Put On Your Braveface: Esser

Ben Esser (stage name Esser) is sitting in Premises Recording Studios in Shoreditch about to be served his dinner when I arrive – I’ve never had perfect timing! After a day in the recording studio the last thing you want is some hack blasting questions at you while your munching down a tuna jacket potato but it’s a reflection of the man himself that Ben Esser takes time to shake my hand, offer me a seat and even pause from taking a mouthful if he knows an answer is due. Some people will tell you that all the best pop stars are naturally arrogant. While this is partially true it’s also a fact that a lot of the awful ones also share this trait, so what a breath of fresh air to meet a pop star who’s humble, attentive and quietly (not vocally) confident.

The best description of Esser’s music is offered by the man himself: “The theme of my album is that all the tracks are trying to be concise pop songs. There’s loads of stuff happening and it’s hard to make that gel but I think the vocal ideas and the same intention behind every song, to keep things simple, is what makes it.” The album he speaks of is ‘Braveface’ – set for release in April. “It’s been done for ages, which is good because there are a lot of bands who release an album and disappear. The songs were written a while back, some were probably two and a half to three years old and the album’s been finished for a few months but I’ve felt no pressure from the label at all. They were really good at letting me do what I wanted to do. I was just really interested in the idea of it all."

Having been signed nearly a year ago by Transgressive records, Esser has spent plenty of time preparing for his debut effort – something he wanted to allow him time to be comfortable with the songs and mature the music live. “It’s more of a band thing live now and we’re starting to change things. In the studio it’s more like putting stuff together because some songs are band based and some have bits pieced into place.” He hastens to add with tongue in cheek “but a lot of it though is me blagging my way through stuff.”