Multi-Faceted artist Tom Connan has just released a remix of his song "Chaos" which tackles the subject of drug addiction in a very direct and realistic manner. I just had to know what inspired Tom to "go there" so without further adieu let's Hump Day & Chill with Tom Connan!
MS: I love your song Chaos, obviously it resonates with many others as you did a "Black Mix" of it and a whole new video. What made you decide to do a song addressing drug addiction?
TC: I wanted to make a song addressing drugs because several friends of mine fell into that trap, went to rehab etc. It's a horrible phenomenon which is also closely linked to everyone's personal history. Nobody takes cocaine or things like that just because it's "fun". I see a lot of people feeling depressed and trying to escape with drugs. To my own point of view, I think our modern society creates a lot of psychological frustration which sometimes become a real pathology. It's not exactly the same as alcohol, even if it's also some kind of drug, after all. But with cocaine, or heroin, people are looking for something new, some brutal effect in order to erase their negative thoughts. Except it doesn't work. However, I have a lot of empathy for drug addicts as life can sometimes be a very sad and tough experience.
MS: Requiem For A Dream is one of my favorite films. I am guessing you have seen it based on the video. What are your thoughts on it?
TC: I love Requiem For A Dream and I'm very happy that you mention it. I was a child when I first saw it, but then I saw it again a few years ago and I was absolutely fascinated. Not only because it's so realistic, but also because it has this ability to grab you and force you to see what you don't want to see. I think this is precisely where cinema is the best among any other arts. With the combination of music and images, you can't help but looking at it and being focused. Of course normal people feel bad when they see that kind of movie, but sometimes we need to see embarrassing things to increase our awareness about something. I enjoy feeling embarrassed. All the time we watch stupid shows and stupid ads on TV, and it's easy for the mind. With movies like Requiem For A Dream, or Fight Club, or Eyes Wide Shut, we really learn something and become someone new -at some level.
MS: While you show plenty of skin in the re-mix video, you showed a little more in the video for the single. Why did you decide to leave your booty out this time?
TC: Lol, I don't want to show that booty too often. More seriously, this new video was something like the "dark" side of the first one. With the original video, I was trying to show the recreational aspect of taking drugs, which is obvious for everyone. With this second one, I wanted to describe how it can evolve. I have the feeling that in any phenomenon, we can find a "positive" and a "negative" side -we all know that-, but also that we can't delete one part for the other. You can't have the positive if you don't want to take the risk associated with it. If you want to have fun, you have to accept that, at some point, you can put your life at risk. It's the same in love affairs. Love can be a fantastic experience, but when it ends -which happens quite often- it can drive you nuts, so nuts that you want to kill yourself. Love is dangerous, drugs are dangerous, life is inherently dangerous.
MS: Your look in the video is very reminiscent of David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth. Especially when you are shirtless, am I on to something?
TC: Honestly I don't know very much of David Bowie, I was more into singers like Michael Jackson (or even Marilyn Manson). That said, I'm a big fan of transgender and genderfluid pop icons like Bowie, Cher or Prince. Playing with feminine and masculine sides of the human body is so interesting. My own body changed quite a lot the last few years, and I enjoyed all the different levels, if I can say so. We only live once, for me, we need to experience different versions of ourselves. French poet Arthur Rimbaud said something like that in the 19th century.
MS: I love that Tom Connan has gotten freer and more out there creatively.
TC: I think you're totally right about the "freer" person I became. Back a few years ago, I was obsessed with other people's opinion. Now, I just don't give a fuck. My work is not understood by everybody, including in my family, and I think that's good. If you follow what your parents or your brothers want you to do, you'll never achieve your dream. We need to stick to our own model, that nobody can copy. There are tons of singers and artists out there, I don't want to look like them. I want to express my personal, and radical freedom. Otherwise it's absolutely useless.
MS: Spill about your other ventures outside the music world.
TC: The last two years I worked a lot on other ventures outside the music world, I changed the project name many times, and I finally decided to simply choose one name for every division of the brand: Connan. That's simple, that's neutral, that's honest -it's my real last name- and there's no confusion with my full artist name. It's currently a website (connan.io) when you'll soon be able to find different cultural products: music (not only mine), tv, books, fashion and art. I'm currently working with other artists for the music division, as well as authors for the publishing division. It's super exciting as I'm working on several levels at the same time: my next novel will be published by a well-known French publisher called Albin Michel, but I will also publish myself other authors as an entrepreneur. It's great to have this opportunity to work as an author as well as a publisher. The best is yet to come.
MS: If you could be any famous person fictional or not, who would you be?
TC: I'd love to be Tyler Durden, that Fight Club character played by Brad Pitt. He's gorgeous, he's radical, he's clever, he wants to revolt against society. That's a role model for me. No joke.
