Tom Lark Releases 'Fuselage', Single #3 From Moonlight Hotel

Tom Lark (Shannon Fowler) has released ‘Fuselage’, the third single from his sophomore album Moonlight Hotel. The groove-driven track follows 'Rock & Roll Baby' and 'Dumb Luck'.

"'Fuselage' is about feeling resistant to change," says Fowler. "When trying to do something different it can be much easier to avoid the uncomfortable and return to the familiar thing – kinda like apathy over action, which ultimately leads to frustration at a lack of progression."

The single is accompanied by a video directed by Sam Kristofski, that sees an undercover Tom Lark traverse the streets of Auckland City, getting to the bottom of something.

Moonlight Hotel sees Tom Lark explore the parallels between Fowler's family's historical displacement following the 1929 earthquake that destroyed Murchison – a pioneer town in the upper West Coast of the South Island – and his own following the 2011 earthquakes that levelled much of Ōtautahi.

Steeped in the Tom Lark persona's whimsical yet pragmatic sensibility, Moonlight Hotel is an evolution of what Brave Star introduced: sun-soaked odes to taking things as they come, and rolling with the punches.

The album has been announced alongside dates for the first live Tom Lark shows in Aotearoa since May 2024.

Earning him a finalist nod for the 2024 Taite Music Prize and Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa | Best Folk Artist at the 2024 Aotearoa Music Awards, the Ōtautahi-born, Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist’s debut album Brave Star was a return for Fowler – who had previously released two eponymous EPs before taking time out to work on his pop craft as Shannon Matthew Vanya.

Brave Star also won Tom Lark an APRA Silver Scroll Award Top 20 nomination in 2023, care of its second single 'Live Wires', and reviews like these:

"Brave Star is an album adrift on a sea of memory bliss, cleverly produced and like a sonic mood-piece. It's an album which gives dream pop a very good name."
– Graham Reid, Elsewhere / The Listener

"Brave Star is the work of a well-rounded songwriter, as comfortable in the pop realm as he is crafting country-inflected folk-rock tunes, casual and confessional in equal measure."
– Tony Stamp, RNZ The Sampler

Moonlight Hotel is out 4 April 2025.

Tracklist:
Dumb Luck
Rock & Roll Baby
Dive On In
Busy Living
Fuselage
Love
Ballad Of The Barry Boys
Moonlight Hotel
Fern Ridge
Let Me Get On

Made with help from Irirangi Te Motu | NZ On Air.

ARTIST BIO

Tom Lark is the musical project of Shannon Fowler, who also releases music as Shannon Matthew Vanya. Where SMV allows for pop indulgence, Tom Lark is an outlet for the artist’s indie sensibilities. Returning from a 7-year hiatus in 2023, with his debut full-length record Brave Star, Fowler returned to his first love – which turns out to be making sunburnt psychedelic folk fit for sensitive cowboys to meander and philosophise to.

Brave Star was a finalist for both the 2024 Taite Music Prize and Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa | Best Folk Artist at the 2024 Aotearoa Music Awards – also winning the artist an APRA Silver Scroll Award Top 20 nomination in 2023 for 'Live Wires'. The record followed two eponymous Tom Lark EPs, which were released in 2011 and 2015 respectively. Those early tunes found a home locally on the Student Radio Network, and abroad on Australian radio station Triple J – where 'Something To Tell You' reached #1 Most Played.

Moonlight Hotel sees Tom Lark return with another watertight collection of folk pop hits with a country bent, through which the artist explores the parallels between his family's historical displacement following the 1929 earthquake that destroyed Murchison – a pioneer town in the upper West Coast of the South Island – and his own following the 2011 earthquakes that levelled much of Ōtautahi.

Fowler was born in Ōtautahi and relocated to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2012, after a stint recording in Berlin. He works from his Okie Dokie Studio, situated just off Karangahape Road. There he has produced, co-written and engineered tracks with a delightful collection of collaborators, including Fazerdaze, Georgia Lines, The Fuzzy Robes, Merk, Randa, A.C. Freazy, Belladonna, and the mysterious Rick Shrimp.

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