Troubles have a nasty habit of turning up again, like bad pennies and old flames. Just when you think you’ve swept them out the door, there they are at the breakfast table, grinning back at you. Melbourne’s Pollyman has taken that weary, very human feeling and turned it into a glittering three-minute glam stomp. Backseat Mafia is thrilled to premiere ‘Walking In Circles’, the first single from the project’s forthcoming second album.
Pollyman is the solo vehicle of George Carroll Wilson. Since the self-titled debut in 2020, he has been mixing classic rock heroics with sparkling power-pop melody, a generous dusting of glitter and a steady hand with the eyeliner. Now signed to Cheersquad Records & Tapes, Wilson sounds more assured than ever.
‘Walking In Circles’ bristles with tumbling rhythms and big, gleaming hooks. Its handclaps would make Sweet and Mud wipe away a nostalgic tear. Wilson’s acrobatic vocals swoop and soar over a glam strut that owes a debt to ‘Ziggy’-era Bowie and Marc Bolan. Meanwhile, the melodic sweetness and crunch of Big Star and Cheap Trick bubble beneath the sequins. There’s a wink of You Am I’s swagger in there too: Australian rock ’n’ roll that takes its music seriously but never itself.
Wilson explains:
Just when I thought I’d cleansed myself, or rid myself of issues, I wake up and hey! there they are once again, causing me grief. Fundamentally, this is a song about the repetitive nature of everyday life, the circle in which I feel I’m sometimes stuck, and what I might need to do in order to get out of it.
The accompanying video is a fabulous slice of lo-fi theatricality. It’s all clown-white greasepaint, slashes of black eyeliner and lipstick-red grimaces, washed through a warped VHS filter. The single’s cover follows suit with a pop-art grid of painted faces in candy colours, part Warhol and part Lindsay Kemp mime troupe.
‘Walking In Circles’ is out from 30 October via Cheersquad Records & Tapes on Bandcamp, streaming services and AMRAP. The new album follows in early 2027.
Music clearly runs in the Wilson blood. George’s father Chris Wilson, his mother Sarah Carroll and his brother Fenn Wilson are all highly regarded musicians. George previously served time in Tiny Giants and Bones & Jones. Pollyman have played the Gum Ball Festival and shared stages with Cedric Burnside, Canned Heat and Jen Cloher. On stage, Wilson is backed by a muscular four-piece that knows how to work a room. He is also a firmly anti-AI and anti-IP-theft artist, which seems only right for someone whose art is so defiantly handmade.
Catch Pollyman at the free single launch at The Tote Front Bar, Collingwood, on Friday 6 November from 6pm, with Divers in support.
