Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and in an unfortunate number of cases they seem determined to drag the rest of us along with them. That seems to be lesson in that latest single from Rich Aucoin, “How it Breaks,” but that’s just half of it. Optimistically, Aucoin offers the single up as a protest song, stating: “it’s over when we say so and it’s already time.”
For reasons which by now should be obvious to everyone but the willfully oblivious, Aucoin crafted “How it Breaks” as his call to action. Aucoin who has veered from parachute-paired party songs to weave dystopian themes and visuals through his most recent album has taken the next step of rallying against such potentially flawed future.
What’s a movement without a little momentum, though? Aucoin stands on the shoulders of giants, referencing artists like Aretha Franklin, Rage Against The Machine, Funkadelic, Rolling Stones, and the production of Rihanna (which, come to think of it, already sounds a lot like the Joey Kramer’s drum beat from Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” but with a stutter).
“After listening to David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’, I got into the idea about referencing a song which is also referencing a song as that song’s bridge references The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’,” says Aucoin.
“I thought this would be a great track to re-purpose the beat from ‘Umbrella’ as I weaved other ideas of the familiar. I was thinking about the connection between the past and present on this song. I thought the referential spirit would be an interesting thing to play off while attempting to write a protest song in the lineage of protest songs.”
Working with Thomas D’arcy (TWRP/Yukon Blonde) at Taurus in Toronto, Aucoin pulls together the sort of perfection reserved for the likes of David Foster and Andraé Crouch, while being backed by his own dreamtime of vocalists include Kyla Charter (Patrick Watson/July Talk), Simone Denny (Love Inc.), James Baley (U.S. Girls), Maylee Todd, and Tarik Henry.
“I wanted to created a link between the protesting of the present and the past,” says Aucoin edited together the video himself from over a hundred clips of current news and historical footage. “The idea was to demonstrate that the protests happening now that one can still choose to get involved with or not will be what future generations look back on the same way we revere the importance of protests of the past. The protests of today are making history and will be remembered; already the Women’s March has aged with the understanding that it is amongst the greatest protests. I hoped that, watching the video, someone may feel inspired to join in the next time a call for action is made.”
That being said, maybe hold off on any marches for the next 6-12 months. Yeah, we’re talking to you, Michigan.