What an amazing pairing. Never Let You Down comes from the “Insurgent” Original Soundtrack out on March 17th – it is written by Woodkid, Lykke Li and the genius that is Jeff Bhasker (Lana, Natalia, Jay-Z, Drake, Kanye) with Emile Haynie on drum programming – it’s a perfect cast. The full credits can be seen on YouTube (and are 100% worth checking out). The track itself – a jarring and pretty haunting take with hero elements of both artists intertwined with melancholic undertones – the first emotional return it feels since I Love U (for Woodkid at least). The orchestra though…perfection.

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It’s been WAY too long since we saw a Woodkid video (Pharrell’s 24 Hour ‘Happy’ video doesn’t count). I Love You came out over eight months ago, so when the teaser popped up for possibly one of the most EPIC tracks on the album and title track The Golden Age, let’s just say that my excitement for one of the most creative and genius humans on the planet just got a little bigger. Here’s the teaser, directed by Yoann/Woodkid, obviously and featuring the track “Childhood” by Woodkid.

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https://soundcloud.com/island-records-uk/woodkid-feat-angel-haze-i-love

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It’s rare that a singular artist ever truly embodies everything that KARL IS MY UNKLE (as an entity) stands for – creativity, art, progressive visual aesthetic etc. so it was a no-brainer to agree to go to Berlin to see the official debut album performance of and spend time with music’s equivalent of Karl Lagerfeld, Woodkid.

He may be best known for directing the videos to Lana’s Born To Die and Blue Jeans and Drake and Rihanna’s Take Care, but if you’ve been paying attention, you will have noticed his multi-million viewed videos for his own tracks namely Iron (starring Agyness Deyn), Run Boy Run and most recently I Love You. Woodkid released his debut EP, Iron, last year and will be following it up with his first full studio album ‘The Golden Age’ out next Monday 18 March. Telling the most incredible story of ‘growing up’ through themes of war, religion and “all these things you don’t really care about when you’re a child.”

Having had the album on repeat for the last three weeks and having just seen it performed live in its entirety (pretty much in order) at Babylon in Berlin, it is fair to say that ‘The Golden Age’ is nothing short of a work of art. It took three years to pull together, and was funded by Yoann’s creative work for other artists (Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Lana, Drake), but clearly has industry support and backing with him now being signed to Interscope (the label’s first French artist) in America and Island in the UK.

Creatively speaking, toned down live performances from the artist are never going to do the epic Woodkid-sound justice. From a recording perspective, the album includes samples from French National Orchestra and the Opéra de Paris, so it is nothing less than a requirement to bring as much of this to life as possible during a live gig – which is why witnessing the debut performance of the album at Babylon actually worked. Are their plans to take this to an even bigger scale? Yes, notably his May performances at the Roundhouse in London and discussions of full orchestral performances a la Antony and the Johnsons at the Barbican. Would these sell out? Without a shadow of doubt.

Post-gig, we ended up in a private karaoke bar until 3am talking pop, performing horrific renditions of Kanye and dancing around a strip pole. Through various conversations, it is obvious who Yoann respects as an artist – namely those he has already collaborated with and those he outright wants to work with in the future. He hinted towards a more hip-hop sound for any future work, including and EP in collaboration with rap’s latest wonder-kid – set to drop later this year.

Incredible personal work aside however, the question on everybody’s lips is related to who Woodkid plans to work with next and grace with his golden touch; both as a music producer or a video director. Let’s just say that he has turned down some HUGELY prolific artists to focus on his own work, but there are certain major, “living legend”-ary and iconic pop stars that he has been approached to produce and direct for in 2013 that he is still considering – whether this will happen is still to be confirmed. If it does happen – there will be armies of happy fans.

The artwork used in the image above is by Daniel Sannwald with styling by Matthew Josephs. It even includes a Nike trainer and Swoosh logo if you look close enough – unpaid for, simply another one of Woodkid’s personal obsessions.

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