French mega-star, Madeon’s, Good Faith Forever tour has seen some of the biggest highs of the young icon’s life.
Between new cities, heightened levels of production, fresh new music, and so much more, this latest tour has defined where the artist is at in his career.
We had the opportunity to attend one of the shows and were even luckier to have been granted photo access on site so that we could catch some of the biggest, most intimate, and most candid moments you can imagine during of the coolest experiences any dance music fan can behold this year.
While we were on site, we had the chance to sit down with Madeon to ask him questions and shed some light on what this tour is and what went into making it all happen.
Photos From Madeon’s Good Faith Forever Tour
Interview With Madeon After His Good Fath Forever Show
I’d love to hear what you’re most excited about your show tonight.
It’s a really meaningful one. I mean, I think it’s one of my larger kinds of attendance for a headline show, which is always a thrill. I think, you know, some artists really like intimate settings and things like that. And I’m a fan of big shows, like, the bigger the better, especially when it’s a show that’s really my audience, it’s so special and magical.
I was out there a little bit earlier when Young Franco was playing to check the vibe out there, it looked beautiful. I was in awe of the audience like they were all just great energy. So I feel like it’s gonna be ideal and perfect tonight.
Tell us more about the process of designing and bringing the Good Faith Forever show to life.
I started having this idea for the original version of the show Good Faith Live like years ago, honestly. The first Photoshop mock-up of the stage design I made in late 2015, so it’s been such a long time coming. I’ve been collecting ideas and concepts and trying to take inspiration from unexpected places, like pop shows, and then cinema and theatre and magic, just all kinds of different influences.
And it ended up being a show that’s so true to my taste and journey, I see so much of my life’s journey in this show, you know, there’s so many moments I feel like it could only create because of things that happened in my childhood, teenage years, it felt like it all led to this moment. I’m so happy about this, it’s so fun to perform, and it’s so close to my dream of what a Madeon show could be, so I’m pretty excited. And then the process of making it is also great, it’s a very video-heavy show.
I and the architects, the group that we assembled to design with, the five of us gathered together either in my house or in an Airbnb for weeks at a time and we just became such good friends and we all equally with our computers all making visuals, me included, and reviewing each other’s work.
I feel like my job is to try to nurture mutually inspiring environments and I think I really thrive, making this show and performing it are some of the happiest moments in my career.
You mentioned earlier how your background has influenced your craft. Can you touch on that a little bit more?
When I was a kid, I wanted to create all kinds of different things.
I would write books, design little board games, and puzzles, do animation, do music, do magic tricks, and just all kinds of different creative ventures. And graphic design too. At one point, I decided to really focus on music and try to become as best as I could at that. And it’s funny, because then once my career started unfolding, I realized that all these other passions could find their way into this.
And this is why I spend so much energy trying to develop Madeon as a world beyond just the music, so the visual world to show the secret language, the puzzles, like all of that it’s so, so clearly true to what my interests have always been. For example, one of my favorite moments in the show is when I clone myself, and there are clones of me that appear and it’s designed to be believable.
So for a few seconds, you actually believe that. It’s essentially a magic trick, you know, and I feel like there are so many little details that go into this actually working. And we blind you first, the way it strobes, you’re not quite sure, the way I make sure to be close to this, there’s a lot of little details.
And I think all that came more intuitively to me because of my appreciation of magic and stage magic. So it’s funny, things that you would never expect to connect to a music career and they’re finding their way and it all adds up, so it’s pretty funny
I remember the first time you went up on the lift, I was like, how is he up there, because I couldn’t see it.
I’m so glad because we design it so that you can’t, I’m so happy. It feels like you experienced the show exactly as I intended it so that’s beautiful. I find that my favorite reaction at a show is more one of surprise, almost confusion, rather than simply screaming or jumping, which are also great reactions and emotions.
I’ve had a couple of instances premiering moments like this and hearing more of a gasp from the crowd and I think a gasp was such an awesome, unique reaction to get from a show.
It always makes me so happy when I hear what you’re describing, you know? It’s funny because a lot of people that haven’t seen the show live think that it’s pre-recorded visuals, but I’m actually up there. When people see photos of it, they don’t always realize it’s real.
That’s what I was trying to figure out. If you really went up there, or if you were hiding behind the stage.
No, no, no, I’m totally up there. It’s funny. It’s like 20 feet up. And it’s a very tiny platform, it’s very small, so yeah, it’s pretty spooky.
Are you harnessed in?
Yeah.
And that’s why I wear the cape, it’s to hide the harnessing system because if I didn’t wear the cape, you would see all of the security. And so the cape is what allows it to distract you from that.
How would you describe your sound to readers who aren’t familiar with your music?
I guess it’s electronic pop. I think I’m the worst at describing it, I think there’s so many influences that find their way in, but I tried to make it feel embodied.
In my last album, I sang almost all the songs through a unique processing style. And so I’m trying to make sure that it’s not just like, a dense project that’s a vehicle for a million features and other people’s stories. That’s really cool too, I just wanted my project to feel embodied as a singular vision.
A songwriting component to it is important. And I think usually people would describe it as euphoric, optimistic, and funky at times, and then more epic at others. So yeah, that’s kind of the range I think.
That’s a really good description. I was trying to explain your music to my friend because she really likes Shelter, which I feel like is how a lot of people discover your music.
Yeah, it’s both Porter and l’s biggest hit, which is fun. It’s like, we share that song. And it was the first time I sang a song ever, so I was really nervous. I was like, am I gonna tank this song because I’m not the best singer or anything?
And then we wrote it ourselves, we produced it, it was just us, and then it ended up being this gold record and really being cherished by people, which I’m really grateful for. I think Shelter’s a good intro to my sound to, I think Shelter sounds quite Madeon-y.
I’m forever sad that I never saw Shelter live.
That was a good tour. I think it’s cool sometimes. but I feel like both Nurture live and Good Faith Forever are better shows than Shelter personally. I mean, Shelter was great, but I feel like we both learned so much from that tour and I’ve been progressing further and further.
Where do you draw inspiration from as an artist?
The way I often describe my formula for creativity is well, first of all, visual is a big thing.
I listen to a lot of older music, I collect vinyl and I’m always on the lookout for interesting, graphic design stuff, photographs, and I archive everything and organize it so I always have references handy and I try to immerse myself in it.
Then I try to make sure to look for things that are like part of the zeitgeist, that are part of what is exciting about today, stuff that feels timeless, that’s always been good and beautiful — like old architecture, things that were already relevant 10, 20, 30 years ago, or more.
And then I try to find stuff that’s weird and that nobody else is into. Ideally, if everybody else hates it, I like it more. I think you would need a little bit of that, a little bit of something rare and precious that’s yours.
For me, it’s certain French movies I grew up with, or just like weird Czech jazz fusion records that nobody cares about. And I try to make sure to have a little bit of that special magic touch in having things that inspire me that are unlike anything else. And then, you know, for lyrics, obviously, life is usually the main source of inspiration.
I think it’s interesting what you said about something that not everyone likes as well.
Yeah, you want to make sure that you celebrate what’s unique about your taste.
What upcoming projects are you most excited about? Or what’s next for you after Good Faith?
I’m still doing a few shows, with this show. And there’s one song at the end, a song that I’m on the lift for, Gonna Be Good, it’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever made that hasn’t come out yet.
So that will be my next single. I want to really do that release correctly, so it’s taking a while, so I’m sorry for the wait for people that have been asking for it. So that’s definitely what’s coming next, that record means a great deal to me.
That’s gonna be the immediate future. As I’ve mentioned, you know, I started thinking about this show in 2015. So stuff that’s going to be years away, I’m already thinking about now, since it’s such a long process for me, but I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll keep it to myself.
