Beau Wheeler releases title track from new album, “Flying Colours”
Vancouver musician Beau Wheeler reaches for the sky on their powerful new single, “Flying Colours.”
“Flying Colours” is the second single and title track from Beau’s new album and follows the release of “Arizona,” which was released last year. Inspiring and full of hope, “Flying Colours” is a triumphant song about coming out of the dark and into the light.Â
“‘Flying Colours’ is a comeback song,” says Beau. “It’s a song I wrote while I was going through treatment for cancer. I was thinking about a time when I could play music at shows with my friends again. I just wanted to be one of the people out there making music. Now when I play it, it seems to really resonate with people because everyone seems to need a comeback song right now. This is a beautiful time for the arts, like a flowering of culture. Lots of difficult things are happening, but also lots of amazing things. I also came out as trans during the pandemic. This song is super gay.”
Beau Wheeler is a queer non-binary composer and singer based in Vancouver. Blessed with a set of pipes that would be the envy of Torch and Twang era k.d. lang or a young Robert Plant, Beau’s new album Flying Colours captures the breadth and diversity of their musical vision.
Theirs is a music that encompasses a wide spectrum of human experience. With songs that touch on love, loss, and redemption, and an unflagging ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start
all over again, Beau, who recently came out to the world as trans, is one of Canada’s brightest lights and an artist to watch out for.
Listen to “Flying Colours” below and learn more about Beau Wheeler via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hey there! My name is Beau Wheeler. I grew up in a musical home. My grandpa played piano with Nat King Cole. I’m a cancer survivor and I recently came out as trans during the pandemic because I realized what’s the point of sitting around by yourself in your room worrying about what other people think of you.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
This group of songs were written at a very significant time during my life. I wrote the title track while I was going through treatment dreaming about a time when I could be out there playing music with friends and for people that love listening to music. It’s kind of a comeback song that I wrote to cheer myself up but now it seems to be really ringing true with a lot of people when I sing it these days because everybody seems to need a comeback song. It’s also super gay!
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
I’ve been writing consistently since I was 13 years old. I have books and books of songwriting. It’s just part of my life now, but I really think it’s an artist’s job to push the boundaries of what’s most comfortable for them to deal with in terms of their writing. For myself, I tend not to sing songs for very long, unless they have a real emotional weight to them. I try to think about what is the most difficult thing for me, emotionally at the time, and to face that in songwriting. I think that music really has a powerfully positive ability to break down walls between people that are different from each other because if a song is emotional, and it resonates with someone, it can feel like you know the person and you’re friends and there’s someone out there that’s feeling the same thing as you. That’s a really powerful thing in terms of making people feel like they’re not alone.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
I’m playing during Vancouver Pride with Queer As Funk at the Commodore Ballroom on July 30th. And I’m also playing WayneStock this year, which is a festival at a haunted hotel in the middle of nowhere in the badlands in Alberta.
What’s your goal for 2023?
My goal is to be myself in my songwriting, and everywhere in my life without changing who I am. I just got off of a tour of rural Alberta, where I gave talks about being trans to the elderly and to people in very very small towns in farming communities. Some people would have us believe from what we hear on the TV or in the news, that people are really divided out there. But I actually had a very heartwarming experience everywhere I went. I think we need to take the risk of bridging the gap between different kinds of people because mostly people are just really kind.