Wons Phreely+The Horses Release Charming New Video for “The Faithful Heart”

If there was ever to be a song that could pull me out of my post-election funk, “The Faithful Heart” by Wons Phreely (the musical moniker of singer-songwriter Justin Wonsley) – along with its accompanying video – is it. Though originally released this past January, I’d not heard the song until seeing a post on his Instagram account last week about a new video he was releasing for it, and I loved it at once. The song is delightfully melodic and heartwarming, and the video’s utterly charming. I’ve now watched it numerous times, and it never fails to bring a smile to my face, something I can really use right now.

Born and raised in Perth, Australia where he began his music career, Wons Phreely relocated to Los Angeles in 2015 in search of a more dynamic and varied artistic environment where he could grow as a musician and artist. I first learned about him in September 2016, when his PR rep reached out to me about his autobiographical single “Stars”, which he recorded with his backing band The Horses. I happily reviewed the song, as well as two of his subsequent singles, “The Night Has An Alibi” in early 2018 and “Restless to Run” in 2020. (You can check out those reviews under the “Related” links at the end of this post.) Both “Stars” and “The Night Has An Alibi” ended up placing on my Top 100 Songs lists for 2016 and 2018, respectively.

Wons wrote the lyrics for “The Faithful Heart”, with the beautiful music written by singer-songwriter and musician David Skeet (who’s one half of the music duo Winter Swim and also produced and mixed the track). I love that opening piano and those chiming and jangly guitars, as well as Wons’ earnest vocals and lovely harmonic choruses. He said he was inspired to write the song after thinking of a childhood friend he’d grown up with in Australia who, like himself, had moved on to a bigger city in search of greater opportunities and figuring out how to make their way through life, which is expressed in the poignant lyrics:

Restless nights of teenage lust
Racing beat up cars in parking lots
Longing to find that place
When you’re young you must run
When we’re old could you hold me love cos

On and on and on this faithful heart will beat stronger
Now we’ve got so something good, it wont be long before we’ve begun
And we’ll live how we want to, the life we were born to

Here’s the track on Bandcamp:

Wons has earned a bit of a reputation for his highly inventive and often unconventional music videos. A good example is the brilliant video he made for “The Night Has An Alibi”, in which he’s portrayed throughout the video as only a head. For “The Faithful Heart”, he drew inspiration from some of the quirky and wildly-popular one-shot videos by American alternative pop-rock band OK Go, and challenged himself to dance on film. He explains “At first, dancing in a one-shot video felt like it might be a little too great a challenge, especially since I can’t really dance. Then I remembered a 1965 quote from Bob Dylan where he said, ‘I think of myself as a song and dance man.’ Something about that resonated with me, so we thought, ‘Challenge accepted.’“

With the help of choreographer friends, Wons and his band spent months coming up with inventive dance steps for a non-dancer like himself, with two of the guys guiding him through an endearing and entertaining routine as if he were a human-sized puppet. Once they mastered the choreography, they turned their attention to finding the right location to shoot the video, which in Los Angeles is always a challenge, especially when you’re on a tight budget. Wons elaborates: “Around Hollywood, there’s really no place where you can shoot for free. Some of the old motels make more money from commercial and movie shoots than they do from their actual motel business. So we spent days scouting public locations that we thought would look great for a video. We had to plan carefully for when the managers weren’t around, because we couldn’t afford the location fees, and shooting permits in LA are crazy expensive.”

After much searching, they found the ideal spot: a Laundromat that would provide the perfect backdrop for their dance sequence, even if it didn’t quite come with official permission to shoot. Of course, dancing in a public place presented its own set of challenges—some expected, others not so much. “I was ready for people to walk into the shot and start doing their laundry. We thought that would be kind of cool if it happened,” Wons recalls. “But I didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to concentrate on the choreography with people just stopping and staring at me. It was a pretty wild experience, trying to pull this off without technically having permission. We got away with a lot without making anyone upset, but honestly, it was all a blur.” They had to act quickly, knowing that security could show up at any moment. With only one shot to get it right, the pressure was on. But despite the potential for chaos, they managed to capture the perfect take. Enjoy!