nicholas Franchise on ‘Worry ‘Bout’

Words by Hannah Powell.

Pōneke-based artist nicholas Franchise has released a brand spanking new music video to accompany track ‘Worry ‘Bout’ from his latest album. Featured on Return On Investment, the song explores the age-old saying of don’t sweat the small stuff. Reflecting stress, online abrasiveness, and morality in question, the track was written and produced by Nick Davies, the man behind the music. ‘Worry ‘Bout’ proudly presents nicholas Franchise’s pop-rock sound.

The music video is funded by NZ On Air and directed by friend David Argue, and it follows a rather ill-fated lighthouse keeper on a wild and stormy night. Having been described as lush and whiskey-soaked, the video most certainly satisfies with Wes Anderson-inspired aesthetic pleasures and cinematic tone. With Nick starring as the lighthouse keeper himself, he gets up to no good as a rather lax watcher of the seas. But when the lightbulb pops, plunging the lighthouse into darkness, chaos begins. Watch out for Robert Egger’s The Lighthouse influence.

Putting inner battles into perspective, ‘Worry ‘Bout’ is all about taking it easy. But for the music video, Nick says he wanted to pull away from the obvious advice and turn it on its head. “When David and I ran through basic ideas, something about someone taking it easy only for that to lead to huge chaos seemed much more interesting.”

Finding a lighthouse in Island Bay was the clincher, aided by Nick and David watching Egger’s 2019 horror. Just be careful what you worry about became the bottom line.

With the September ‘Spring Trot’ cancelled, the music video has come at a rather poignant time.

“It was a transcendent art-comes-to-life moment for me,” Nick said. “We were finalising the video release and preparing for the tour, but then we had to cancel. First set in woe, until the great irony ran through me, and yet again I was serenaded by the hook; be careful what you worry ‘bout”.

Although the tour will be rescheduled in the new year for a different season, you can catch nicholas Franchise at Meow on the 16 October for his revenge gig, Delta Destroyer.

“The show will be like a large-scale stage production of the video,” Nick says. “Only we’ll be the lighthouse keepers taking the light back from Delta to navigate the tumultuous waters of 2021”.