Nicole Atkins Shares 'Trippin' on Teardrops' Video
(BHM) Nicole Atkins has shared the official music video for her latest single, "Trippin' on Teardrops". Filmed on location in a historic turn-of-the-century mansion in her home state of New Jersey, "Trippin' on Teardrops" marks the opening track on Atkins' eagerly awaited new album, Drama, arriving via Sun Records/Wicked Game Records on Friday, September 18.
"After wrestling with what this song wanted to be for a while, I had the chorus. Like an SOS," Atkins tells FLOOD. "Then my good old pal Peter Moren from Peter Bjorn and John was visiting Nashville, and we were writing, and I showed him this chorus, which he loved, and I just put down the verse words which I thought I'd replace because I was almost embarrassed at how pitiful they sounded, but that was just the state of my life at that time. Lonely and dreaming and wishing things were different. The person I was missing most was myself, but sometimes it just takes a good friend to shine a light to get ya through it."
Atkins continues, "I wrote 'Trippin' on Teardrops' during a long period of time where I was having all these insane sleep issues. "Never being able to fall asleep and then waking up sometimes after two days of sleep. It was like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from. Burnout? Maybe. Depression? Mostly because of sleep issues. And it was at a time where it seemed like the world was business as usual and I was watching it all go by in my dreams.
"When it came time to make the video, Caleb Herring, Sun Records cameraman extraordinaire, flew up to the Jersey shore while I was visiting family. We had two days to figure something out, and my high school friend came through with this estate he was taking care of that was now owned by the NJ Parks system. It was from the early 1900s and had a bajillion stunning rooms, bathing tunnels, grounds, etc. it also had all these fishing trophies that were left there, so an idea came quickly... A glamorous woman wakes up in her gorgeous estate, and as you follow her day, you see her seemingly perfect life is not all it's cracked up to be when your only company is the dead and shellacked fishes on the walls."
Atkins' seventh studio album and first all-new full-length release in over six years, Drama also includes such standouts as the anthemic "Singing In The Mirror" and the acclaimed first single, "When the Night Falls," the latter hailed by Stereogum as "a shimmering, slow-building piece of old-school pop excellence" and joined by an official music video streaming now on YouTube.
Largely recorded live over four productive days in her current home base of Nashville, TN, with GRAMMY Award-nominated musician/producer Pat Sansone (Wilco, The Autumn Defense, Robyn Hitchcock), Drama sees Atkins exploring the isolation, separation, and loneliness of a long-distance marriage through her signature fusion of musical genres and intimate lyrical songcraft. The album came together at the behest of her close friend and touring partner Chris Isaak, who signed her to Sun Records as part of his strategic alliance with the historic label as both artist and curator of new projects with his new imprint, Wicked Game Records. Drama spans style and era with smart design and an irrepressible buoyancy, from the girl group rush of "Trippin' On Teardrops" and Memphis soul-styled "For No One" to the James Bond-meets-Stevie Nicks noir of "Danny" and the wonderfully moody duet with Isaak, "Cue The Symphony."
"I've been in love with Nicole's songs for many years and have always followed her career," says Chris Isaak. "She and I are so simpatico when it comes to the music that inspires us, and she has a unique way of distilling that into her songwriting. She's a true craftsman and an incredible singer. When it came time to start the label, she was my first thought. I'm so honored that she's the label's first signing, and I love 'Drama!'"
Accompanied by her touring band, guitarist John Paul Keith and drummer Danny Banks, with contributions by Sansone, in-demand drummer Eric Slick (Dr. Dog, Robyn Hitchcock, Brian Fallon), The Texas Gentlemen's Dan Creamer, and Scottish troubadour Davey Horne, Atkins once again showcases her alchemical ability to transform myriad influences into singular sonic statements, leaning into the deeply personal in her ongoing quest to "write modern songs that could be part of the Great American Songbook." Through it all, Atkins's vivid, unabashedly dramatic voice flies far above easy comparison. Neo-classicist, retro-futurist, and transcendental medium - Drama makes it plain that Nicole Atkins somehow remains all of those things while always wholeheartedly following her own muse.
"I'm not trying to rehash or celebrate some bygone era," Nicole Atkins says. "I'm just taking what I like melodically from the past and channeling it into my songs. I like to make them deeply personal. The question I come back to is - how do I make this sound exactly like me?"
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