Nicolas Michaux Reveals Video For New Single ‘Peace of Mind #2’
Nicolas Michaux Reveals Video For New Single ‘Peace of Mind #2’
Watch here - https://youtu.be/v14pcAQWnX4?si=LsiKrTxwsVdwFiWM
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
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Belgian indie singer/songwriter Nicolas Michaux is pleased to reveal the official video for his new single ‘Peace of Mind #2’, out now on all good digital service providers.
The track is the latest to be taken from his forthcoming third album, titled Vitalisme, which will be released on 18th October 2024 via Capitane Records.
“My life has been quite chaotic in recent years, marked by a lot of travel, solitude, and wandering,” says Michaux of the new single. “The video captures this well. By choosing a rather radical approach for the video and going in the opposite direction of what we had done before, Simon was able to capture the emotion and energy at the core of this song. I also like the effect of the multiplication of my character; it reminds us that we are all multiple and contain more than just one personality.”
The video accompanying the track is directed by Simon Vanrie. A frequent collaborator of Michaux, Vanrie has chosen to stay as close as possible to the raw and uncompromising nature of this autobiographical song.
Along a highway at dusk, a man—Nicolas Michaux—walks. He moves through construction zones, illuminated by the headlights of cars and trucks brushing past him. We imagine that he has left everything behind, with no possibility of return. He walks toward the night, entrusting it with his story before giving himself completely to it. The only lights against the darkness are those of the headlights and highway lamps dancing across his face.
During the chorus, through a superimposition effect, the singer is doubled, singing the pain of a lost love, the only comfort in a merciless world. The result is an original music video that is both realistic and dreamlike, serving the song while marking an exciting new chapter in the Belgian singer's body of work.
Boasting over 100k monthly listeners and over 5 million streams on Spotify, Michaux has been heavily supported at radio by France Inter in his home country, with BBC 6music leading the charge on our shores. He has previously toured alongside Adam Green, with a London album release show lined up for 28th November at the Shacklewell Arms.
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.
The album's title, Vitalisme, is both solar and mysterious, chosen by Michaux in homage to French philosopher Gilles Deleuze who wrote in Pourparlers: "In the act of writing, there is an attempt to make life something more than personal, to free life from what imprisons it. [...] There is a deep connection between signs, the event, life, and vitalism. It is the power of non-organic life, the one that can exist in a line of drawing, writing, or music. It is the organisms that die, not life. There is no work that does not indicate an exit to life, that does not trace a path between the cobblestones. Everything I have written was vitalist, at least I hope so..."
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.
