POWER POP BOY WONDER WESLEY FULLER RELEASES NEW SINGLE & VIDEO “ALAMEIN LINE” AHEAD OF NEW ALBUM

FULLER, WHO WAS ORIGINALLY ‘DISCOVERED’ IN 2015 BY LEGENDARY UK A&R MAN JAMES ENDEACOTT (THE STROKES, LIBERTINES) AND SIGNED TO HIS 1965 RECORDS LABEL, MIXES STUNNING BEATLES-STYLE POP MELODIES WITH THUMPING DISCO BEATS LIEK NO ONE SINCE JEFF LYNNE IN THE LATE ’70s

Cheersquad Records and Tapes are super excited to release the infectious new single for Wesley Fuller,  ‘Alamein Line’. Better known internationally than at home, Perth-born, Melbourne-based power pop boy wonder Fuller’s video and single was premiered overnight by esteemed UK magazine Shindig! which is dedicated to the same sort of esoteric pop and psych sounds that Wesley loves, and which has been championing him from the start.

Wesley Fuller ‘Alamein Line’ – Video Premiere (Shindig Magazine)

Wesley was first discovered by legendary English A&R man James Endeacott, who previously discovered The Strokes and The Libertines. Fuller signed to Endeacott’s Sony-UK affiliated 1965 Records label in 2015 and started making waves with his 2016 EP Melvista – which Clash Magazine (UK) called “gloriously imaginative psych pop”.

He cemented this early promise on his debut album Inner City Dream – twelve tracks of swirling psych, jangly pop and punchy, crunchy glam – around which he toured across the UK and Europe including an appearance at Spain’s iconic Purple Weekend festival, garnering attention from the likes of the NME and BBC6 along the way.

“Alamein Line” is the second taste of Fuller’s forthcoming second album, following the recent first single “Back to Square One”.

‘Alamein Line’ is based on a suburban Melbourne train line, and in making the video, Wesley wanted to make “one of those quintessentially Melbourne kinda clips, hopefully in the same style as Skyhooks, Courtney Barnett etc.”

He says of the song: “At a house party in Hawthorn one night, I overheard a girl on the phone to a friend. Her friend was on her way over but was running super late as her train was delayed, and then she got off at the wrong station and was asking for directions. During the conversation, she remarked “Oh I fucking hate the Alamein Line”. I’d had a little melody stuck in my head for a while, so I put the lyrics ‘Alamein Line it’s a hell of time’ to it. Went home the next morning and constructed the song around that theme.”  

Armed with his trusty white Gibson Flying V and his ain’t-no-square corkscrew hair, Perth-born, Melbourne-based power pop boy wonder Wesley Fuller is a pop classicist who is not afraid to mess with the classics. Mixing stunning Beatles-style pop melodies with thumping disco beats like no one since Jeff Lynne in the late 70s, and chucking in a crunchy big glam whomp and the boldest bubblegum colours heard this century, Fuller is the latest in a line of artists that goes back to Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney; artists with a singular pop vision.

Add the likes of Todd Rundgren and Emmit Rhodes – as well as lesser known geniuses R. Stevie Moore and Tommy Marolda of The Toms, all of whom would more often than not lay that vision to tape in the studio by themselves – and you get an idea of where Wesley’s head is at. You could maybe add the D’Addario brothers of The Lemon Twigs to that list; in the Twigs you’ll find a handy contemporary comparison point to what Wesley does.  

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.

“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 of that disconnect and of hours of isolated work throughout lockdown and beyond, Fuller’s second album is ready to go. “Back to Square One”, which was the first taste of that new album, is a dazzlingly brilliant retro-futuristic pop stomp, and a self-depreciating acknowledgment of the artist’s current whereabouts. That self-depreciation is also punningly present in the title of the forthcoming album, which will be announced soon.

Having recently played his first couple of shows for a few years, Wesley will soon start playing out in earnest, in preparation for the new album’s early 2024 release. He’s got some big musical promises to deliver on; after all, no one goes back to square one with plans to stay there.

Wesley Fuller’s “Alamein Train” is out now on Cheersquad Records & Tapes
Cheersquad.com.au
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