Video: Chaz Cardigan, ‘Rockwell’

Kevin Bronson on February 18th, 2022

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Chaz Cardigan makes caffeinated pop-rock songs about, in broad terms, how things are not always as they appear. Lately, he’s turned his songwriting chops on the good ol’ U.S. of A., and suffice to say that his new single “Rockwell” is definitely not Norman.

A native of small-town Kentucky who then migrated to Nashville and then L.A., Cardigan (born Chaz McKinney) released his debut album, “I,” in 2017 and followed with the EP “Holograma” in 2020. In L.A., he has been collaborating with the Nvak Collective, a talent incubator and label focused on female, non-binary and LGBTQ artists from emerging markets.

“Rockwell” is the third of those collaborations, and the video directed by Bia Jurema finds Cardigan, in two guises, living in (wink) domestic bliss. “I’m tailgating with the Bel-Air Baptists,” he proclaims giddily before the guitars lead into a shouted chorus that, well, rocks well. Then the song beaks down into a a couple of finger-snapping pop verses, diving into the idyllic American dream: “I’ve got you and God on my side.”

Says Cardigan: “Over the last few songs I’ve released I’ve been telling a story, and looking at my relationship with the United States as if it was my lover. In ‘We Look So Good’ and ‘Pictures,’ I’m picking apart the relationship and saying, ‘wow, this looks really unhealthy.’ ‘Rockwell’ is the fantasy of what the relationship could be. Total ecstasy in the white picket fence myth — traditional gender norms, power, and institutions that care about you. It’s a lie, but it’s fucking fun to believe in.”

“Rockwell” is one of a group of songs that will appear on a collection titled “Absymmetry,” release date TBA.

“This video is the best execution of an idea I’ve ever had, start-to-finish,” Chaz says. “Bia Jurema just got it. She really, fully understood what I was going for. We set out to make a complete visual album together that our last two videos are a part of, but ‘Rockwell’ was always the starting center of gravity for us. This sitcom, camp, queering of the American man; deconstructing what it feels like to be powerful and having a blast doing it.”

||| Watch: The video for “Rockwell”