The Beat Surrender

2009 looks set to be a massive year for a young man from Essex that we started telling you about last year. Esser is his name, he’s signed to Transgressive Records and if you haven’t heard him yet then you are going to love him.

He’s currently on tour with The Kaiser Chiefs, has a brand new single out this week called Let’s Work It Out and it’s already scored four out of five on this website, this will be followed by his album before the summer, a release which already looks like it could be one of the best of this year.

We caught up with the man of many talents recently to find out if he was ready for his big support slot and to tell us a little more about the single release.

Last year, while not making a huge breakthrough chart wise, certainly saw things really take off for you, has it made it easier building up over a period of time rather than instant adulation all around?

I think so. People are bombarded with ‘new’ music all the time so I think it’s a good thing to gradually gain peoples trust as appose to being forced on them by certain magazines.

Things will be slightly different this year though as you’ve featured heavily in the acts tipped to breakthrough in ‘09 does that bring extra pressure for you?

I think I’m in a really good position because my albums done. I don’t have to disappear for months to write it, or worry that it’s not gonna live up to the expectations of singles. The only pressure I put on myself is just to keep writing songs.

You’ve got a new single out in February, can you tell us a little bit about Let’s Work It Out?

It’s a classic ‘I’ve made a mistake and I’m sorry’ pleading song really. It’s also got a bit of a Roger Trout-man style vocoder in the chorus.

It’s taken from your debut album Braveface that comes out in May, what can we expect from the album and how would you describe it to someone who hasn’t heard your music before?

I tried to keep everything on the record as concise as possible. It’s so easy to get carried away on a first record and start talking about themes, musical interludes and hidden tracks so I tried to stay as far away from that as possible.

They’re songs which were written over about a two year period, kind of post teenage angst. And none of the songs are over 4 minutes.

How was the recording process with Lexxx, you produce yourself so do you find yourself learning both as a musician and as producer when you work with someone like that?

Yeah, it was amazing just to watch him really and try to absorb as much as possible. And at the same time it was great to be able to hand over the technical side of making a record and just concentrate on being creative. I think one of the things that’s important is just to keep on learning from people all the time.

Talking of other skills, you’ve also been involved in remixing and putting some beats together, are you looking to expand on the production side of things?

I am doing some writing and making some beats at the moment which I’m getting out to a few people. I’m doing quite a few remixes, just did one for the Young Fathers, The Streets and Kaiser Chiefs. As far as producing goes all I can really say at this stage is watch this space!

As well as your own dates you also have a tour coming up with the Kaiser Chiefs, are you a fan of theirs and how are you looking forward to playing such big venues?

Some bands kind of write there songs with arenas in mind! But that was never the case with my stuff so it will be interesting to see how it translates. I’m a bit nervous about commanding such a huge space, but then again as a support band you only get about 10% of the stage. Yeah I am a fan of their music. They seem to get a bit of a hard time sometimes which I think is very unfair!

Continue