American Idol season 14 winner Nick Fradiani has dropped the intriguing new music video for his latest single “Empire.” The clip depicts a group of survivors after a mysterious post-apocalyptic event. The story leaves the viewer with lots of questions. But according to Nick, it’s up to viewers to interpret the story’s message. The single is the singer/songwriter’s first release since his 2017 EP Where We Left Off and acoustic version of “Scared” in 2018.
American Idol’s Nick Fradiani Drops “Scared” Music Video
Nick kindly took a few minutes to answer my questions about the video and his new music via email. Also, he teases an upcoming surprise…
Could you talk about the inspiration for the “Empire” music video, which depicts a post-apocalyptic scenario not unlike the popular TV show, Walking Dead.
I went back and forth on what I wanted to do for the visual of EMPIRE. I had a bunch of different ideas, but after speaking with the director Spencer Kohn we worked out the concept you saw a few days ago with the official video. I had never done any sort of action type acting in a music video before so I was excited when we decided on the post apocalyptic vibe. I’m a huge Walking Dead fan so you can see that in the filming and wardrobe choices.
In the clip, a young boy plays a pivotal role. Is he a younger version of yourself? Or maybe I’m completely off base!
I knew the ending would bring about questions. Obviously I know what my intentions were with it, but I kind of like having the audience come up with their own hypothesis as to what took place with the young boy.
You wrote “Empire” with Nicholas Abraham and Eric Donnelly. Could you talk about that process? How is your sound evolving?
Eric, Nick and I have really grown comfortable together writing as a trio. This was one of our first songs together with Nick producing the track as well. The song is a bit more aggressive sounding than my earlier solo songs, but it felt so right going that direction with this song. The other songs coming have a slightly different feel, but I listen to so many different kinds of music that I don’t want to get locked into one genre. I’m just focusing on releasing well written songs that I’m proud of.
What’s next for Nick
We have a bunch of songs recorded waiting to come out through 2019-2020. I’m planning on releasing my next single “Even The Angels” in late August, and continue releasing one song at a time for a bit. Maybe at the end we’ll put everything together as an EP, but I’m not sure. I also have some big news to share very soon! It’s something pretty different and out of my comfort zone, but I think my fans are going to be super excited about it. I should be announcing in early August.
Watch Nick Fradiani’s Empire music video below.
