Watch Rich Aucoin’s New Video for “How It Breaks”

By: Staff –

Rich Aucoin. (Photo: Jessica Jameson)

Rich Aucoin shares the video for new single “How It Breaks”. Written in Arcosanti, Arizona while Aucoin was cycling across the United States on a tour for mental health charities, “How It Breaks” is a call to action and references several classic songs of protest. “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. 

The song references Aretha Franklin, Rage Against The Machine, Funkadelic, Rolling Stones and the production of Rihanna. “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.” 

“How It Breaks” was recorded in Toronto at Taurus by Thomas D’arcy (TWRP/Yukon Blonde) with an all-star vocal group: Kyla Charter (Patrick Watson/July Talk), Simone Denny (Love Inc.), James Baley (U.S. Girls), Maylee Todd, and Tarik Henry. 

The video was edited by Aucoin from over a hundred videos of current news to historical footage. “I wanted to created a link between the protesting of the present and the past. 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.”