Born in Australia but currently residing in Los Angeles, Justin Wonsly aka Wons Phreely leads his band The Horses in creating quirky, catchy indie pop. Today they’ve released a video for their song “Restless To Run,” which we’re pleased to be premiering today. The synth-based song has uplifting lyrics that remind us all of our first love (or crush), told from the point of view of a more experienced narrator: “You’ll know the cusp of your life / Boy a man still a child / When you’re running to stand still / … There’s a million roads we’ve run from / I was missing the ways, are you counting the days that we had? / Look at those boys, what do you think they came here for? / Now they’re ready enough, born restless to run.”
The video is a nostalgic homage to suburban teenage angst, with the production technique taking on a more DIY, home-recorded quality. “It was deliberately shot with a lo-fi approach using a handheld iPhone with no lenses or smooth, stabilized shots,” said Phreely. “The aim was to convey innocence and romanticism—a longing you can only really capture and express through music.” The video features shots of a typical suburban neighborhood interspersed with footage of Phreely playing drums and singing in an all-yellow room, wearing an all-yellow outfit.
“I wrote this song about how there are so many paths we can choose in life, and how sometimes we have to run down the wrong ones, fall down, get back up and then choose a new road to run down,” he said. “We all mess up, fail and have false starts; I signed with a big management and publishing label, but I had this feeling like it wasn’t right – like I had to get away, start again, and run in my own direction. Then I got to LA, and I felt more like myself. Even if I’m struggling daily, I’m doing things on my own terms, like directing music videos, or writing songs for people. It’s not easy, but it’s the right road for me. And sometimes the failure can be what makes us feel alive. That’s what I connect to in rock and roll. I don’t connect with what a lot of current, popular music is about, when people are singing how they know exactly what they’re doing, as if they have it all worked out. There’s no vulnerability there.”
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