ARTIST OF THE DAY: WESLEY FULLER

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Cheersquad Records and Tapes are super excited to present the brand new video for Wesley Fuller’s infectious groove laden superpop single, “The House of Love”. “The House Of Love” is the third taste of Fuller’s soon-to-be-announced forthcoming second album, following the first single “Back to Square One” and the recent second Alamein Line”, which was premiered internationally in Augustby Shindig!, an esteemed UK magazine dedicated to the same sort of esoteric pop sounds that Wesley loves, and which has been championing him from the start.

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.

“The House of Love” is about one of Wesley’s favourite local watering holes:“My ode to Leonard’s House of Love. Since 2016, Leonard’s been my second home. As described in the song, it’s a little soulful shack in the back streets of South Yarra. Well hidden from the gritty Chapel Street nightclub scene, Leonard’s has always been a haven for friends and lovers who wanna dance to Marvin Gaye at 2am. You’ll find patchouli scented hippies, you’ll see Harleys parked out front, there’ll be tinder dates making out by the fireplace and footy supporters squaring off in a game of pool out the back.”“The House of Love” is available now from 
https://cheersquadrecordstapes.bandcamp.com/track/the-house-of-love
or
https://bfan.link/the-house-of-love
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 “The House of Love”, and previous singles “Back to Square One” and “Alamein Train” are all available now on Cheersquad Records & Tapes

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