Nicole-Marie’s “Audience of One” brings Jesus to a bar and a park near you

Jesus gets a guitar solo in “Audience of One,” the latest music video from Nicole-Marie, the pan-spiritual Tacoma, Washington, singer/songwriter.

And, naturally, Jesus nails it.

“Every now and then I choose a song that I have a music video idea for, and that’s what happened with ‘Audience of One,’ ” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I have this perfect music video idea with Jesus, and he’s my audience of one.’ ”
 

The video story is Nicole–Marie, perched on a stool, singing the opening lines, deep into her song, with her eyes closed. She pauses, opens her eyes, and finds herself playing to an audience of one, a guy in the far corner reading a newspaper.

The drunk passed out on the bar isn’t paying attention.

When the man in the corner puts the newspaper down, he is revealed as Jesus. Nicole-Marie, in her rich, vibrant voice, and the band launch into the song as Jesus invites her to a playdate in the park.

Audience of one

Let us have some fun

For you’re all I need

And you’re all I want

Jesus and Nicole-Marie stroll through woodland paths and meadows, swinging, dancing on the grass, sitting by the water. It is a fun video.

She got the inspiration for the title and theme of “Audience of One” from Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor and author. It refers to living and performing, whatever one’s niche in life, for an “audience of one” — Jesus. It has become a theme in evangelical Christianity.

“As long as Jesus is your audience, that’s all that matters,” she said.

Nicole-Marie’s song takes it to a different level, conceptually, spiritually and personally.

“I am not an orthodox Christian by any means. I would say I’m more nondenominational and/or Gnostic. Gnostic Christianity was one of the earlier sects. It was like, okay, we can look at, we can talk about reincarnation, or we can look into astrology, and those things aren’t considered evil or of the devil.”

She said she wanted the video to be fun.

“I see Jesus as kind of a jokester, a prankster. He doesn’t want to be worshipped so much as he wants to be your friend. That’s how I wanted to portray him.”

In her life of spirit and her life of music, Nicole-Marie moves as the Spirit leads her. She wrote, recorded and released “Audience of One” in 2019 on her album Oaths of Abundance. But it took her until now to find the other pieces for the video.

Actually, two actors, one band, a production company and a producer. Nicole-Marie likes to give props where props are due.

“I just couldn't find the right actor to play Jesus because, you know, it’s a pretty big part,” she said. She advertised on Backstage and found Jordan Nancarrow.

“And he is perfect — perfect! — for the role. He did a great job.”

Her session band was The Cosmic Shuffle. Guitarist David Salonen played for Jesus, and Wyatt Slaughter played the drunk.

“I always knew Jesus would be playing the guitar solo in the video, even before we recorded the song, so I told the guitarist, ‘I want a kick-ass guitar solo,’ because I knew it had to fit the spirit of Jesus right,” she said.

“And he did a great job. I turned around after I heard it and gave him two thumbs up in the studio.”

The video was produced by Smokescreen Media. Oaths of Abundance, the album that “Audience of One” came from, was recorded at Bear Creek Recording Studio in Woodinville, Washington. The producer was Taylor Carroll.

Personally, she relates to the audience-of-one concept in that she has struggled to find an audience as a singer/songwriter and musician.

That was a partial inspiration for the song, but also, she says, church and the Bible. That gave her the chorus.

Then there was a vocal coach who urged her to do demonic chants and visualize the worst things possible.

“And I felt like there was some kind of demonic energy at work there. She promised me all these things, and it could have been a gateway, to sell out, so to speak, but I stopped answering her calls.”

She wrote the verses as rejection notices for the demons.

“Nope. I reject that. Even if it’s a gateway to larger success, I’d rather just stick with my audience of one.”

She recently performed her first show since before the pandemic. She is preparing two more music videos now that she has hooked up with Smokescreen Media.

She does seek an audience, she said, “of respectful, nice people who are open-minded, not judgmental, who want to evolve, want to learn and want to become more Christ-like.”

She means like the Christ who stands up for everybody, beginning with the lowliest.

The video ends back at the bar, just as the drunk is waking up. Jesus of the flowing robes has disappeared. He is now the busboy.

“Originally, I wanted him to be the janitor, but then we switched it. We all have a part of Jesus or the Holy Spirit or whatever you want to call it within us. And yeah, he could be the janitor. He could be the bartender. He could be the busboy. He could be the drunk guy. He could be anybody, and so you want to treat everybody with respect and kindness.”

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