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Jan 06, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Ronan Siri Wax Tailor

French hip hop producer and musician Wax Tailor has released his latest single, “Just a Candle,” premiering with Under the Radar. Wax Tailor, born Jean-Christophe Le Saoût, has returned with his first album in five years, The Shadow Of Their Suns. The album features a prodigious list of collaborators including Del the Funky Homosapien, D Smoke, the late Gil Scott-Heron, Adeline, and Mark Lanegan of The Screaming Trees. The dystopic video for Tailor’s previous single, “Misery” (ft. Rosemary Standley), has also already won acclaim from the New York International Film Awards, Los Angeles Independent Shorts Awards, New York Oniros Film Awards, and Cannes Indie Shorts Awards.

From the opening cinematic arrangement, “Just A Candle” instantly shines with evident craftsmanship. Tailor brings out a brilliant contrast between the skittering percussion, an alluring bassline, and Mark Lanegan’s sonorous vocals. The combination departs somewhat from the sample-heavy instrumental of “Misery,” but is no less effective in its moody presentation. It offers the perfect stage for Lanegan’s rich vocal style, while the impeccable production brings all the elements together with razor-sharp clarity. For the accompanying video Tailor once again worked with director and animator Berkay Turk. Whereas the video for “Misery” was an ethereal dystopian vision of the future, “Just A Candle” is a space-faring sci-fi adventure, colored by striking otherworldly visuals. It’s an imaginative whirlwind befitting the shadowy beauty of the track.

Tailor says of the song, “I started working on the demo, early 2019 & immediately called it ‘Candle.’ I had this vision of a candle as an allegory of life. The candle that illuminates us, burns out, and one day turns off. I had scenes in mind and I wanted to play on the contrast between a dry and dark rhythm and incandescent arrangements to illustrate this path of life. I added the gimmick of the blown candle that illustrates the unknown. I then invited Mark who injected his print to the song.”

Tailor continues, “The first time I heard Mark Lanegan I was still in high school, and his friend Kurt Cobain was still alive. 30 years later, it’s hard to get into an exhaustive list of his discography, between the Screaming Trees, his solo albums, his albums with Isobel Campbell, Queen Of The Stone Age, and many others. I’ve been hoping for a long time that one day I’d have a title for him. When I started the demo, I immediately thought it was the right one. I contacted him in the spring of 2019 to propose it and he answered me in the simplest way possible. We met during his last tour in France and we continued to work remotely. I am very proud of this title, this meeting, and what Mark brings to it. In a music industry where bending your back is often a conditioned reflex, Mark is a great humble man who goes through the decades without artifice, with talent and righteousness.” Check out the song and video below and watch for The Shadow of Their Suns, coming January 8.