Melbourne indie-folk-rock revivalist Cahill Kelly‘s first offering of his debut album Classical and Cool Jazz, is the single ‘World upon a Shelf’, a track filled with swagger and sentimental musing. Using objects on his mantelpiece as a source of lyrical inspiration, ‘World upon a Shelf’ sees Kelly reflecting on the notion that all our encounters throughout life contain profound meaning beneath the surface.

“When writing ‘World upon a Shelf’, I was trying to see if I could write a song about even the most mundane of subjects while still evoking some kind of narrative and emotion,” says Kelly.

“At the time I had a number of sentimental trinkets from various countries on a mantelpiece above my desk. I ended up finding deeper meaning in the song, reflecting on the idea that everything we come across in life, be it places, people, objects, ideas, once you take a deeper look there’s always so much more to the story.”

This is reflected in the video, directed by revered local filmmaker and photographer Gil Gilmour, which presents solitary objects as surrealist symbols against an otherwise blank backdrop, but ultimately hints at a deeper, more profound meaning to what we are seeing.

“Cahill Kelly’s ‘World Upon a Shelf’ is one hell of a surrealist trip. Distorted snakes, upside-down spinning salt rock lamps, and falling pianos are just some of the things that feature in this wild music video.” – Beat Magazine

Originally from far North Queensland, a young Kelly grew up on a diet of Crowded House and Tom Petty. Later, he channelled his heroes in his first musical projects, The Broken Needles and Willow Darling. With the latter seeing him assume the role of a natural frontman, Kelly developed a knack for writing songs about everyday life with sparkling detail and depth, delivered with casual grace.