Will Baker: Introducing New Single ‘Racing Car’

Eora/Sydney’s own Will Baker is back today with the release of his new single ‘Racing Car’. This fun new track has that indie-pop sound that Will does so well and its landed the track straight into the Pleaser team’s playlists. I chatted with Will about the new release, performing live and dream collaborations.

Pleaser: Can you tell me a little bit about what inspired the song?

Will Baker: My long time producer Luke Bertoz and I started this song separately, he sent over an instrumental, something that he was working on. I was literally in my car when I heard it and then we came up with the melody idea. It was one of those songs that happened to flow and in half an hour we had the song.

I wasn’t in love with the song it was just always kind of there. It was that song we could come back to at any time and keep building ideas. It wasn’t until early January, that Luke sent me a mix and it was like “woah” all of a sudden it was a Will Baker song. It was written after the first EP came out but I definitely felt it was something I wanted to save for 2024. Now I’ve got all these different sounds we can do live, I’ve got a band (my best friends) and I’ve got new influences.

P: Some of the lyrics were inspired by the other perspective of ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’, can you tell me about this?

WB: A bit of a backstory but my sister and I used to share a room at our childhood home and she had a small pink CD player and the only CD she had was Fearless by Taylor Swift and I still know every word to this day.

I remember thinking this song is the opposite of ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ and realising it kind of fits into the idea of “maybe it’s not the end?” I thought it was a bit more tongue in cheek and a bit more playful.

P: Was the song written based on fact or fiction?

WB: It’s definitely all true. As a songwriter I think you’re always drawing on your experiences, I feel like every song Ive written is a literal experience I’ve had and relates to my human experience.

P: What was the inspiration behind the music video?

WB: Originally the song was called Frisbee and every time we played it live we’d call it Frisbee but it wasn’t until we were putting it out, my manager Simone, every time shed sing it the only line she sing “you’re a racing car speeding through my head” so I thought there was something there. So I thought we might as well call it Racing Car, which put me straight away into the mindset of "what does it look like?"

I worked with a Bobby Gray who is such a big influence on my project, he’s so talented and we talked out the ideas and came up with the mechanic look with the race car influence. I wanted the visuals to have a bit of playfulness. I love the DIY look so I thought it would be a really good to make cardboard cars (like book week in primary school when you dress up), I was so stressed about making them and making them look good, my mum is a principal at a primary school and she knew exactly what to do so we painted the cars. I also wanted it to be super nostalgic with the Cars theme, that was one of my favourite movies as a kid.

P: What else can we look forward to in the next couple of months?

WB: I have a show on Saturday 23rd March I’m supporting Joel Leggett at Low 302, he is one of my long term friends, we played for the first time together last year.

I’m also doing a show in Brisbane on the 5th of April in Mount Cotton Hall, which will be a super cool little launch, it’ll be more like a hang out and I’ll be playing some songs. I’ve also got a special guest lined up.

Plenty of things coming up, a big 2024. I think it’s definitely all about the people supporting me at the moment, its absolutely wild that people listen to my music but then to have people message and reach out to me about my music is amazing. To make music for yourself is one thing but the second you put it out and it’s something people start to relate to it is something you can’t ever get a grip on. I still can’t even fathom it.

P: What’s your favourite moment in a live show

WB: We have this song called ‘Eddie’ and its super 70s rock inspired, drummer Giac and I wrote that together and brought it to the band. It’s just such a vibe in the room!

I feel like everyone says this but also just being able to play with your best friends on stage.

P: Any artists you’d love to collaborate with?

WB: I love this artist in the UK called Olivia Dean, she is so incredibly good.

I also have such a cool group of friends around me who happen to me artists as well like Charlie Pittman, Charli Lucas, MYMA and I get to work with them regardless, those are the collaborations that are so important to me at the moment. It will be so rewarding in a few years when we’re all in different places that I spent these couple of years in my 20s when we were nobody working together when we had no idea what was in front of us. It’s all for the story right now (with collaborations) and I’m loving every minute.