‘Wild Night’ comes from the debut Lewis Goldmark LP, set for release in May.

As Lewis Goldmark, Liam Judson (Belles Will Ring front person) takes on a new outlook and direction musically that still pays homage to the core influences that has informed his music over the years such as Velvet Underground, Beach Boys and David Bowie. Now, however it all comes together with a syringe injection of pop chaos – echoes of 80’s Australian indie, dreamy 70’s Californian rock, and 90’s Britpop amongst other sounds.

‘Wild Night‘ is a song that was formed from a chiming guitar riff that Liam just couldn’t shake. “The beginnings of ‘Wild Night’ came about one summer Friday late afternoon, when just mincing about my then apartment in Ashfield, I picked up my baritone electric guitar and started doodling,” he recalls.

“Straight away my fingers went to the melodic figure that would be the eventual bedrock of ‘Wild Night’. Typically, I don’t know straight away if I like or dislike tunes or riffs I come up with, so I kind of kept it in the back of my mind as a “maybe one day” thing,” Liam reveals. “Fast forward a year or so, a good friend introduced me to a fairly obscure 1988 solo album by Peter Koppes, guitarist from The Church called Manchild & Myth. The sound and songs immediately captivated me, and the icy, late night wooziness of that record inspired me to turn this baritone riff into something.” explains Liam. 

The words deal with the shaky beginnings of a brand new romantic connection between two people who may already have been acquaintances. But whether the romance will be something that endures, or just a night’s fun, will be determined in the aftermath of this first “wild night” constructed by the protagonist. The single, according to Liam, “lyrically captures a lot of the feelings and themes of the album.”

“The dripping, slightly eerie synth in the chorus kind of reminds me of the Lost Boys soundtrack.”
 

When building the track, Liam was careful not to overcrowd the arrangement, keeping it relatively spacious. It’s a key to to the heavenly swoon of a sound that Liam has created – as songwriter, singer, musician and producer – on ‘Wild Night’. From the sparse intro and intricate interplay between bass and guitar that sounds like a melding of The Chills and The Smiths, the song builds and blossoms, adding Prefab Sprout/The Dream Academy piano stabs and topping it off with an exquisite vocal performance that tumbles and soars with supreme melodicism, Liam testifies that “vocally, it was incredibly fun to sing.” 

There’s an 80s patina to the sound of ‘Wild Night’ but not of the chart pop variety. It’s the forward thinking art-pop auteurs like Talk Talk, The The and High Llamas that echo in Lewis Goldmark’s songs.