WATCH: Rich Aucoin made a powerful anti-Trump video

Halifax indie pop showman Rich Aucoin launched the video for a new protest song this week. The video for “How It Breaks” is a montage of the American anti-Trump movement in action, as well as various Trump administration scandals and related protest efforts. While Trump is referenced and featured repeatedly in the clips, his face and name are censored throughout.

Aucoin explained how the song makes a meta-reference to David Bowie’s “Young Americans.” “I got 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’,” he says.

“How It Breaks” also samples Rihanna. “I thought this would be a great track to re-purpose the beat from ‘Umbrella’ [with] as I weaved [together] other ideas of the familiar. I was thinking about the connection between the past and present when I wrote this. 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.”

Rich Aucoin website.

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Cult MTL is a daily web and monthly print publication focusing on Montreal music, arts, culture and city life. Along with interviewing local and visiting artists, promoters and entrepreneurs, we feature analysis and criticism by our editorial staff and crew of columnists and freelancers, compile comprehensive event listings, curate a daily To-Do List and run the annual Best of MTL readers poll.