Willy Moon (Photo: NBC)If you’ve found yourself humming the anthemic “yeah yeah, how you like me now” chorus that set a rainbow of colorful iPods a’bouncin’ in Apple’s recent TV spot—you’re not alone. The artist responsible for the foot-stomping tune, Willy Moon, has managed to carve out a name for himself in short time as both an innovative soundmaker and style influencer.
Moon, 23, has engineered his image since leaving his native New Zealand for London at age 18. A self-described “autodidact” who dropped out of school at age 16, Moon traveled Europe and settled for some time in Berlin, where he was inspired by retro pop music and began writing his own material in earnest.
Returning to London, he adopted a sharply groomed, midcentury suit-and-slicked hair look to offset his modern-sounding musical production—a combo that attracted attention right away when he released his first single via MySpace in 2010. He scored a record deal with Island Records, who put out his first EP.
By 2012 he caught the eye of rock visionary Jack White, subsequently releasing a single “Railroad Man” on White’s own label, as well as joining him on a sold-out UK stadium tour. At this point, Apple caught on to the buzz, and used “Yeah Yeah” in its global iPod Nano ad campaign, thus pressing “play” on Moon’s unique sound in millions of heads worldwide.
Moon, who’s scheduled to release a tightly edited—only 29 minutes in length, total!-- debut full-length release in 2013, stopped by Yahoo! Music recently to show us why everyone is saying “yeah” to his mashup of style and sound. Enjoy these exclusive performances, and have fun getting to know him in our exclusive interview as well!