Nicolas Michaux has today released his new video for the track titled ‘She’s an Easy Rider’ via Capitane Records.
Originally a track by Tucker Zimmerman, Nicolas re-envisions the song instead of merely covering it. There is as much of Nicolas’ music as it is Tucker’s. Nicolas Michaux adds a distinctive troubadour style with a songwriter’s touch and cinematic flair that defines the video as that video plays, frame by frame, the story of life lived as a life from a different era as an example of what, in life, is eternal. Directed by Kevin Antoine, the video plays off of the music and gives a new interpretation of an underground classic.
About Nicolas Michaux
Following the success of “Chaleur Humaine”, which aired all summer on national radio station France Inter and was selected as a favourite by French-speaking public media, the Belgian singer returns this time with a re-adaptation of a song by Tucker Zimmerman released in 1971 on the cult album Songpoet.
“I discovered Tucker Zimmerman and his work about fifteen years ago. A musician friend from Liège told me about him and the incredible story of this San Francisco songwriter living in the Liège region for over 40 years, whose magnificent work largely went under the radar. Around 2010, I listened quite a bit to his first two albums, ‘Ten Songs’ and ‘Songpoet.’ And then I moved on to other things and didn’t listen to Tucker Zimmerman for years. In May 2022, my second daughter was born. And I don’t know why, but during the days leading up to and following her birth in Samsø, while spring was in full swing and everything was teeming with life, this particular song that I had almost forgotten about kept coming back to me incessantly for several days. It was like a calling, I had a few days outside of the world, and I thought I should seize the opportunity. In a few hours, I found a rhythm and a tone that suited me, and I quickly recorded the version of the song that you can hear today. Ted Clark and Morgan Vigilante placed the bass and drums a few weeks later at Free House, our studio in Brussels. I finished the keyboard and guitar arrangements last summer with Kevin Antoine and François Dubois while we were working on the concept for the music video.”
Let’s face it, the version produced here by Michaux is very different from Tucker Zimmerman’s original. From its folk starting point, the song is transformed here into a grand and beautiful indie ballad that may recall the wooded ambiance of the early Beatles’ solo albums and the elegant coolness of Mac de Marco.
“I see this single as a tribute to the women in my life and women in general. I am convinced of the profound necessity for them to live freely now, they who have lived within constraints and whose bodies have been controlled by the opposite sex for so long. ‘Father don’t deny your daughter her own highway’ is a phrase that resonates strongly with me, it’s almost like a mantra that I try to keep as a guiding principle in my role as a father.”
The track is accompanied by a video clip directed by Kevin Antoine, who had previously directed “Amusement Park” for Michaux, a cinematic work in its own right, more akin to a short film than a clip in the strict sense. Michaux, for once, does not appear on screen. The story takes place at the beginning of the past century in a nursing home, and the film is a claustrophobic setting between a patient, a nurse, and a doctor. Narrative scenes with strong emotional power are interspersed with shots of the main heroine on horseback wandering on a deserted beach. The freedom of a 1960s biker evoked by the song is translated here to the early 20th century, with the horse replacing the Harley Davidson. This spacio-temporal rift and the contrast created between the song and the visuals make this video a pure marvel in line with the videos that accompanied the singer’s previous releases.
“After this sort of trilogy of music videos that I released in recent years – “Nos Retrouvailles”, “Amusement Park”, “Chaleur Humaine” – I wanted something different that revolves less around my character. My ex-partner Naja Laursen was the one who suggested the idea of the horse to replace the motorcycle. And then, following discussions with François Dubois, the director of photography, the idea began to take shape, and the story of the nursing home inspired by the story of his own mother started to take form. From the moment I felt that the project was on track, I let Kevin and François take the lead freely and only followed the filming process from afar. What is remarkable is that while the song was not written by me and I only followed this filming from afar, I still feel that it may be my most personal and intimate proposal to date. When I saw the edit for the first time, I cried for 10 minutes. I’m not sure why. It’s complicated to explain, but indirectly and subtly, this video tells a part of me and my life so far.”
Nicolas Michaux will be supporting Adam Green on tour at the end of March for three dates in Europe: London, Paris and Berlin. He will then fly to New Orleans for a month, where he will co-produce Irma Thomas’ new album with Ben Chace and the faithful Soldiers of Love. He will also be in concert at Amsterdam’s Paradiso on May 3.
LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/nicolas__michaux/
https://nicolasmichaux.net/