Belgian singer Nicolas Michaux releases his new single, She’s an Easy Rider, tomorrow (27th March)- a re-adaptation of a song by Tucker Zimmerman, which was released in 1971 on the cult album Songpoet. Michaux transforms the song into a beautiful indie ballad that is accompanied by a deeply emotive and haunting video directed by Kevin Antoine, which transplants Zimmerman’s original 1960s biker imagery into the claustrophobic setting of a nursing home in the past century (more below). Michaux is supporting Adam Green on three tour dates in London tomorrow at EartH (tickets), Paris and Berlin.
The video’s 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.
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.
It’s a stunning reinterpretation, the translation of which was clearly not lost on Director Kevin Antoine.
Nicolas Michaux on Tucker Zimmerman
“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.”
On She’s an Easy Rider and video
“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.”
“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 support 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 perform in concert at Amsterdam’s Paradiso on May 3.