played his inaugural gig earlier that year, opening for Yelle in Paris. After the Pendulum coup, Leclercq remixed deadmau5's Raise Your Weapon. His breakthrough single, Icarus, surfaced at the beginning of 2012 via his own label, popcultur, entering the UK Top 30. Leclercq likewise sprang into the DJ Mag poll at No 54. 

Even by contemporary standards, Leclercq's ascendance has been swift – something indicative of an Internet-based popscape. He virtually went from DJing in his bedroom to main arenas – playing festivals, opening for the Swedish House Mafia, and recently rockin' the New York Stock Exchange. An old-time DJ might huff about the importance of paying dues in local dives, but the fiftysomething Pete Tong is one of Leclercq's biggest champions. Still, that he overcame early nerves is admirable in itself. Initially, Leclercq's sole consideration was to mix proficiently. "I didn't really account for the audience until I did my first show and I looked at the crowd and realised, Oh, wait, actually there's people there watching me – I'm not ready for this!," he laughs. Leclercq now talks as if he's been DJing for decades. He continues to use Novation Launchpad, but is fascinated by emerging DJ technologies. "I feel like physical interfaces are improving, but what's most exciting is software development. As much as I love Ableton Live, I can't wait for some serious competition to come out – like Bitwig." He laughs at Jeff Mills' (very serious) proposal many years ago of devising a means to DJ as a hologram. "That seems quite futuristic – I like it!" Nevertheless, Leclercq still feels a little apprehensive DJing – it's not stage fright but rather a latent anxiety about delivering the goods. And he's often jittery when playing a new city. "Some amount of nerves is I guess necessary for an exciting enough performance."

Possibly Leclercq was nervous when prepping for Lady GaGa's Born This Way Ball Tour, the DJ joining her on select North American stops from January. (Alas, remaining dates were lately cancelled because of GaGa's hip injury.) "It's quite a different audience because I play slightly earlier in the day, like 7 or 8 pm, and it's a very wide crowd of people who wouldn't necessarily go buy a ticket to an electronic festival, so I have to account for that. They'll be maybe more observant – and maybe less jumping around and more paying attention to what's going on stage." Leclercq's solution was to rethink his show's presentation. But he wasn't about to drop different music. "What I didn't want to do is go in there and play music that I didn't really believe in and get maybe some new fans, but fans who would be fans of what I adapted – something I wasn't really into – as opposed to new fans who connected with what I really play. So that when they come to see me after the GaGa show on my own, they know what to expect and they're not disappointed." The response was "really good". Leclercq describes Mother Monster herself as "brilliant" – and "always busy with a tonne of activities." "She's very professional and hardworking and just a great singer." In fact, Leclercq is among those producers attached to GaGa's upcoming ARTPOP – and today he confirms that his involvement is "official" without divulging details.

Signed to Sony, the label arranging this interview, Leclercq intends to produce other acts. But, though he's hardly been prolific to date, his "priority" is to complete an LP. "One of my goals for this year is to produce an album – I think that's one of the next steps I want to take. So I've been holding off releasing for a few months and I'll probably keep on holding off for a couple until I have something that feels like a body of work I'm really proud of. It's an intense time for me of sitting down and writing while touring, which can be a bit challenging, but it's coming together, so I'm quite excited. I may release another single in the meantime – quite soon – so we'll see. Plans are taking shape." Leclercq last issued The City EP in late 2012.

Beyond Lady GaGa, Leclercq, who's also produced an Ellie Goulding (bonus) track, doesn't want to collaborate with dance figures. "I really like working with acts that wouldn't traditionally go to an electronic producer like myself – so like more traditional rock bands and stuff. I can't really name anything yet, until it's released, but I've done a couple of exciting collaborations with other acts that are sort of proving this point."

In DJ Mag last year Leclercq called his oeuvre "precisely produced electronic music with a pop sensibility." "I'm from a generation of people who were exposed to electronic music outside of club culture," he explains, referring to the Internet. Leclercq's influences include Daft Punk as well as producers identified with "the French Touch 2.0 movement" – especially Justice. As such, he's into musicality as much as danceability. "I'm quite attached to songs that are melodical and have a shorter pop structure [and] that can work outside of the club environment," he says. "I don't want to write music specifically for the club or for festivals – I want to write music you can listen to and that's satisfying musically and emotionally." Regardless, Leclercq does acknowledge club trends. He loves that the culture is "highly reactive" and "fast-moving". He deems trap, the genre du jour, as "quite exciting", in addition to the 'older' moombahton. That producers are mucking around with varying tempos intrigues him. "[But] I don't really feel like I'm personally part of any specific movement, or wish to follow any specific movement – 'cause my concern is that if I decide, Okay, you know what, I'm gonna do a trap song on my album, well, by the time my album is out, maybe it won't be as new anymore. I need to make sure that it's just something that I believe in and that talks to me musically first."

At the end of the interview, Leclercq again pumps up FMF. The DJ regrets that he's "not currently promoting a single." However, converts are bound to seek out his past material. And it's here that the wise Leclercq finally sounds like a teenager. "Go online, go on Soundcloud, or pirate it – I don't really care, just find it somewhere, get it on your iPod. That's all I want."

Madeon will be playing the following dates:

Saturday 2 March - Future Music Festival, Brisbane
Sunday 3 March - Future Music Festival, Perth
Saturday 9 March - Future Music Festival, Sydney
Sunday 10 March - Future Music Festival, Melbourne
Monday 11 March - Future Music Festival, Adelaide