Paul Archer Releases Music Video for ‘No Fear’, Latest Cut from Debut Album ‘Art’
Northern Irish singer-songwriter Paul Archer has unveiled the official music video for ‘No Fear’, an uplifting track taken from his acclaimed debut solo album ‘Art’. The release marks another milestone in a creative rebirth that has seen one of Belfast’s most enduring musical voices step boldly into a new chapter — under his own name, on his own terms, for the first time in a three-decade career.
A powerful blend of indie and alternative rock, ‘No Fear’ sits at the emotional heart of Art, channelling what Archer describes as “the transforming power and potential of changing our heart, spirit, soul, psychological, and mind focus away from the deficits and potential paralysis of fear and anxiety towards a greater love.”
The track was recorded at Nave Studios in Leeds with producer Andy Hawkins, who also plays bass and guitars on the recording, alongside Gary Must on drums. One of the most distinctive contributions comes from Jim Lockhart - the legendary Horslips musician whose expressive flute performance lends the track a cosmic, soulful dimension that sets it apart from more conventional alt-rock fare. Additional recording was completed in Belfast with Matt McIvor.
Art is, in many respects, a record that could only have been made now. Conceived originally as a vinyl experience, it bridges two distinct sonic landscapes: Side A delivering the euphoric alt-rock energy that long characterised Archer’s work with Burning Codes, while Side B unfolds into something more reflective and expansive — featuring contributions from Duke Special, string players Darragh Morgan and David McCann, and backing vocalist Janet Henry. As CLASH Magazine noted upon its release, ‘Art’ promises “a punchy expression of ambition, passion and elegantly-rendered source material.”
The album also represents a series of personal firsts; It is Archer’s debut release under his own name, his first project to integrate his visual artwork into the musical world, and the beginning of a new creative phase following his return to Northern Ireland. For a musician whose journey stretches back to Belfast’s vibrant mid-1990s scene - through Disraeli Gears, the genre-blending work of The Ghears, and an acclaimed run of albums with Burning Codes between 2008 and 2018 - the record functions simultaneously as a summation and a reinvention.
That reinvention was catalysed, in part, by a reconnection with music writer and author Colin Harper, who helped bring the album’s vision to life, and supported by Think Like A Key Records. After returning to Bangor in 2018 and navigating the pandemic-era music landscape through a series of digital singles, Archer found in Art a project capacious enough to hold everything he had accumulated - creatively, visually, and spiritually.
“This new record is a grateful celebration and a joyful series of new beginnings,” Archer says. “It brings together my sonic art and my visual artwork in a deeply instinctual way. In both forms I experience a sense of cathartic release and joyful liberation.”
The music video for ‘No Fear’ now brings that philosophy vividly to life. Rooted in resilience, hope, and spiritual renewal, it offers a visual expression of the song’s central proposition — that love, in Archer’s words, “underpins the entire universe or multiverse on both a macroscopic and quantum level” and “grows exponentially.” It is a bold claim, but then Art is a bold record, and ‘No Fear’ is perhaps its boldest statement: that the most meaningful creative journeys are not about looking back, but about embracing the light ahead.