Massive Change For Rising Adelaide Band Under Legal Pressure

The 1971 film Wake in Fright has long been considered a seminal classic, hailed for its sordid realism. This horror film about Australian masculinity, violence, and drinking culture - which recently saw a 4K restoration release at the Adelaide Film Festival - so inspired Adelaide-based musician Sam Wilson that in 2021 he named his band after it.

His father first showed him the film at the age of sixteen. “I was really struck. I’d never seen Australia represented in that way.”

Though the son of Australian parents, Wilson was born in Singapore and grew up in Japan, only just moving to Australia when he was eighteen. “I'd never seen Australia represented in that way. Growing up in Tokyo, I had a bit of an outsider's relationship with Australia, although being from Australia, still very familiar with it,” he says, likening himself to John Grant, the film’s English protagonist. “I'd never seen certain elements of how I'd perceived Australian masculinity so viscerally represented. And I immediately connected with it.”

It wasn’t until Wilson was reading the book that inspired the film while at university in Australia that he saw the name as something he could artistically align himself with. 

“I had been engaging in drinking culture more in uni. I was starting to become fatigued by it in the same way that John Grant in the film is fatigued by it, which is not to say I wasn't complicit in it, because he also is complicit, I think, to an extent, in what happens to him.”

He continues, “Reading the book helped me crystallise my feelings about the film. And as a group starting to make semi-alternative folk music, I wanted a name that was a little harsh, because I feel like there's a tendency with folk music now to be associated with sort of safe and cozy living room or cafe music, and that's not really what I want to be doing.”

In late 2024, the band’s lawyer reached out to the Wake in Fright trust to see if a coexistence agreement could be arranged.

Why did they decide to reach out in the first place?

“We’re looking to be more successful than we currently are,” Wilson says, laughing. “So we wanted to make sure that if we were to make any money at all, they wouldn’t take it off us, because we would be using a name that’s affiliated with their film. We want to be successful long-term musicians, and we wanted to make sure that we could use the name, especially when we're trying to do big PR campaigns or get tour spots.”

The band’s negotiations were not successful. 

“They did not want to enter into a coexistence agreement with us. The film has been growing in popularity, especially with the 4K restoration, and the trust felt that the fields of industry that we  both operate in are too similar for us to be able to coexist with the same name, and did not align with their plans of growth in the future.”

Wilson concludes, “So they didn’t say they were going to sue us, but they also didn't promise that they wouldn't sue us.”

When the band received a reply from the Wake in Fright trust, they had moments before finished filming an interview, set to air in April, where they had referred to themselves as “Wake In Fright” several times.

“It felt really grim,” he sighs.

All of their original music under the name of “Wake In Fright” has been removed from streaming services. The music may return at some stage, but until then, their work is still available on Bandcamp under the archival name That’s Not Us!

Wilson adds, “If you have favourite Wake In Fright tracks, I will personally make you a mixtape CD.”

The band - consisting of Luka Kilgariff, Thea Martin, Allan McBean, Jachin Mee, and, of course, Sam Wilson - has since officially rebranded as Any Young Mechanic. 

An official statement was posted to all of their social media accounts detailing the band’s decision to rename themselves.

“Wake In Fright is dead. Long live Any Young Mechanic,” the caption reads.

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Wilson says, “It sucks when you try to build a profile on an album or build an audience for an album, and then, for a pretty trivial reason, you have to take it all down and start over again. And that stuff costs money.” But they are still excited to reframe their identity as a group with their upcoming album, slated for a 2025 - the debut album released under the name Any Young Mechanic.

The inspiration for the band’s new name also happens to be cinematic.

One of Wilson’s favourite films is Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, which opens and closes with a song called Hooray for Hollywood, which was first released in 1937.

“It’s a satirical song about Hollywood,” Wilson explains, “a satirical song about the screwball nature of the entertainment industry.” 

The song includes such absurd lyrics as, “Hooray for Hollywood/That screwy, ballyhooey Hollywood/Where any office boy or young mechanic/Can be a panic, with just a good looking pan.”

Wilson condensed this sentiment to come up with the new moniker for his band. “I liked the allusion to entertainment and the allusion to the sort of wacky nature of this business that I’m making an attempt to succeed in.”

The name itself has an aura of inherent creativity. “The thing I want to say most with the name is that we’re just, like, young people making something. I want that to be an accessible goal. Creativity is inherent in everybody, it just needs to be fostered and looked after.”

It seems that huge things are on the horizon for Any Young Mechanic. The rising band, for example, is now being booked by WME, the same booking agent which caters to the likes of The Strokes, Dua Lipa, and many other glittering artists of major repute. 

Wilson is careful to be vague about any specific names at this point, but admits that he is in the process of having lots of “big chats” with people in the music industry.

Wilson also makes sure to mention the Helpmann Academy, whose support of his band’s work has been a crucial component of his artistic trajectory. “Because of them, we have a lot more means than we've ever had to release things in the way that we want.”

The new year will surely be one of elation and opportunity for Any Young Mechanic. Wilson is at pains to mention how thankful he is for all of his band members - both their consummate musicality and their supportive, sustained friendship.

“I feel that we are more of a collective than we have ever been,” he says.

Any Young Mechanic will be releasing their debut album in 2025.