A new voice in Australia's current love affair with country-rock, Americana and soulful alt. country, Wil Linder is a sonic force ready to flourish whose songwriting feels will weave themselves deep inside you.
Born and raised in Western Sydney, on a steady diet of Bruce Springsteen, Matchbox Twenty, Gang Of Youths and Mumford & Sons, Wil is intent on following the well-worn path of heartland rock led by his own feelings.
Still setting the foundations of his career following the 2023 release of his debut album 'Play The Fool', Wil follows his earlier 2025 single 'Skin To Skin' with 'Twenty One' – a track that highlights the past, but with a direct spotlight on the future.
Galloping out of the barn at breakneck speed, 'Twenty One' is imbued with a modern nostalgia – sounding like an unearthed gem from the vault of an AM station, yet remaining steadfastly current within the country-rock landscape dominating today's airwaves.
A gorgeous guitar line is woven into the fretwork that is ceaseless, creating a range of beautiful tones, from sublime to riotous, the emotion swelling. Shimmering-slamming drums maintain the steady rhythm throughout, setting a mesmerising pace that never slows (aside from chorus vocal breakdowns that give the song its soul).
Wil's voice emanates a sense of fractured hurt (that's swimming laps in the background) married to earthy, genuinely warm vocals that, as the song progresses, foster an optimism that's hard to ignore. Your tapping foot will totally agree!
There's moments of Springsteen, a dollop of Kings Of Leon and a steady dose of songwriting framed by the likes of Paul Kelly and The Panics' Jae Laffer that earmark Linder as a talent destined for grander stages.
"When I wrote 'Twenty One', it was a step in the right direction for me in terms of finding my sound," Wil says. "I'd been trying to fit myself into a whole load of different boxes, but allowed this one to go where it needed to. The result was more me than anything I'd written before."
Ahead of the song's release tomorrow (19 September), today scenestr is delighted to premiere 'Twenty One'. Enjoy.
Lyrically the song – written when Linder was 21 – demonstrates just how varied each of our life journeys are as we enter our 20s, with some friends getting married, others living with their parents, and still others struggling to find a job.
"A couple of years down the track from writing the song, at the wise old age of 23, I realise the song is asking for a safety net, someone to catch you when you fall because no one gives you a handbook on growing up and finding your feet, you gotta do that on your own."
The recording of the song was led by a desire to "capture the raw essence of our sound". "The production and energy of the song takes strong influence from Mumford & Son's third album, 'Wilder Mind'," Linder says.
"The natural energy that you get from a classic 'band' sound is something that can't be replicated in a world of overproducing, which is what we tried to strongly avoid in the studio. We wanted to capture the raw essence of our sound. We were meant to track the whole song in a day, but that wasn't the case."
The recording of 'Twenty One' was curtailed at the beginning by a natural injunction as Wil shares. "I went in on our first day with food poisoning (which I was very unaware of).
"When it came to tracking vocals, we did one take and the room started to get really hot before I went rushing down the stairs, to put it kindly, enjoy that morning's breakfast again. After trying to push through it and get more takes, and another round of 'breakfast', we called it quits and waited to finish the track another day."
