M83

Antibes

M83 formed in 1999 in Antibes, France, named for the galaxy Messier 83; Anthony Gonzalez, born on March 13, 1980, is the constant member, who writes the songs and sings. He grew up in Antibes with his brother, the filmmaker Yann Gonzalez. His early band was My Violent Wish with Nicolas Fromageau; at 17 he bought a synthesizer to make a demo, the Paris label Gooom showed interest, and he recruited Fromageau. Gonzalez has called M83 more of a collective than a solo project. His cited influences include My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins, Depeche Mode, OMD, Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream, and he has said cinema is the biggest influence for him, even bigger than music itself.

The albums run M83 (April 18, 2001), Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts (2003), Before the Dawn Heals Us (2005), Digital Shades Vol. 1 (2007) and Saturdays = Youth (April 11, 2008). Fromageau left after the Dead Cities tour. In 2008 they supported Kings of Leon in the UK, and in 2009 The Killers in the US, toured with Depeche Mode and played Fuji Rock.

Los Angeles and Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

Gonzalez moved to Los Angeles in January 2010, and the lonely first months turned him toward childhood memories. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, released on October 18, 2011 on Mute (Naive in France), was a double album made with the producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who had been in the picture since the demos. It was recorded in 2010 and 2011 at Sunset Sound, The Sound Factory, Meldal-Johnsen's Electro-Vox and OTM in Los Angeles and at his own studio in Antibes; the drums, bass and strings were recorded in March and mixing finished in May. He has said it was inspired by Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and called it a reflection of his 30 years as a human being.

It reached number 15 on the Billboard 200, M83's best at the time, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. Pitchfork gave it 9.1 and named it the number 3 album of 2011, and "Midnight City" its best song of the year. Gonzalez later disliked how "Midnight City" became a staple of EDM sets, after his set at the 2012 Ultra festival was cut short by technical problems.

Scores and later records

He scored the French film Black Heaven (2010), and the film Oblivion (2013) with Joseph Trapanese, sang on "Holes in the Sky" with Haim for Insurgent (2015) and was composer and musical director of Cirque du Soleil's Volta in 2016. Later albums are Junk (April 8, 2016), DSVII (2019) and Fantasy (March 17, 2023); a record titled I Wrote You a Letter is listed for September 25, 2026 on Other Suns.