Son of a beach! Canadian recording artist Jon Mullane scored big in the recent California Music Video & Film Awards, winning Best Male Solo Artist for the clip to his feel-good surfside anthem, “The Sun In The Summertime.”
Viewers named Mullane’s video the best in its category for its retro portrayal of life by the sand, deeming it a standout amid the awards’ salute to California-influenced music and performers.
Directed by Martin Noel, “The Sun In The Summertime” is a collage of mid-century Golden State iconography, including cool guitars, classic cars and nostalgic movie footage that plays out on vintage TV screens. (Of course, actor Harvey Lembeck gets in some face time in his role as Eric Von Zipper from the “Beach Party” movies.) Through it all, Mullane appears as a six-string troubadour singing the praises of coastal culture.
Co-written by Jim Gelcer and Mullane, “The Sun In The Summertime” comes from the latter’s 2023 EP, the appropriately named California. The infectious pop-rock number was the sole new track on the record, which otherwise compiled tunes Mullane had released individually during the pandemic. The EP was devised as the Halifax-born artist’s salute to his years as a Los Angeles resident; now a Nova Scotian once more, he currently resides in the seaside town of Mahone Bay. The music video for the song was actually shot on Bayswater Beach in Nova Scotia in early June 2023, in the midst of wildfires that were anything but “a good time.”
“I’ve always aspired to write a summertime anthem since I was in my teens,” Mullane says. “It was a time where we always had a song of the summer on the radio that became a part of the fabric of our lives and life experiences, creating vivid images of surf, sand and drivin’ around. Living in L.A. brought out that feeling.”
Beyond the EP, Mullane’s recording catalog includes five full-length albums and several radio singles that have hit the Billboard Top 40 in Canada. He reached #32 on the U.S. Hot AC Billboard Chart with his song “My New American Girl.” Many other songs from his repertoire have been featured in TV programs, commercials and sporting events, including NBC’s use of his “Make Your Move” to promote the Beijing Olympics.
Pursuant to its awards win, the video for “The Sun In The Summertime” will be shown in Summer 2024 on the TasteTV television series Music California and on the program Short Films On, both of which are carried on PBS-affiliated public television stations across the U.S. Too bad the title The Endless Summer was already taken, because this one’s going to have legs as long as the mercury’s high.
