New York City singer, songwriter & multi-instrumentalist Miles Francis releases the newest single and video from their upcoming album Good Man (out March 4), “Nature.” Francis’ 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.

On the eerie and enchanting track, Miles interrogates manhood and male nature: “What is in a man’s nature, and how was it planted there? Their fathers or their grandfathers? Movies or simply just coming of age in a patriarchal society?,” Miles asked themselves. “I also thought about the many meanings and uses of the word ‘nature.’ It is what surrounds us and gives us life, it’s a sunny day or a thunderstorm, it is beautiful – yet can also be brutal. In humans, one’s ‘nature’ signifies an inherited quality that you seemingly can’t help but embody.” 

Filmed in New Jersey, the video features the singer-songwriter coming to terms with their own father, trumpeter Leif Arntzen, who also appears on the album cover. 

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. Following 2018’s Swimmers EP & 2019’s Doves EP, Francis will release their new album Good Man on March 4, 2022.

Photo Courtesy: Shervin Lainez