We are very honoured to bring you an exclusive look at the new video from power pop maestro Wesley Fuller for his song ‘Back To Square One’.
‘Back To Square one’ is a rather poignant reference to the rollercoaster career of Fuller.
Fuller first made a name for himself early in the second decade of the millennium, up front of Perth power pop outfit Hurricane Fighter Plane (who took their name from a wigged-out song by late ’60s Texan combo the Red Krayola). Hurricane Fighter Plane made a handful of singles, including the brilliant Byrds-indebted “I Can’t Win”. Discovered online by legendary English A&R man James Endeacott (The Strokes, The Libertines) who signed Wesley to his label Sony UK -affiliated label 1965 Records, Fuller moved to Melbourne where he met and worked with like- minded folk like You Am I’s Davey Lane. Soon he was making waves internationally with his 2016 EP ‘Melvista’ and his 2017 debut album ‘Inner City Dream’, around which he spent an extended period of time touring Australia and in the UK and Europe. Of course, at the start of the new decade, the world changed and Fuller’s ability to keep the momentum going was lost.
Fuller says:
It was the late summer of 2019 and I’d just returned home to Melbourne after a European Tour (and several months overseas following that). I’d just ended a long-term relationship, and I’d never felt so disconnected from my friends in the Melbourne music scene – having not played locally in almost a year.
With no gigs booked, a second album still yet to be written and recorded and so many old connections to try and rekindle, I knew that I was essentially starting from scratch. I’d lost all the momentum I’d built up in 2018, so I was back to square one. It was time to get cracking on album #2!
The result is a single that sparkles and shimmers with a sixties-inflected buoyancy and a level of pop so powerful it needs restraints. Running like a golden thread throughout is a hint of melancholy and self knowledge in the face of resilience and fortitude:
With a crash and a bang we’ll fight again
Our time will come
Turning over the page on yesterday
Back to square one
We’re gonna make it
We shall overcome
Firing our arrows
Straight for the sun
These fighting words are accompanied by a video, directed, shot and edited by Scott Marrinan, that follows the mop-topped singer through urban landscapes in solitary, reflective isolation, contrasted by scenes of an engagement with a loved one seemingly seeped in sepia and nostalgia. Is his lover a memory from the past? Is the present the lonely solitary figure who having lost everything is right back at the start? The track is a fitting soundtrack to a rumination on the vicissitudes of life:
The rebound has begun: Fuller has now signed to the prestigious Cheersquad Records and Tapes, the home of the Hard-Ons, Stephen Cummings, the Meanies and numerous other great Australian artists and ‘Back To Sqyare One’ is out now and available to stream and download through the link below.
A new album is on the way and you can catch Fuller live launching the single on Saturday 5 August at the Bar Open in Melbourne – details and tickets available here.
Feature Photograph: Penny Polack
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