UK synth pop eccentric Daniel Pickard recounts a young man awakening to a world of excess on "Nominee"
Today, indie pop eccentric and British flâneur Daniel Pickard announces "Nominee," the latest offering from his forthcoming debut album Behaviour, released independently on October 23 via AWAL. Drawing upon the record's themes of made-up stories, astute observations, and exacting slights in the makeup of polite British society — all wrapped up in a sleek, danceable French Touch beat — the new single muses on decadence, pleasure, and power as a young man comes of age.
"'Nominee' is a young man’s awakening to a world of excess and the struggle of power dynamics," says M. Pickard on the new track. Set to a shimmering, relaxed synth pop melody, the narrator sets his eyes on a beautiful tour guide, letting his imagination run wild. "The subject is consumed with pleasure yet not at all confident in neither the protagonist’s nor his own use of it. The impetus is to feel something that he hasn’t previously by a disregard of consequence. The protagonist is the nominated tour guide.”
The "Nominee" visualizer, directed by Ben Poulton, captures the wittiness at the heart of Behaviour, taking on the form of a headless, retro karaoke lyric video that holds the mystery and not-so-concealed darkness of a Magritte-style symbolist painting. "There is the notion of Carl Jung’s shadow self here. I like to call it the anti-me — played by Ben in the video — who assumes control," says Pickard. As the two bodies dance and circulate props that represent the human characters of the song, he continues, "the subconscious devil isn’t fully disguised from either its victim or audience; my subconscious mind is making fun of me but is not completely in disguise as it thinks. This is represented in the clip where the green-screen is not fully perfected. "
Poutlon, who is also the creative director for Behaviour and designed both the album and single art, adds, "The cover for 'Nominee' is based on a press photo Daniel had taken. We wanted to keep it really simple, so we just recreated it with a mannequin. It turned out quite spooky really. What happens when you remove the subject from an image? How much of our image is made from ourselves and what is from our surroundings?" The visualizer teases those questions into a full, symbolist scenario. Poulton explains, "I wanted to have this funny interaction where, instead of dressing mannequins up to look like us, what if we make ourselves look like mannequins and remove our faces? Then we're sort of left with just personality."
Last month, Daniel Pickard shared his first single "Heartbeats the Flaw", which traces the euphoric highs and catastrophic lows of romance to a nonchalant, French-touch groove. Included in Rolling Stone's "Songs You Need To Know" series and described as "sexy, French, spring-time pop, proving that the accent is always inviting" (RUSSH) with "a glamour I can't fully explain" (Music 'N Gear), the song comes with a stylish visualizer directed by Axel Gillot that, like its star, never promises a straightforward story.
WATCH: "HEARTBEATS THE FLAW" (OFFICIAL VISUALIZER)
The Coventry-raised, London-based singer, songwriter, and musician — formerly of art-pop band Half Loon — has always been fascinated by social behaviors: the way people of all walks of life interact, the oddities of their movements. On his debut album Behaviour, sarcasm and self-deprecation hold sway on songs set in nineteenth-century gay brothels ("First Past the Pose"), swish hotel room afterparties ("Room Service"), New York basement bars, São Paolo’s Guarulhos airport ("São Paulo"), and offices decked out in naff IKEA furniture ("MD is a Pervert") — articulated via French pop, Italo disco, Serge Gainsbourg lyricism, and contributions from composer and violinist Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Pet Shop Boys) and composer Michael Stein (Stranger Things). There are songs about youthful naivety, about lacking the gumption to say how you feel. There’s even a love song: "Love On A Lie", originally written back in 2011 when Pickard was strung out in Sardinia after the breakdown of his first big romance.
On Behaviour, there’s a dichotomy between cynicism and romance, and a “take it or leave it” confrontation that runs through the album — “but I’m discomfited by the fact that you might leave,” he says, “because I really want you to take it.” And in contrast to some of the behaviors displayed by the characters in the songs — insecurity, immaturity, debauchery — there exists a refined, focused sensibility that binds the tracks together and speaks volumes about the kind of musical future Pickard sees for himself. “The album is very purposeful,” he says. “I’m not chancing it musically.”
Behaviour is out October 23, released independently via AWAL. Stay connected with M. Pickard on Instagram, YouTube, Bandcamp, and the artist's website for future updates.
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