Wesley Gonzalez, DIY indie punk’s enfant terrible turned pop sophisticate, returns with his second album ‘Appalling Human’ (Moshi Moshi). Ironically a more accomplished record than his 2017 debut Excellent Musician, here Gonzalez makes full use of a lithe band armed with an orgy of high-end synthesizers, all mixed for the dancefloor by James Greenwood (Ghost Culture, Daniel Avery, Kelly Lee Owens). Both its sound and emotional clout are huge.
Along with therapy, taking better care of...
Wesley Gonzalez, DIY indie punk’s enfant terrible turned pop sophisticate, returns with his second album ‘Appalling Human’ (Moshi Moshi). Ironically a more accomplished record than his 2017 debut Excellent Musician, here Gonzalez makes full use of a lithe band armed with an orgy of high-end synthesizers, all mixed for the dancefloor by James Greenwood (Ghost Culture, Daniel Avery, Kelly Lee Owens). Both its sound and emotional clout are huge.
Along with therapy, taking better care of himself and a switch from guitars to learning and writing on piano, it was the choice of people to work with that helped him into this new creative phase.The new line up around Wesley was completed by the bassist Joe Chilton, singer Rose Dougal, drummer Bobby Voltaire and Callum Duffy on synths. They’d sit back and accommodate his demanding notion of how things should sound.
As the new way of working unblocked Gonzalez‘ creativity on the first record, so too did new listening lead to stepping up his ambition for the scope and sound of its follow-up. He was going in for work each day at a Soho record shop, wanting to throw himself into traffic, then patching himself up with music.
Despite all the electronic prostheses that grace his solo project, at the heart of his music there is a depth to the song writing and a singular character to it. There’s an eccentricity somewhat akin to Harry Nilsson, or Andy Partridge of XTC, and a kind of melancholy (lost)innocence. His sensitive feel for characters and situations is simply unparalleled in his peer group. It’s a depth that becomes more and more apparent with each release.
VIDEO SHOWN ABOVE: ‘Did You Get What You Paid For?’ is a track which ties all of the record’s main themes of recovery, family and vulnerability together. Wesley explains: “I wrote this, unsurprisingly, in a very dark moment. I tried to write a song that I would want to be played at my funeral. I thought “Do you all love me? Am I what you want? Did you get what you paid for?” – was a pretty good final statement. A good mix of tragedy and comedy – I wrote the music with that in mind as well it has to be said, but it had to have personality, I can’t die boring. I wanted to go with some swag… I’ve had the concept for the video in the back of my mind since writing the track, the thought behind the song was “what song would I write to be played at my funeral?” Danny Nellis (Director) and I discussed it at length and then we came to a fork in the road due to the Pandemic. Digital artist Alex Jackson worked on the last video for Tried To Tell Me Something and when we were working on that I went through this idea with him so he could build CGI sets, I sent through photos I particularly liked of Southern Baptist Funeral Homes in the US, then Danny came up with a list of shots and we enlisted fans over the internet who had use of a camera and green screen, and got a really great response. It’s been a joy working on this video, it is the closest thing to what I had in my imagination initially thanks to working closely with really close friends who could see the vision clearly too. All three of us are extraordinarily grateful to everyone who sent in footage and made the video what it is, the help of fans was vital in the production of this and it was fantastic to be in close contact with lovely people who cared about the project. And yes that is my mother kicking the f*** off at the end.”
VIDEO: ‘Change’ Directed by Danny Nellis
An arch and confessional lyricist, Gonzalez continues, “This song [Change] had the most transformation from beginning to end. It started life as an experiment after listening to a lot of Ghanaian house music, I wanted to write something upbeat. At the time I wrote it I found myself at pivotal moment of change and saw that in others around me, one of my best friends had gone through an intervention and it had made me question aspects of my life. I thought about how scared I would be if I gave all my crutches up. I wanted to be reassuring to someone when I also felt in need of reassurance, so this was my song for him.”
VIDEO: ‘Tried to Tell Me Something’ Directed by Alex Jackson
“I spent the months before writing it listening to strictly Prince, Disco and Eurythmics “There Must Be An Angel”. Lyrically it’s a song that focusses on hindsight and looking at things in a different light, how you can be totally in a partnership with someone and in relatively no time at all find that things have changed dramatically.“