MILES FRANCIS INTERVIEW

New York City singer, songwriter & multi-instrumentalist Miles Francis recently announced their new album Good Man (out March 4), along with title track “Good Man.”

Francis experienced a complete unraveling of conditioning during the project that helped them come out as non-binary, resulting in works of gorgeous paradox: nuanced explorations of masculinity and all its trappings, presented in a sound that’s joyfully unfettered. Today, Francis continues this process with their B.O.Y. project, debuted via COOL HUNTING and featuring twisted modern covers of *NSYNC's “I Want You Back” & Backstreet Boys’ “The Call.”

While Francis’ childhood walls were lined floor to ceiling with boy band photos from J-14 and Tiger Beat, upon returning to those songs throughout the years, they’ve become more problematic and sinister — written by grown men and sung by boys asking for forgiveness despite their wrongdoings. “I wanted to unearth the darker energy within the songs and put it front and center,” Francis explains. “What if an *NSYNC song was sung by a man's dark subconscious? What if a Backstreet Boys song was re-framed to score a suspense film?”

Miles chatted with INTERLOCUTOR about their recent show opening for the Afrobeat band Antibalas at the Brooklyn Bowl, their thoughts on their recent single “Good Man,” how #MeToo inspired their recent work, and more.

Interview by Interlocutor Magazine

You put on a super fun and energetic show opening for the Afrobeat band Antibalas at the Brooklyn Bowl on Saturday, November 13. There were comical multiple outfit changes, a heartfelt dance through the audience with a silver mannequin, unique Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC covers (what were the songs?), and some quite dry-humored stage banter. Could you tell us a little about your performance ideas and overall inspirations for the show?

Thank you :-) Firstly, the boy band songs were “I Want You Back” by *NSYNC and “The Call” by Backstreet Boys, and they will be released on December 2nd!

I approach my performances with as much openness and spontaneity as possible. Comedy group improv is a big inspiration for my live shows — there are different improv concepts and philosophies that I draw from to approach each performance like its own unique occurrence, even if I’m playing the same setlist as my previous show.

I also love the idea that a song has a specific movement and action associated with it, another part of the song itself — something that dancers know innately. I also feel an obsessive need to break out of the normal band performance convention and shake people up a bit, and whatever that means specifically morphs from month-to-month. Ultimately, onstage I strive to be the most me I can be, which can go any direction depending on the show.

Miles performing with their band at Brooklyn Bowl

About your new single “Good Man” you’ve said, “It’s sung by a man who preaches progressive values, who identifies as ‘one of the good ones’ — yet he fails to recognize his perpetuation of patriarchal behavior in his own life.” Why did you decide to release this song as your first single off the album, and how do you think it fits thematically with the album as a whole?

Since #MeToo reignited conversations on how patriarchy affects our culture and lives, I’ve thought a lot about what it means to be a man, and further, a “good man.” The idea that a man is “one of the good ones” is more and more feeling like a myth to me, because we see time and time again that men who posture as “good” get into the same toxic patterns as “bad” men. The key, in my opinion, is to let go of the notion of a “good man” altogether, because it imbues a sense of ego and a performativity that immediately misses the point.

We need a new definition of manhood that is purely supportive of others, self-reflective about their conditioning, and conscious of the privileges they move through the world with. My album is about a man’s internal world — his anxieties, insecurities, fears — and how it manifests externally, and what happens when he confronts that tension.

The video for “Good Man” starts off with you in a glam-rock-esque outfit and makeup fleeing something and winding up before a mirror where you sing to your reflection (and it sings back to you) while you try out different outfits and looks. How did you come up with the whole concept for the video and how closely did you work with director and DP Charles Billot in putting it all together?

The two main outfits in the Good Man video are two characters that I envisioned for my album cover. The outfits are different takes on two classic American man looks: blue jeans and white t-shirt, and a business suit. I’m exploring man’s ability to hold many different sides, sometimes very different from each other.

In quarantine 2020, I started making videos of myself in my studio performing each instrument using a clone effect. This was my way of showing my internal world when recording music, layering each instrument one by one, which I have done since I was a child. That video-cloning process then turned into the concept behind my album cover and music videos, where showing multiple Mileses was a way to represent different versions of the same person, which is a theme of my album.

Charles Billot and I worked very closely to translate the cloning effect from my little studio videos to full-fledged music videos. I have been working with Charles for many years, so he knows exactly how to bring my weird visions to life!