WL//WH Video Premiere: CLAIRE BIRCHALL Sparks Awareness for the “Trigger” of Panic Attacks

WL//WH Video Premiere CLAIRE BIRCHALL

Prolific songwriter, captivating singer and performer, exceptional multi-instrumentalist, accomplished DIY producer, collector of odd instruments and connoisseur of obscure vinyl.

Starting as a surf Coast indie rocker 25 years ago, Australian multi-instrumentalist and DIY enthusiast Claire Birchall has been a longstanding staple of the Melbourne underground music scene playing with numerous bands including Paper Planes, Claire Birchall & The Phantom Hitchhikers, True Sound, former The Scientists legend Kim Salmon’s Smoked Salmon, and the recently formed new supergroup Fancy Weapon, in which she drums alongside Australian rock luminaries Joel Silbersher, Mick Turner and Guy Maddison.

Claire’s critically acclaimed self-recorded solo albums, starting with “This Gallery of Mine” released in 1999, have seen her experiment with all manner of sounds and instruments, invoking acoustic folk, indie fuzz rock, Casio pop, and most recently darkwave synth music.

Signed to Melbourne’s independent label It Records, Claire dropped her first full synth LP, “Running In Slow Motion”, in 2020 to enthusiastic acclaim, ready to return with her new solo album, named “The Haunting,” scheduled for release on October 18, 2024 once again through fellow It Records, teased by a symbolic video by Cael MacLeod-Smith for the first single “Trigger”, co-produced and engineered by James Saunders, WL//WH is very pleased to premiere.

A tense and moody but infectious electronic pop song, with sinister layered synths and complex and infectious oscillating beats. Its ingenious composition throbs with vascular pulses and cardiac rhythmic patterns. A tale of panic and anxiety writ large in hypnotic melody. The single is emblematic of the larger work, a much more elaborate production than 2020’s “Running in Slow Motion.” Wait ‘til you hear the rest of “The Haunting.” In the meantime, dance through the dread with ‘Trigger.”

In the hope of bringing awareness to the triggers of anxiety and panic, magnetic sultry and soulful vocals take centre stage in a haunting slow burning electronic-laden realm where icy droning synth glows, a shifting crackling drum programming, prowling bass tones, and eerie, sinister shivering strains tighten with constricting frequencies, alerting avid listeners, with back-up echoes, to the danger of consuming technology on a passive mind, “It’s a killer.”

The accompanied visuals by Cael MacLeod-Smith sync inspiration from film noir and vintage horror movies with the toxic sentience of the soundtrack. Claire Birchall looks like a ghost walking the dark halls of an old house at night under the hypnotic flicker rate of a television set. Her pretty cotton-white sleeping gown does not cover her visibly nervous mood. Shapeshifting shadows close in all around her while, outside, strobing spotlights transform a beautiful pine forest into a lurking menace. There is nowhere to run or hide, and all she can do is wait for the overwhelming sickness to subside.

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