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. New single “Back to Square One”, 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 played a low-key show at Melbourne’s Cherry Bar the other week – his first in years – Wesley will soon start playing out in earnest, in preparation for the new album’s late 2023 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.
