With his single, “Where I Want To Be,” out now, we took some time to hear from Fuller Hull. Read below to learn more about Fuller Hull, the story behind his single, and what’s to come.
Hi Fuller Hull! Let’s start with how did you get your artist name?
I chose Fuller Hull long before I started writing and performing music again. Fuller Hull is an aspiration. It represents my attempt to find a more meaningful way to live my life. It came to me at a time when I was looking to fill my world with good things while getting rid of the bad
things.
If you think of a ship loaded with cargo, a hull filled with a valuable payload is desirable. An empty ship, or worse, a ship filled with unwanted items, is a liability. As we travel through our lives, I think its important to live a fuller life by carrying the most important parts of it along with you until the end. There is no need to carry those burdens with you.
What city are you from and where are you based now?
I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It’s a mid-size prairie city that has a long history as a small, but productive music scene. I love it, but we moved to a small farm about sixty kilometers from Winnipeg.
At what point in your life did you decide to pursue a career in music? How did you get started?
I started performing as Fuller Hull in 2020. I started writing and performing again after a long time away from the industry. My first go-round was in the 1990s and we had a good run. I decided that I needed to step away from the scene and focus on education, family, work…you
know how it is.
When COVID-19 hit, I realized that I was spending a bit too much time on things that didn’t quite match my Fuller Hull philosophy. The pandemic forced me to slow down a bit, and I realized that I could live my life better. So, I made slow and deliberate changes to spend more time with my wife and kids, and to spend more time with my guitars, too. HAHA.
How would you describe your sound to readers who may not be familiar with you?
Fuller Hull is country folk music. It takes the tradition of storytelling from country music, adds a bit of social commentary, a dash of sardonic self-deprecating humour, and a healthy helping of independent grit.
Do you have any hobbies outside of music? What do you do to stay creative?
Our farm takes a lot of time and brings a lot of joy. We have a small flock of sheep and laying hens. We make hay in the summer and harvest in fall. When we have time, we like to canoe the river that runs through our farm, snowshoe when the river is frozen, and spend as much time in the outdoors as possible. Creativity seems to come best when my phone is put away and I’m lost in the moment. This can happen on a long drive, sitting around a campfire, or floating down the river. The trick is to remember it long enough to write it down, though.
Who are some of your main musical influences?
If you like John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Americana music more generally, you might also be a fan of Fuller Hull.
What’s one of the proudest moments of your music career so far?
I’m not much for celebrating moments (but I try!), and I’m more focused on the dedication to the craft and the persistence it takes to keep going. If I had to choose, I’d say that my proudest moment so far is the album release show for The Unsuspected and Unstoppable. A lot of old friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen for decades, took time out of their busy lives to join me in a jam-packed room to hear my songs on a hot July evening. The icing on the cake was when the Witchpolice Radio podcast listed the album as one of the top five albums of 2024, and described the album release as ‘an example of a live show really sorta selling me on the record…The record itself is fantastic, but live is even better.’
What would you say are the greatest lessons that you’ve learned so far?
There are so many! For one, I’ve learned that we always have second chances, so long as we choose to use them. Another is that age is a state of mind, and that starting again in my late 40s is one of the best decisions that I’ve made to recognize the past and live for the future. A third is that songwriting is a pretty good way to speak your mind on things important to you and finding there are others that feel the same. I could go on, but I’m sure there will be other important lessons in the not-too-distant future.
Now onto your release, ‘Where I Want To Be.’ What inspired this song? What is ‘Where I Want To Be’ about?
‘Where I Want To Be’ is a response to the pressure that I put on myself to be a good husband and father. When I worked in the city, I was away for 10-12 hours every day from Monday to Friday. I didn’t see my kids when they woke up. I couldn’t pick them up after school. I could only cook with them or play with them or be there for their after school activities on the evenings and weekends. This put a lot of pressure on my wife, and we had the farm chores too, so it felt that we barely had time for the kids let alone with each other. It seemed then that time pretty much slipped away, and I was missing out on the life that we wanted to build.
When the pandemic lock-down kept us at home, I realized the gift that I was given by being able to spend so much time together. Since then, I’ve been able to be there for my family much more than before, and I’ve been able to find a very rewarding work-family balance that has given me better relationships with my wife and kids. I’m pretty lucky, I think, because this is something very hard to do, especially as the rising costs of living push us to find work that pulls us apart for an hourly wage.
What is your favorite lyric in ‘Where I Want To Be’ and why?
It’s right up at the front in the first verse. The reference to the weather and nature – snow, rain, wild flowers, and dust – stands out because it is so important to life on the farm. It’s a certainty. You can always count on them to be there with you throughout the year. Only thing is you don’t ever really know if you’ll get too much rain or snow, not enough flowers, or too much dust.
What message do you hope fans take away from your music and from ‘Where I Want To Be?’
Many of my lyrics about about the inevitable. ‘Where I Want To Be’ acknowledges that you can’t always fight what has to happen, but you can try to make small choices to redirect your life so that when you get your second chance, you realise what it is and make the most of it. We always have a second chance, but the trick is to recognise it.
What’s next for you? Are you working on any upcoming projects, or do you have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
I’m still releasing songs from my album to streaming services, and I’ve got another one coming out on July 11th. You can always head to my Bandcamp page to hear the full album. It will be the one year anniversary of the release for The Unsuspected and Unstoppable in July, so I’ve got a good number of shows around Manitoba. My home province has been so supportive, and I like to make the trip to perform in small towns and country fairs. The folks are so welcoming, that it
sort of feels like I’m performing for friends and family. The dates and locations for July are:
JULY 5 – BELLE’S KITCHEN + MUSIC HALL , WINNIPEG
JULY 6 – SHIP AND PLOUGH TAVERN, GIMLI
JULY 13 – BELLE’S KITCHEN + MUSIC HALL , WINNIPEG
JULY 20 – SALAMANDER FESTIVAL, BRANDON
JULY 24 – ST. ANDREWS HERITAGE CENTRE, ST. ANDREWS
JULY 26 – SPRINGFIELD COUNTRY FAIR, DUGALD
After that, I’ve got some time in August. I’ve got a family trip planned. I’ll write a few songs, record a few songs, and get ready for harvest on the farm. I’m planning a tour of Western Canada, hoping for the fall if things line up. If not, I’ll get back into the studio. I’m itching to release my third album.
In fact, that the great thing about being an independent artist. So long as I keep myself dedicated, I can pretty much do anything that I want. The trick is to keep that commitment to myself. Once I have that, pretty much everything else is possible.
Where can we follow you on social media?
My webpage is https://fullerhull.ca/ and its probably the best place to start. You can jump straight to social media if you want to find out what I’m doing at the moment.
https://www.facebook.com/fullerhullmusic
https://www.instagram.com/fuller.hull
https://www.youtube.com/@fullerhull
I’m on TikTok, too, but it’s a bit sporadic. https://www.tiktok.com/@fullerhull
Before you go, let’s ask you something random. What is your guilty pleasure?
Well, I could say that I read a lot, which I do, and it’s a great way to think about things differently. But, my real guilty pleasure is zombie movies. I just love them, and I don’t know why. I thought it was the threat and fear and imagining overcoming an unstoppable force and, you know, being a hero. But as I work through them, I realise that maybe it’s just a metaphor for a unthinking, unreflective life. A hoard of mindlessness bent on consumption and small band resisting and surviving the onslaught, looking for a better, safer life…Or maybe it’s just the jump scares.
Thank you for the great interview; wish you much continued success!
