Alt-pop crooner Rushes returns with a sun-kissed new video for ‘Wide Eyed’ ahead of a his upcoming project Glowchild.

In the depths of our own self-doubt, it’s often hard to take a leap into the unknown for fear of failure. Returning back to basics can also feel like giving up, but when Cork singer Rushes headed back to his native Skibbereen he found himself surrendering to the universe and writing his best music to date.

Having found himself living in his hometown for the first time in five years, Rushes embraced a renewed sense of optimism and saw the return to Cork as a creative palette cleanser rather than career regression. Though he wrote most of the new material before heading home, Rushes found correlations between his lyrics and the reasons for heading home. The first single to follow his time away from the frenetic energy of the big city is the euphoric ‘Wide Eyed’.

The single’s powerful hook channels the same emotive energy of Brockhampton’s ‘Swim’ with a familiar and intimate songwriting akin to that of Jakob Ogawa. Pulling apart the negative self-talk that was running laps in his mind across dreamy and vibrant production, Rushes makes peace with his past and simultaneously gives himself the closure to open a new chapter in his career.

Shot in the naturalistic surroundings of his local area of Skibbereen by Eddie O’Flaherty and Stephanie Naughter (Jafaris, Soulé), the video for ‘Wide Eyed’ sees the singer embody feelings of uncertainty and imbalance.  “I think the video depicts the narrative of the track” Rushes explains, “you’ve cut a connection but now you’re on your own. It’s like wearing the suit and yet having nowhere to go. I’m wearing my dad’s old suit, I found in the attic, but it felt right”.

How did the experience of going back to Cork and reconnecting with your home inform your music?

All of the music on Glowchild was written and completed long before I had returned home. In the months that followed though, I began to see correlations between what I wrote and the circumstances that led me home. It was like what I was writing foreshadowed my life and ultimately, reconnecting with my home was what I needed all along. I spent most of my adult life running as far away from it as possible. I was always searching for something that I felt couldn’t be achieved from here. At least now, I have made peace with not needing to do that any longer, and it has already informed what will come after the Glowchild project. 

Can you talk a little about the inspiration for this track?

‘Wide Eyed‘ was the last song I wrote for Glowchild. It was written during a period of time where I was completely consumed by self doubt. The song deals with attachment and the wound that lay bare once that connection was cut. I was conflicted with the decision to sever ties and it felt like forever for that feeling to pass. ‘Wide Eyed‘ was my way of processing and at least come to terms with that decision, to acknowledge it. 

What was the process of writing the track like?

I remember writing ‘Wide Eyed‘ in sections. I was piecing the track together on the same timeline as I was processing the feelings behind it, which is not usually the case for me. I tend to leave quite a gap between an experience and writing about it, to fully allow whatever response to sink in. The way I wrote ‘Wide Eyed‘ was more of an arduous process, as it’s filtering through your thoughts in real-time rather than collecting them all and writing from that perspective. The song came out how it needed to be at the end of it though.

Listen here on Spotify.

Click here to check out our previous premiere that saw Julia Louise Knifefist and Rory Sweeney team up on ‘Freak’.