Nicolas Michaux Reveals Video For Album Focus Track ‘Watching The Cars’ Out Now
Nicolas Michaux Reveals Video For Album Focus Track ‘Watching The Cars’ Out Now
Watch - https://youtu.be/zbK_eVSDvlQ
Third Album Vitalisme Released October 18th 2024 via Capitane Records
Preorder now - https://capitane-records.myshopify.com/collections/nicolas-michaux-vitalisme
Select Live Dates On Sale Now
https://linktr.ee/nicolas_michaux
Ahead of his forthcoming third album, titled Vitalisme, which will be released on 18th October 2024 via Capitane Records, Belgian indie singer/songwriter Nicolas Michaux is pleased to reveal the official video for album focus track ‘Watching The Cars’, out now on all good digital service providers.
The third single to be taken from the record, ‘Watching The Cars’ is a New Wave-influenced song with an irresistible riff that plunges the listener into a Cassavetes-esque atmosphere. A man locked in a motel is forced, like a punished child in primary school, to write the same sentence over and over while the owner watches the war on television.
The phrase he must copy—"Will they kill another kid?"—inevitably brings to mind the events of 7th October 2023 and the ongoing massacre in Gaza. With a groove reminiscent of Talking Heads or Ian Dury, this waking nightmare has the macabre makings of an instantaneous earworm, capturing the dystopian ambiance of our current times.
The video accompanying the track is once again directed by Simon Vanrie and consists of a single continuous shot made with the help of motion control. The result is a dance between man and machine, questioning the increasingly coercive power of robots over humans.
Nicolas Michaux is a Belgian singer, songwriter, and producer. He shares his time between Brussels, where he is part of the Capitane Collective production group, and the island of Samsø in Denmark, where he lives with his two daughters. Michaux writes and sings in both English and French, consciously standing at the crossroads of different traditions. However, Michaux is guided by a deeply personal and autonomous style and spirit. His recordings, homemade and realistic, almost documentary-like, reflect a life spent listening.
"Music is something that happens, not something you do," he says about his creative process. Michaux's production style paints vivid sonic pictures rooted in a deep consideration of instruments and the textures they evoke. Like a landscaper, his work is a meditation on the living world. His "painting" is the musical spectrum.
First, there was "À La Vie à La Mort" Michaux's remarkable debut album released on the Parisian label Tôt ou Tard in 2016, which continues to gain recognition among music lovers worldwide. Then came the success of "Amour Colère" in 2020 on Capitane Records, supported notably by France Inter, La Première, Radio Nova, La Blogothèque, BBC6 Music, and Télérama.
In 2021, the compilation "Les Chutes" and the single "Amusement Park," streamed over 3.8 million times on platforms, were released. On May 24, 2023, Michaux released the single "Chaleur Humaine" accompanied by a video he directed in Ibiza. After being played all summer on La Première and France Inter, the song was selected as a favourite by francophone media across the world.
Alongside his solo career, Nicolas Michaux also produces records for other artists and has recently collaborated for production and/or mixing with Irma Thomas, Turner Cody, Ish Marquez, Lisa-Li Lund, Regina Spektor, Cyril Neville, Binki Shapiro, Ben Chace, and more.
Forthcoming album Vitalisme consists of twelve recordings made over the years on the Danish island of Samsø and at the Free House, the studio of Capitane Records in Brussels.
Boasting over 100k monthly listeners and over 5 million streams on Spotify, Michaux has previously toured alongside Adam Green, with a London album release show lined up for 28th November at the Shacklewell Arms.
New album Vitalisme is released 18th October 2024 via Capitane Records
Live Dates:
16.10 - Brussels - Le Botanique (Release party)
18.10 - Paris - Zèbre de Belleville (Release party)
28.11 - London - Shacklewell Arms (Capitane Records showcase w/ Lisa Li Lund + Fervents)
Vitalisme album tracklist:
01 - Chaleur Humaine
02 - Peace of Mind #2
03 - Watching The Cars
04 - Alma
05 - She's An Easy Rider
06 - Réparations
07 - A Long Time
08 - Voir Le Jour
09 - A Tiger Has Escaped From The Zoo
10 - Le Léthé
11 - Vitalisme
12 - Au Revoir Ma Chérie
Nicolas Michaux online:
https://www.instagram.com/nicolas__michaux
https://www.facebook.com/capitanemichaux
https://www.tiktok.com/@nicolas___michaux
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSvyQomMzeOmiO6F5sltZ8Q
https://nicolasmichaux.bandcamp.com
https://bit.ly/michauxnewsletter
More info:
Styling himself as an artisan, Michaux is also a hyperactive creator, producing music for other artists (Turner Cody, Irma Thomas, Ben Chace, Lisa-Li Lund), mixing (Regina Spektor, Under The Reefs Orchestra, Binki Shapiro), directing music videos, and even dabbling in photography in his spare time. Since 2020, he has been one of the driving forces behind Capitane Records, one of Europe’s most interesting emerging indie labels—a cooperative and self-managed enterprise by the artists themselves.
"This is my form of activism I guess," says Michaux. "I have decided for now to fight in my own field, music, by trying to create a sort of cultural ZAD (“zone to defend” in French), a self-defense unit allowing music to be produced and disseminated autonomously from 'market laws' and trends. We are part of a broader generational movement that only wants to work according to its ethics and its own quality standards. We see this in all areas of society; people no longer believe in capitalist rhetoric, they no longer want to produce junk for capital. I discovered the world of social economy and found it absolutely fascinating; it is one of the places where the world of tomorrow is being built daily. Little by little, we are trying to create bridges with other initiatives in the social economy."
Recorded partly on the island of Samsø and partly at the Free House, Capitane Records' studio in Brussels, Vitalisme, like Michaux’s previous albums, blends indie rock and French chanson, constantly rooted in a soundscape reminiscent of the warmth and freedom of 70s records. In an approach akin to Brazilian tropicalists, Michaux has always chosen the honesty of an artistic proposition that fuses his inherited culture and knowledge of French chanson with various "external" sources—early rock, Ghanaian highlife, and new wave, to name a few.
Produced by Michaux himself, the album features the Belgian singer playing most of the instruments, including guitars, wurlitzer, and bass, which form the backbone of the album. However, the album also showcases the talent of Michaux’s team: Ted Clark on bass on several tracks, Clément Nourry and Yannick Dupont on ‘Voir Le Jour’, Morgan Vigilante and Léo Léonard sharing the drummer's seat, and the contribution of the virtuoso Congolese musician Rodriguez Vangama, a long-time collaborator of Michaux. The album was mixed by Michaux and masterfully mastered by his usual partner Remy Lebbos at Rare Sound Studio.
Much like in his previous album Amour Colère, Michaux navigates between polarities in Vitalisme—dawn and dusk, birth and destruction, hope and cold lucidity, past and future. However, this time it is less about exploring the different poles of human experience and more about bringing them together at a precise point where life unfolds. Armed with impeccable writing in both French and English, Michaux traverses the familiar lands of inspired songwriters, addressing grand themes of timeless poetry as well as the empirical realities of the contemporary world: love, illness, war, wisdom, resurrection; but also climate change and class war.
