Ben Esser a lying swine of a musician
Words Karley Sciortino
In person Ben Esser is awkward. Not bad awkward, more Woody Allen awkward - clumsy, yet still really charming. You know, the kind of person you want to hug as soon as you meet him, but you can’t explain why. His stage persona is pretty much the same. Onstage, with his band behind him, his tiny frame bounces around, acting out some sort of mix between twitching and dancing.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to standing in front of people and singing,” he says from behind his thick-rimmed glasses. It’s quite an abstract idea for me.”
The songs this 22-year-old Londoner makes are pop songs - really pretty, cut-up, romantic pop songs, laced with simple, sweet melodies. What makes them even better that they all have really fucking amazing beats, probably because Ben’s also a drummer (he used to be in Ladyfuzz). They’re love songs mainly, though Mr Esser insists he doesn’t have a muse.
“I just love how classic the idea of writing a love song is,” he says. “The lyrics are generally more abstract than they are actual commentaries on things. They’re kind of… what’s the word?” He pauses, readjusting his specs. “Oh yeah, lies.”
Having spent the majority of the past two years sitting at home making sounds on his laptop, Esser has finally moved his random noise-making out of his bedroom and into the studio, where he’s currently recording his debut album. “I’m definitely a studio guy,” he confesses. “I get really excited by the craft of making songs. Seeing a song progress from a tiny idea into a completed song is amazing to me.”
There’s more that we could say about Esser - he’s funny, he’s self-deprecating, he smiles a lot, he’s producing tracks for frYars - but at the moment he prefers we just stick to the songs.
“I’m trying to keep things simple at the moment,” he says. “I don’t want to over-complicate things with this record. All of the songs started out really innocently, and I don’t want to lose that initial spark. Because sometimes the imperfections are what makes things great, you know?”
