Labrinth Artistfacts

January 4, 1989
London-born musician Labrinth, whose real name is Timothy Lee McKenzie, found success as a songwriter and producer before becoming famous as a genre-bending solo artist. After working with Tinie Tempah on the British rapper's 2010 debut album, including the hit singles "Pass Out" and "Frisky," Labrinth branched out with his own debut single that same year: "Let The Sun Shine." His first album, Electronic Earth, followed in 2012 and boasted a handful of hit singles, including "Beneath Your Beautiful," his first #1 hit in the UK and first Top 40 hit in the US.
Labrinth's success behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer earned him a shot at becoming a performer in his own right. In 2010, he was scouted by Simon Cowell's Syco label, who initially wanted him to produce for singers from The X Factor, including Season 3 winner Leona Lewis. But once Cowell heard more of Labrinth's music, he wanted to make him an artist in his own right. As a result, he became the label's first artist in six years who wasn't recruited from one of Cowell's many talent shows. Labrinth praised the former American Idol judge for giving him creative freedom and viewing him as a musician rather than an urban pop star.
Labrinth was heartbroken to learn his father who left the family when the singer was 4 years old went on to start a new one. He poured his pain into the 2014 ballad "Jealous," which pulled on the heartstrings of his fans, including some pretty famous ones. When Adele needed some help crying on the set of her "Hello" music video, her director simply played Labrinth's emotional tune and the tears started to flow.
Labrinth had little choice but to become a musician - he was born into a family band. His brothers and sisters were already making music together by the time he came around and, when he was old enough to handle an instrument, the nine siblings formed the group Mac 9. Many of them also went on to pursue careers in music, including producer Mac (Mac1), producer/drummer Joshua (MckNasty), who was a semi-finalist on Britain's Got Talent, producer Jamie, and session vocalist Sherelle (ShezAr), who also competed on The Voice UK.

Mac, in particular, was a big influence on Labrinth. Watching his older brother produce music made him want to try it too and he started experimenting with different production software in his teens.
Labrinth, who considered going by Dappa D or The Candleman, chose his stage name by leafing through a dictionary - a massive tome he once tried to learn in its entirety. "It didn't work, I only got through the first few pages," he told BBC News in 2012. "So it's a wonder I'm not called Abacus!"
In 2018 Labrinth formed the supergroup LSD with Sia and Diplo. He met the Australian singer-songwriter during what was supposed to be a songwriting session for his sophomore album, Imagination & The Misfit Kid (2019), but when one song turned into an albums' worth of tunes, the idea for their own band was formed. They added Sia's "Elastic Heart" producer Diplo to the mix and became LSD. Their debut single, "Genius," dropped in May of that year, followed by "Audio" and "Thunderclouds."

Incidentally, Labrinth and Sia did save a track from their fruitful songwriting sessions for Labrinth's album: "Oblivion" was issued as the seventh and final single.
Labrinth added TV composer to his resumé in 2019 when he signed on to score and produce the soundtrack for HBO's scandalous teen drama Euphoria, which follows the sex and drug-fueled lives of a group of high schoolers in Los Angeles. Labrinth won praise for his work on the first two seasons of the series, including the hit singles "All For Us," "I'm Tired," "Elliot's Song," and "Still Don't Know My Name," but abruptly quit in 2026 ahead of the show's third season, on which he was supposed to collaborate with famed film composer Hans Zimmer. He announced his exit by firing off an angry missive on Instagram that concluded with "Double F--k Euphoria."

In an interview with GQ the following month, he explained that the "creative camaraderie" behind the scenes began to deteriorate as the show blew up, particularly between him and series creator Sam Levinson. The tension fed into his overall frustration with the music industry in general, which pushes artists to sacrifice their authenticity for fame.
In 2022, Labrinth revealed that he'd been diagnosed with ADHD, which gave him an explanation for some of his mental struggles. He told The Gentleman's Journal that year, "I think it made me understand some of my behavior and some of the procrastination, the unfinished music that gets left around, and some of those behaviors of my journey in the industry."
If a songwriter works with Labrinth, they must contend with his Board of Directors - an imaginary panel of advisors who are in constant conversation with the musician.

"They're like: 'Lab, I'm hearing funk here; Lab, throw that bass down from this…' I feel like I get inspired that way. I feel like I have all of these guys sitting around in the studio," he said.

To outsiders watching him talk to himself, the process comes off a little nutty. "When I was working with Sia, she was like: 'I love it, you sound crazy,'" he added.
Labrinth has been all over the genre map, from hip-hop, electronic, R&B, grime, funk, rock, gospel, and pop to orchestral elements on his two-part Cosmic Opera albums in 2026. But it's all just music to him. From the beginning, he knew he'd never fit neatly into any music box, which he realized was a gift and a curse because "people like going to people for something."

He elaborated to Interview magazine in 2011: "When I listen to a Coldplay record, you're gonna hear an indie band and you know that's what you're gonna get from Coldplay. With myself, I'm not sure it's the same."
Part of Labrinth's deal with Syco Records enabled him to sign artists through his own imprint, Odd Child. His aim was to foster up-and-coming artists and allow them to retain their musical identity and educate them on the ins-and-outs of the music business. The label's flagship artist was English soul singer Etta Bond, whom Labrinth discovered on MySpace. She also contributed vocals to his debut album on the track "Treatment."
Labrinth's futuristic third album, Ends & Begins (2023), was born out of his love of sci-fi films. He counts 2001: A Space Odyssey, Logan's Run, and Alien among his favorites, because he loves "the dustiness, the really low-end, grainy synthy sound" from the sci-fi movies of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. But the one that inspired him the most is a German classic from 1927: Fritz Lang's Metropolis. "I started making a lot of my music while playing that in the background," he told Synth History in 2023.
The Ends & Begins track "Never Felt So Alone" originated as a small piece of music for Euphoria, but Labrinth expanded it into a full-fledged song with guest vocals from Billie Eilish. The collaboration was nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards but lost to "Ghost In The Machine" by SZA featuring Phoebe Bridgers.

Although Labrinth had previously been nominated for two Grammy Awards, the one for "Never Felt So Alone" was his first as a lead artist (the others were for Beyoncé's "Spirit" and The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness).

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