Esser

So for those of us don't know, tell us a bit about who you are...

Well, I started this project about two and a half years ago when I wrote the first song, but that kind of came about from stuff that I'd been doing for a long time up towards that point, which was like sampling and playing drums in other bands and doing bits of home recording.

But the first song came together about two and a half years ago which was a song called 'I Love You'. Then I wrote a few more things, got the band together, we've been a band for about a year, had our first single out, which was 'I Love You'. And now we've just signed to Transgressive Records and released 'Headlock'.

You were the drummer in LadyFuzz, how does this project differ?

It's just massively different when you're one person because you can do what you want! And in a band you're restricted by boundaries that you place on yourself. I feel a lot more in control of what I'm doing now than I ever have done before. And it's a lot more interchangeable, whether that's member of the band, people I want to work with, the record I want to make... it can be whatever it needs to be.

And when you were in LadyFuzz had you already started writing and planning what you wanted to do as Esser?

Err, not really, it just kind of came about towards the end of it really. I guess that's one of the reasons why it stopped, because I started doing my own things.

This only really came about when I started singing on stuff, because you can do things musically but it never really becomes about you or it never really becomes a solo project until you sing on something. And so when I realised that maybe I could sing on some of my tracks, then that's when it became, y'know, a project.

So do you enjoy this more than being in LadyFuzz?

Yes.

How do you feel about that fact that your solo project is arguably more successful and more popular than what you did with LadyFuzz?

[massive pause] I dunno really.... I just kind of..... I dunno.

Do you think you are?

What, more popular?

And more successful.

Err..... yeah possibly? I hope it will be. I never really had any huge ambition with the songs in the first place. I'm just happy that people like them and we get to tour. I try not to think about it too much.

What influences your song writing?

It's weird when you make your first album because you don't really have a concept or intentions, you just sort of do something. So it's difficult to say what influenced that or why it came about. It just came out of a need to do something. But I think once you've done an album and once you've toured for a bit, the idea of what you want to do becomes a bit clearer. So the next record becomes a bit more concise. So hopefully I can answer that question on the second album!

I ask that because listening to songs like Headlock, I Love You, and Let's Work It Out, there seems to a recurrent theme of..... well, girls. Is there somebody in particular you have in mind? Is there a girl in the life of Ben Esser!?

It's not really about anyone in particular! I was just interested in the theme of love as a classic song idea! It's just a recurring theme within pop music, and it's very classic, and that's what I wanted. 'Satisfied', for example; it's meant to be like a story, the kind of thing you can imagine somebody maybe sitting down at a campfire and telling a story about a woman who is never satisfied... it's that kind of thing.

On your Myspace you seem to make a point of naming the people who do your videos and photos. Are you a promoter of the DIY ethic? How much creative control do you have?

I decide everything that I want to do. I think it becomes increasingly hard as record labels get involved and want you to be certain things and want you to do certain things, especially if you present yourself as a pop artist, that can mean something different to a record label than what it means to me. They put a lot of expectations on you. It's getting increasingly harder to keep control of all the things like the videos and the artwork and the photos, but I think as long as I keep fighting against them! And make sure I do what I want to do, then I'll be happy.

I was just having a conversation with someone about that. I was saying I'd rather look back in a couple years and say well I did everything that I wanted to do with everything and I presented myself in the way that I wanted to present myself and nobody liked it, rather then well I did exactly what the record label wanted me to do, or what was the more commercial thing to do, and everyone liked it but at the end of it I feel a bit like a c***.

That's fine, we can definitely use that word on the radio.

I guess it's a bit like... you've got to be yourself when you're getting to know a girl, so that if she falls in love with you, she's falling in love with the genuine article!

That's right!

You can write a song about that!

I could, thanks for the inspiration!

That's alright. So when you are interview for your second album and they ask what was your inspiration, you can just quote me.

Yeah I'll just say you.

Cool. So you're single 'Headlock' was released as a t-shirt [G - for those of you that don't know, you paid money for the t-shirt which had a code printed on it which you used to download the single, clever eh?! - G]. What was that about?!

It was about owning something real, something physical that wasn't just a download. We wanted to do something interesting that people would talk about, so that was something we came up with between myself and the label.

And finally tell us a bit about the next single, 'Satisfied'... is that coming out on a pair of shorts maybe?

Err, yeah it's kind of like a matching kind of trouser thing, so you got the t-shirt with my face on it, and then the bottom half will be the legs and the lower half of the body... No it comes out on vinyl and CD, and there might be a few remixes floating around on the internet but I can't really tell you that because they are illegal.