“I think we put a lot of stock in debut albums and how they’re supposed to be some kind of mission statement for a career to come,” muses Noah Sacré, better known as Speelburg. Five years is a long time spent ruminating your debut – the follow-up to 2015’s EP Lay It Right – but for Sacré it was evident that you only get one chance to make a first impression. Enter Porsche, due out September 18, 2020.
“These songs paint a pretty clear portrait of who I was when I was writing them,” he explains of the process that engrossed his twenties. But, this drive to acquire his definition of success has been seeded in Sacré’s mind since childhood. “When I about 6 or 7, I was like ‘oh Mom, when I’m big and famous, I’m gonna drive you to [French supermarket] Super You in a Porsche,’ which is so weird,” he laughs. “Because Mom’s not around anymore, I figured naming the album Porsche is the next best thing. I’m not gonna buy her a Porsche, but I will make an album that is infused with my Mom and my family in general.”
As is the way when you grow up flitting across the world, Sacré is immensely close to his family. His American mother and Belgian father raised four children in the south of France, and Sacré himself flits between France, Los Angeles and Brighton in the UK. At this point in his life – and especially following the death of his mother in 2011 – his childhood has morphed from merely being his past into a realm of nostalgia. Organically, canonizing his childhood in his music is Sacré’s means of paying homage to his family.
Porsche is one of two albums that could have been Speelburg’s debut, the other being Character Actor and – ever the prolific songwriter – Sacré is already dipping into his third. After years spent compromising his artistic vision as part of bands and writing and producing for other artists, he is relishing not having to water down his creative output. “For the first few years of Speelburg, I was like ‘I’ve gotta make a record that’s exactly me’…and, more or less, that is Porsche. I don’t just want to write pop bangers, I want to write weird stuff that I’d want to listen to.”
Glide is proud to premiere the song and video for “Crash & Burn,” (below) the third single and video off Porsche. The self-directed video was filmed in Brighton, England, and is stylistically an homage to Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, while featuring the Brighton & Hove Scorpions American Football Club. Speelburg proves himself as a modern mix master and influencer chaining together hip hop peculiarities and indie rock bravado.
“The song was influenced by early 90’s Dust Brothers, Cut Chemist, The Avalanches, and dips into EMI’s back-catalogue for a bit of experimentation. “It was fun being able to chop samples up and add all these different weird moods to it,” Sacré’ remarks. “At times it’s quite baggy, at times it’s a bit moodier and has these distorted acoustic guitars.”
“I really like wide shots and so much of the stuff I direct is directly inspired from 90’s Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry videos with some Wes Anderson symmetry thrown in to satisfy the eye, : adds Sacré. “I also love taking seemingly macho things like football and showing the brutal and tender sides. There doesn’t seem to be enough football players making out in music videos, so I thought we’d try and fill this current sports-less void with a little reflection on the culture around it.”
www.speelburg.com
