Out Friday: 'Good Man,' the latest album by Miles Francis

Today, New York City singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Miles Francis releases the final single and video from their upcoming album Good Man (out March 4), “Rainjacket.” Miles’ experiences during the project 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.

“Rainjacket” further explores masculinity and manhood, as Miles explains breaking out of gender normativity: “In the process, there is doubt, fragility and fear, but there is also hope, beauty and excitement for life.” The video features musicians on the album, including TEEN’s Lizzie Loveless & Lou Tides, ending with Miles in the arms of their mother, who also appears alongside their father on the album cover.

On March 4, Miles will host GOODMANAGANZA, an immersive album release event featuring a gallery installation, video screening and live performance at Porter Studio in Brooklyn, where the video was filmed with longtime collaborator Charles Billot. Following on March 5, they will perform on the back of a pickup truck driving around NYC in celebration of the album’s release.

Watch / Share: “Rainjacket”

Pre-Order: Good Man

Playing into the album’s themes and storyline are previous singles “Popular” (feat. Lizzie Loveless & Lou Tides, formerly of TEEN), “Let Me Cry,” “Nature” & “Service,” complete with mesmerizing boy band clone choreography that mirrors Miles' own recording process in quarantine.

“Everyone indulges in having an ego and wanting to be recognized, but men seem particularly bent on the power element — whether it’s taking up space in a room or leading a country,” says Francis. These were followed by remixes of "Popular" by Future Generations and “Service” from Overcoats, to love from KCRW, Earmilk, The Wild Honey Pie & beyond.

Produced by Francis and recorded in their longtime studio (located in the basement of the Greenwich Village building they grew up in), Good Man arrives as the most visionary and elaborately realized output yet from a polymathic artist known for collaborating with the likes of Angélique Kidjo, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, and Arcade Fire’s Will Butler.

Late last year, their B.O.Y. project featured covers of NSYNC's "I Want You Back" and 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 reframed to score a suspense film?”

“I grew up with boy-band posters from floor to ceiling in my bedroom, and that music very much dominated my life when I was young,” they point out. “Later on I studied Afrobeat music and started playing with different groups in that world, which helped me to get to a place where I could be totally free in my musical expression.” Also naming shapeshifters like Prince and David Bowie among their essential touchstones, Francis ultimately alchemized those inspirations into a highly percussive form of art-pop, both lavishly orchestrated and visceral in impact.

As an artist indelibly informed by the kinetic energy and eclecticism of New York City, Francis drew immense inspiration from their hometown: “At the start of the protests and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter, I realized the most direct way I could help was to get a drum and go out to marches and keep a beat for organizers,” says Francis, who soon assisted a friend in the founding of a New York-based collective called Musicians United.

“In the beginning the goal was to get involved with anti-racist work, but the experiences I had and the people I met through the Black Trans Lives Matter movement opened up my whole world. It gave me a new mirror to see myself in, and helped me to find my own queerness and nonbinaryness.”

Francis finally realized: “When I’m in my studio, it feels like being completely free of the outside world, free of gender, free of everything except me. I feel like I’m finally figuring out how to take that freedom beyond my musical expression and bring it into every aspect of my life. Now I want to share that feeling with everybody.”

About Miles Francis:

Polymathic artist Miles Francis is already known amongst musicians as one of the best kept secrets of the NYC music scene. Since they started playing – first the drums at 6, then guitar, bass, keyboards, other percussion – they have been an audiophile of the highest order. As a working musician, Miles has collaborated and performed with Sharon Jones, Amber Mark, Angelique Kidjo, Allen Toussaint, Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio) and many others; toured the world with Will Butler (Arcade Fire), Antibalas, and EMEFE; and appeared on shows like Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with David Letterman. 

Track listing:

1. Introduction (Ear to the Wall)
2. Service 02:35
3. Good Man 04:02
4. Let Me Cry 03:14
5. Popular 03:28
6. Help Me Up
7. Interlude (Eye on the Door)
8. Here For You
9. Look Away From Strangers
10. Nature 03:21
11. Rainjacket 04:16
12. Don't Fight Anymore