Wake In Fright

Sam Wilson is the songwriter, singer, and guitarist of the Tarntanya-based art pop band Wake In Fright. Wake In Fright seeks to examine the complexities and contradictions of modern life through the sonic and lyrical lens of folk music. Their new single 'You Deserve' follows up their 2024 album ‘Touch Hands Pack Sting’ which they toured to Tokyo, Japan in January. Supporting the double single, across September and October, Wake in Fright will tour metropolitan and regional South Australia, as well as making a stop-in across the border to Naarm/Melbourne on October 7th. Recorded at Wizard Tone Studios with Sam Lench, ‘You Deserve’ is built on folk and alt-country sensibilities, with shimmering lap steel, strummed acoustic guitar and raw, amplified violin. Lyrically, the track conjures the image of a comically cornered young man, hands raised in innocence, proclaiming “whatever love you can give, you deserve”. In its final minute, the raucous outro is halted in its tracks by an ambient soundscape. The B-side ‘Making Me Forget’ is a rollicking, light-hearted, yet sincere ditty that gets in to say its piece and gets out just as soon as it arrives. Recorded in a single day, the band were accompanied by Alicia Salvanos who shot Super-8 footage of the recording process, edited into a music video by Connor Mercury that will be released in early September. To conclude the tour, Wake in Fright will play a hometown show at the Grace Emily hotel, with the four members of the band besides Sam Wilson, each opening with a short solo-project set.