Belgian singer, songwriter and producer Nicolas Michaux shares new singlle “Peace of Mind #2,” a track is off his third album, Vitalisme, available October 18th via Capitane Records (Adam Green).

The second song on the album, “Peace of Mind #2” exposes a more personal side of Michaux’s writing. “This is a song I started working on as part of a socio-cultural project led by BOZAR in Brussels. A few months ago, I put it back on the table and decided to keep the chorus from my first version but change the verses and structure of the song,” he says of the song’s origin.

“The first verse is based on a poem I wrote a few years ago titled IRM (MRI in French) It was about my childhood and teeneage years, I just had to continue the story for the following verses. This song is undoubtedly an evolution in my journey as a songwriter. I recorded my parts in my cabin on Samsø. Léo Garnier then laid down a cool drum part and Rodriguez Vangama added percussions and guitar.”

Mixing French verses with an English chorus, the Belgian singer evokes his childhood, partly spent in hospitals, his youth in the streets of Paris, and his present in Denmark. It is a poetic biography of sorts, written in alexandrines interspersed with choruses in English evoking the nostalgia of a lost love. The disarming honesty and frankness of the text, combined with an original and catchy musical proposition, already make this song a classic in Michaux’s repertoire and undoubtedly one of his most beautiful songs to date.

The album’s title, Vitalisme, is both solar and mysterious, chosen by Michaux in homage to 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…”

Nicolas Michaux
Vitalisme
Tracklisting

Chaleur Humaine
Peace of Mind #2
Watching The Cars
Alma
She’s an Easy Rider
Réparations
A Long Time
Voir Le Jour
A Tiger Has Escaped From The Zoo
Le Léthé
Vitalisme
Au Revoir Ma Chérie

Nicolas Michaux 2024 Tour Dates

Oct 16 – Le Botanique – Brussels, BE
Oct 18 – Le Zèbre de Belleville – Paris, FR

order Vitalisme HERE