Hearing Rich Aucoin’s voice on the phone takes me back. To Mr. Seely’s Grade 11 English class, to dozens of house parties and dances with Ja Rule and Nelly—of course—to Aucoin’s very first show at the late, great Tribeca in 2007.
In a lot of ways, he and I grew up together, and despite the passage of time it feels like we’re right back there, laughing on the phone; only this one’s not a landline and his mom (likely) won’t tell him to hang up and go to bed.
The conversation makes me feel, well, nostalgic. Which is fitting because Aucoin’s new track and the name of his tour—New Nostalgia—is all about enjoying a visit to the past, but not living there.
It has been almost 20 years since Aucoin’s first show and a lot has changed, but it seems a lot has also stayed the same. He is talking to me from his bedroom of the apartment he used to share with a mutual friend—they signed the lease in August of 2006. At that time, as friends started their law and medical degrees, he wasn’t overly confident that he could make a go of music as a profession.
“All my friends were pursuing higher level education and I was like ‘come check out my show at Gus’s’ and then end the night with 50 bucks,” says Aucoin. “The thought of actually doing this for a living at the very start seemed pretty far-fetched.”
In another beautiful turn of synchronicity, Aucoin tells me he actually used to split his time between working at the Adidas store and delivering—you guessed it—The Coast in its newspaper form. The gigs gave him cash in his pocket and the time and space to work out new musical ideas and plan his tours.
(Funny sidebar: Aucoin had to choose between delivering The Coast or having his album release covered by The Coast. A conflict of interest meant he couldn’t have both. He decided a story would be more valuable to his career than dropping it off on a doorstep would be.)
By the time he'd released his 2011 debut, We're All Dying to Live, Aucoin had made friends and collaborators all across the country and developed a reputation as a captivating live act. Subsequent releases like 2014's Ephemeral and 2019's Release only bolstered his renown as a pop auteur. Heading into the next decade, he continued to challenge expectations, recording his 2020 psychedelic American travelog, United States, and launching 2022's Synthetic, a massive four-album project devoted to rare vintage synthesizers. Aucoin got a Juno nod for the first volume and followed it in 2023 with Synthetic: Season 2.
“Over the years, at each moment where I needed to level up, something lucky would happen that allowed me to keep going, keep moving forward,” says Aucoin. “I’ve always had goals of things I want to do more so than outcomes—projects I want to try out—and luckily, I’ve been able to keep doing that.”
The through line for him has been the constant presence of the past. In that apartment he still lives in, the bedroom walls are adorned with posters from his early shows.
“We’re talking about nostalgia while I’m looking at the original posters,” says Aucoin. “My first show at Tribeca and then my second opening up for Jenn Grant and then my album release party at St. Matthew’s. It’s all right in front of me.”
Nostalgia has played a key role in his career, but as the New Nostalgia moniker of his latest song and tour connotes, he’s ready to wrap up the wild spectacle of symphonic pop and multi-sensory effects—including the unraveling of a giant parachute over the audience—that have become his staple, and look forward to a new chapter.
“The song and the tour is all about, if we don’t make new things, we’re just going to end up in an endless loop of nostalgia,” says Aucoin. “It’s reflecting on how—at least in the microcosm of art—we’re just making the same things over and over, like remaking the same movies. And the younger generation is going to be nostalgic about the remake of something that we were nostalgic about instead of something that’s entirely their own.”
The whole show is a reeling cry–a call to art and to arms—that we should probably make some new stuff.
The New Nostalgia celebration tour will see three more parties—at the Shore Club August 22, the Marquee in October and then a final farewell at the end of 2025.The original plan was to wrap up his beloved and long-running parachute party format in 2023, but then the pandemic happened.
“Originally when I was in my 20s, I thought it would be cool to wrap this up for my 40th birthday,” says Aucoin. “And then during the pandemic, I was like ‘damn, I didn’t get to do all the things I wanted to do with the show before it was over.’ I decided I wasn’t going to let the pandemic rob me of those last two years.”
It’s the end of an era for his loyal fans too, who have grown up under the parachute covered in confetti with Aucoin. This tour is one last chance to party in this way, but he wants his fans—who might have aged out of jumping around and moshing in the bar scene—to come along with him to the next phase.
“I want the first tour in 2026 to be in a movie theatre setting, and I want to make these short experimental films and play music to those without really drawing any attention to myself,” says Aucoin. “And for the part of me that still likes to dance and party, I’m going to do electronic shows that don’t require as much of me because I don’t need to be screaming at top volume into a microphone.”
As we wrap up the interview, we sort of sigh as we face the fact: we’re getting old. He tells me about how he probably has one more year of playing frosh shows because he feels like he’s playing a junior high dance. The junior high dances we used to love so much. And although the parachute party era is coming to an end, he’ll still allow himself to feel nostalgic when he needs to.
“It’s a nice escapism to dip into, and my show is definitely about the benefits and also the hindrances of being nostalgic,” says Aucoin. “In the correct dosage, it can be a really lovely thing and makes you really grateful for all the things you’ve been able to do. But if you spend too long there, you’re not focused on your present and future.”
Don’t miss your last chance to party under the parachute. Tickets are still available for New Nostalgia at the Shore Club Aug. 22 or at The Marquee on Oct. 19.
