Essex-boy Ben Esser is back on his home turf to wow the crowds at Colchester Arts Centre with an eclectic selection from his debut album, Braveface. maddog caught up with the bequiffed popstrel to find out a little bit about why he left Ladyfuzz, how the solo career is working out for him and his feelings on being referred to as a 'male Lily Allen'.

MD: Hello Esser. How was Brighton last night?

Esser: We played the Komedia - it’s a little bit bigger than Colchester Arts Centre. It was good, yeah, a bit tame for a Monday night. Gold Teeth supported us; they’ve been doing a few with us. We’ve also done a few with a band called Danimal Kingdom, and another band called Young Fathers.

MD: Is it good to be back in Essex?

Esser: Well. I’m from Chelmsford, but I went to Colchester Institute, which is also where my dad used to teach music. I was there quite a few years ago, just out of school. I must’ve been about 16 and I was only there for a year.

MD: What’s your favourite venue in the area?

Esser: It’s probably Colchester Art Centre actually. It’s the only one I’ve been to! I saw British Sea Power here quite a few years ago and that was great. It was a fitting venue for them. Chelmsford’s got a new venue called the Barhouse, which is quite good, and I’ve done a few gigs down there.

MD: You seem to have a very wide range of influences in your new album?

Esser: The influences it borrows from are quite vast but I think it has that pop sensibility that holds it together. There are a lot of people that are bored of loud, noisy bands without any tunes, and pop music at the moment seems like the healthiest place for new, interesting music. Indie doesn’t exist any more in a way. I don’t think there’s the scope for it because bands are forced to tour and not sell as many records so I think everyone’s geared up to making exciting pop music.

MD: You’ve just supported the Kaiser Chiefs on tour. What are your opinions of them?

Esser: Well, it’s lads music. Although they are pop, they’re quite knowing about what they do - they want to write big anthems. To see a band of that magnitude playing to these huge venues with people singing along to it is quite weird. I’ve never been the type of person to go to arena gigs and stuff like that. It was quite an eye opener.

MD: Your first single Headlock was released as a T-shirt (with a download code attached)…

Esser: Yeah, we thought it would be interesting and we didn’t want to do it as just another download. As people aren’t buying CDs or records, we wanted to get it out there in a different way, so I guess T-shirts are different. I think it was more of an interesting thing for people to read about and latch onto and become aware of. I wanted something physical that people could actually get their hands on. The youtube virals about the T-shirt were just us being a bit stupid really. I would recommend it to other bands, but the idea was for us to do something different, and if everyone did it, it’d become a bit boring. It’s more about the idea of it, you know?

MD: You used to play in cover bands…

Esser: Yeah, I used to play in Butlins and stuff, which was quite weird. It’s quite a strange concept. I think you have to do it for a while and then stop yourself from doing it, because it can become quite easy to earn money doing that kind of thing and, however much you try, you can’t separate yourself from trying to write your own stuff and playing other people’s music. I think at some point you have to make a conscious decision to stop and to try and do something that’s your own, you know? You do feel a bit like a performing monkey after a while. It was good for me at the time, getting out and playing shows and touring. It was a means of being able to do my own stuff really. You see these strange parts of England and these people who go to holiday parks

MD: Are you still in touch with the other members of your previous band, Ladyfuzz?

Esser: Yeah, the guitarist Matt plays in my band now. When I put my band together, I tried a few different people and it just ended up being friends. I never wanted it to be a group of session musicians playing songs they weren’t in to. Regarding Ladyfuzz, I just started doing my own stuff and thought that was something I really wanted to pursue so I decided to do that. It just ended, I suppose. I don’t know if we’d all get together again, maybe in years to come.

MD: You’ve been described as a male Lily Allen…

Esser: I think her first record wasn’t too bad but she’s changed into more of a celebrity than a musician. I think people are more interested in her persona than the records she makes, and I wouldn’t like to be like that. So, in that way, I don’t think I am.

MD: Do you think it’s a good time at the moment for solo artists?

Esser: I do, yeah. I think that while bands are aware of pop music and doing interesting stuff, there’s obviously a growing awareness of solo artists. I can change my persona from one song to another, but bands can’t really do that in the same way as one person. I think that the second and third record that I’m going to make are going to be completely different. I’m able to do that, which is nice.

MD: What are your expectations for 2009?

Esser: Because the singles we’ve released have been quite different, I think it’s taken people a while to latch on to it and understand what we’re doing. I think when the album is presented as a whole, it’ll become a lot more concise and make sense. We’ve got some really good festivals – we’re doing Glastonbury John Peel stage, I’ve never been so I’m excited to do that. There’s quite a few more, we’re doing Bestival as well and we might be doing V. There’s a few still pending. We did Reading and Leeds last year and a few little ones like the Secret Garden so hopefully we’ll do a few more of those little festivals as they’re always nice.

MD: You covered The Cure’s In Between Days with Mystery Jets…

Esser: It was great doing that, it’s an amazing song and it was great working with the Mystery Jets. I’d love to do stuff with them in the future, I keep speaking to Will about playing some guitar on some stuff, so I’m sure we’ll do more in the future.

MD: You have some quite interesting tattoos.

Esser: Well, the one on my neck says Good and Bad on either side. I’ve got a Texas tattoo on my elbow, a 3 and a 1 on my hands. There’s not really a reason, but the more you get, the more random floodgates open and now I’ll have anything tattooed on me. The toothbrush, I was brushing my teeth in the morning and I looked at the toothbrush and I thought it looked good so I went and got it tattooed. It’s pretty much life sized.

Esser’s new Album Braveface is out now.

Words > Anna Dobbie
Photos > Georgia-Blue Townshend