Francis Baptiste Lays His Coronary heart Naked on New Single “Lease Free in My Thoughts” + Publicizes New Tour Dates
Along with his signature mix of uncooked honesty, retro attraction, and deeply lived storytelling, Francis Baptiste returns with “Lease Free In My Thoughts”, a weak new single about love, reminiscence, and the grace of second probabilities. Following the hard-hitting “Aspirin for the Soul”, Baptiste now turns inward — buying and selling the blues of survival for the quiet ache of nostalgia.
“Recollections of you / and the considerate belongings you do / stay hire free in my thoughts,” he sings with heat and weariness. The monitor, out August 1, blends basic pop-rock textures with the center of a person who’s grateful simply to nonetheless be right here.
“It’s a little bit tacky, a little bit retro,” Baptiste admits. “However I’ve to remind myself — I’m a 41-year-old retro man. Typically you gotta let an previous canine do his previous canine music.”
Baptiste handles vocals and guitar, backed by a trusted circle of collaborators: Rob Thomson (bass), Max Ley (drums), Ricardo Pequenino (vocals, piano), and Kevin McCarthy (backup vocals). Collectively, they channel one thing between The Automobiles and Poison — a “dad rock” vitality that’s worn-in, melodic, and honest.
The story behind the track is as disarming because the lyrics themselves.
“My accomplice Brittany and I had a tough begin,” Baptiste shares. “I used to be hiding a extreme alcohol and cocaine dependancy, and he or she was principally an angel. Finally, I got here clear to her — standing beneath an awning in Chinatown, ducking from the rain. That second modified my life.”
That honesty carries into each line of Lease Free In My Thoughts:
“My hand grazed your leg / the primary evening we met / I used to be a gentleman / with all my little lies…”
The track doesn’t glamorize the previous — it merely lives in it, holding each the injury and the devotion in the identical breath.
The music video, filmed at Vancouver’s iconic Khatsahlano Competition (on Baptiste’s birthday), is a celebration of that very love story — weaving candid residence movies with sunlit efficiency footage of the band. “It’s one of many few lighthearted moments on this in any other case bleak and forthright album,” he says of the video, which additionally options Brittany.
“Lease Free In My Thoughts” is the second single from Baptiste’s forthcoming album Lived Expertise in East Vancouver, out this October. The album paperwork dependancy, restoration, fatherhood, and survival in considered one of Canada’s most misunderstood communities. Baptiste works within the Downtown Eastside on the DUDES Membership, a males’s well being group — a task that informs each lyric.
“I take care of my very own dependancy and the dependancy of others day by day,” he says. “This album is what that actuality seems like.”
Baptiste’s journey has by no means been linear. A near-fatal accident in 2021 after a DUI — which tragically killed two horses — turned the wake-up name he couldn’t ignore.
“The considered my son rising up with out me was very sobering,” he’s mentioned.
Since then, his music has turn out to be a car for therapeutic — with previous albums like Sneqsilx (Household) and Senklip, the Trickster mixing blues, people, and songs in his endangered Nsyilxcən language.
He’ll take these tales on the highway this summer season, with upcoming reveals throughout BC and Ontario, together with the Vine Arts Competition (Aug 15), Burnaby Roots and Blues Competition (Aug 9), and Wolf Island (Sept 19).
As a result of some reminiscences harm. Some heal. And a few — like those in “Lease Free In My Thoughts” — do each directly.
“Lease Free In My Thoughts” is weak and nostalgic — what particular second or feeling sparked the concept for this track?
Round that point, I had been listening to the phrase used lots, and other people on social media had been speaking about what lives rent-free of their minds, and it acquired me occupied with the issues that stay rent-free in my thoughts. And in the end, the one factor I might consider was my household. My accomplice and my son. All the pieces else kinda weighs on me. You spend a lot of your life simply making an attempt to erase the whole lot; there are only some issues that give me consolation. It advanced from there and ultimately turned a track about my relationship with my accomplice, Brittany.
That lyric — “I used to be a gentleman with all my little lies” — cuts deep. How did it really feel to write down and share that sort of self-awareness?
Relationship somebody new once you’re an addict is hard. Since you’re probably not in a spot the place you have to be courting. Additionally, addicts are likely to suppose they’re doing higher than they really are. There’s numerous self-deception that occurs once you’re making an attempt to be a standard functioning one that’s utilizing medication and alcohol lots. So should you’re combating dependancy and also you meet somebody new, you’re on this bizarre place of eager to be trustworthy however not eager to scare this particular person away. Additionally, what’s an applicable first date dialog? “Oh, by the best way, I’m a raging alcoholic and cocaine addict,” would possibly really feel like oversharing on a primary date. So, is it Second Date materials? Or do you look forward to the third date? Now immediately, you’ve by chance acquired your self caught up in principally dwelling a lie with this particular person you want. You’re making an attempt to impress this particular person. And on the identical time, this particular person makes you need to be one of the best model of your self, so that you’re aspiring to be that particular person you’re pretending to be, and possibly failing. That line of the track was me reflecting on all of that.
This is likely one of the few lighthearted moments on an in any other case heavy album. Why did “Lease Free” should be a part of Lived Expertise in East Vancouver?
It’s vital, I believe, to sometimes remind your self of the nice issues in life. Sadly, even my good reminiscences and optimistic experiences are tinged with the failings of dependancy. I really like my household, however I’ve put them by way of lots lately. That is meant to be a love track to my accomplice, however on the identical time, it’s acknowledging that I wasn’t an excellent accomplice by way of most of our relationship. I’m nonetheless striving to turn out to be an excellent particular person, however that comes with penance.
You’ve lived each line you write — from the Downtown Eastside to the DUDES Membership. How does your day-to-day work form the music you make?
It’s a each day battle. All the pieces is a labour. You simply should study to like the work. That’s the factor I’m nonetheless studying day by day. I meet individuals who’ve been sober for 30 years and inform me it’s nonetheless in the future at a time and there’ll at all times be onerous days. I see individuals struggling by way of it at all ages, each totally different stage of their life, each stage of their restoration journey. So far as I can inform, there’s no launch. Nothing will ever emancipate you from the battle of dwelling. So simply get used to it. The one liberation I’ve present in forty years is that it helps to placed on an excellent album every now and then.
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