A Permanent Shadow Premieres Music Video for “Number One Fan”

A Permanent Shadow, the musical collective around CP Fletcher, just released a new pop-inspired single, “Number One Fan,” diving into themes related to toxic relationships such as loyalty, regret, remorse, and more. Today, A Permanent Shadow debuts the accompanying music video to the new track, “Number One Fan,” out now.

Fletcher wrote this single after ruminating around the question, “Can you go back in time to fix things that lie firmly in the past?” “Number One Fan” is a catchy yet melancholic ode to loyalty and unconditional support. Fusing modern pop with sonic elements from eighties electronic music, Fletcher channels Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” taking Joni’s powerful songwriting skills and using them as inspiration for his own creativity.

Regarding the new single, Fletcher comments:

“I don’t tend to write lyrics about personal relationships. I’m much more comfortable writing about tsunamis, self-help gurus, religion or the corporate world.”

Fletcher’s success as A Permanent Shadow is bar none. A Permanent Shadow’s only fixture is CP Fletcher, who surrounds himself with a rotating cast of musicians and producers for his recordings. As a former drummer in various bands that went nowhere, Fletcher was inspired by David Bowie’s death and decided to form his own band as a singer.

His first venture as a frontman came in the form of a Lou Reed tribute project, The Magic and Loss Orchestra. Such is his admiration for the curmudgeon from New York that the tribute experience ended up bleeding into A Permanent Shadow via a cover of “Sword of Damocles,” originally featured on Reed’s Magic and Loss album and included on the band’s first album Songs of Loss in a reworked form.

In its current iteration, A Permanent Shadow involves various collaborators for its releases, creating a uniquely evolving sound that weaves between various genres and musical elements. Currently preparing the release of their third long play, the upcoming album has a common thread which deals with dysfunctional relationships and challenging upbringings.

The lyrical themes range from premature fame and its consequences to abuse of power and life in warzones  “As always with us, the outlook is rather bleak,” confirms Fletcher. The core team of Fletcher, Albert Català (keyboards, arrangements) and Valentí Nieto (guitar, bass, production) started working on the album in early 2022 at Barcelona’s Mini Blind Studios. The release will be preceded by a further couple of singles and is scheduled for autumn 2023.

A Permanent Shadow “Number One Fan” single artwork