Josh Weller

If pop music stands for anything, it stands for the ability to be yourself.

At some point in each person's life they will have to stand on their own two feet and choose their own friends, their own clothes and their own records.

Releasing a handful of independent singles, Josh Weller knows all too well the price someone can pay for being an individual. However the singer's voice - modelled on jazz singer Chet Baker - belies all doubts.

An earnest and passionate artist, Weller is fast creating a name for himself. In France, meanwhile, the songwriter has become somewhat of an unexpected icon. Chatting on his mobile phone to ClashMusic Josh Weller is continually interrupted by fans and well wishers.

Not bad for a near unknown in his native London...

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So you’re in Paris right now?
Yeah! I’ve got a gig tonight so I’ve been out here for a few days. When we arrived we were playing with the girl who’s just won Pop Idol in France, which is a bit.. not the most fun thing in the world but its money.

Have you got quite a fan base in France then?
I think that everything in France and a lot of other European countries has sort of gone.. In England I’ve been playing for a year and a half, two years but so I’ve just appeared in Europe whereas England has watched me grow. Here it’s just kind of gone much quicker, everything is France is kind of crazy at the moment.

You played a free entry show in France recently.
We’re supposed to be doing a free show tonight and it sold out within like ten minutes. Not sold out, but I did a thing on the internet that if you send in your name then you get on the guestlist with free entry and it filled up within minutes of me putting the blog on. That’s amazing, just really flattering.

So you began by playing in a variety of groups?
I was in a punk band when I was about fifteen, and then I kind of branched out into another band when I was eighteen. I moved to London about a year ago and began doing solo gigs around London, and England. I did tons just on my own, playing people’s houses and just doing the toilet circuit basically. That was about two years ago, a year and a half ago. That’s kind of how it evolved in a way.

Did you find that going solo was a big learning curve?
Well for me it’s easier because I’m a bit of a control freak. I kind of like being able to put all my ideas into a pot and create pop songs in the way that I want to do them. In a band you always have a collaborative effort, but I’m playing all the parts on my demos and then giving them fully formed to my band. That’s what makes it really fun for me. I guess playing in bands takes the pressure off as there are always going to be a certain amount of people who are responsible for it, but I like having that control in a way.

I’ve read that you are influenced by Woody Allen and Richard Pryor – what draws you to those comedians?
Well, I guess really I just think that.. I know it almost sounds stupid to say that as a songwriter you are influenced by people like that, like comedians – my songs are definitely not comedy songs but what they do is take those brilliant observations about life, the worst things in life and they just make them into humorous stories. Woody Allen has a real knack for talking about what love really is, while Richard Pryor had multiple sclerosis and not only managed to write it into his stand up routine but also made it really funny. That’s something that while I’m not saying I can do it, I would love to be able to take similar observations and craft them into music. Woody Allen, I just think he’s an absolute genius. Plus he’s so prolific he’s done about 35 films now and as a songwriter it’s just great to be able to look up to someone who’s worked that hard. In an ideal world I’d like to make a lot of records, plus being able to be so self-conscious that you do what you want because you don’t care what anyone thinks.

They’re both outsiders in a way, is this partly why you’re drawn to them?
It’s just me. I’ve always been a bit of a.. I guess as a child I was always incredibly self-conscious and always trying to fit in but never quite did it and then when I got to about two, three years ago I thought: “fuck it, I’m going to dress how I want to dress, and I’m going to play how I want to play”. I don’t want to say ‘conform’ but doing what other people expect of you is a really bad way to make music, or even be a person. I think I had this epiphany when I discovered all these people like Randy Newman, Chet Baker, Woody Allen in my late teens and it just had a really profound affect on me. It just made me think that if I want to be an outsider then I should just accept it and stop caring, stop trying to be someone everyone else is going to like. In a way it’s still there as I’m still a very self-conscious person. ‘Circus’ in a way is about that, masked under the metaphor of being about a circus when it’s actually about feeling like a fuck up.

Chet Baker is an esoteric influence to cite..
I got into Chet Baker because I’m not a very talented musician. The only way I’ve got good at music is just through relentlessly practicing and rehearsing and when I was about eighteen as friend of mine said: “If you want to learn how to sing go and get some Chet Baker he’s like the best singer ever”. He kind of was, because I was listening to New York hardcore like Glassjaw, At The Drive In. I thought that was how you got emotion across in music was just to relentlessly scream, and then I listened to Chet Baker and he did it in a total opposite way. Everything he did was so soft, he did those jazz standards note for note and his voice always sounded so much like his trumpet playing which is such a magical thing. Also I realised also in regards to being a singer, I’m quite a skinny guy and I don’t really have a strong voice and that’s maybe one of the reasons I identified with Chet Baker so well is because he has a soft voice. It sounds as if its coming out the way it would if he was talking. It sounds so heartfelt. I completely lionize him, I’m a bit of a geek about collecting all of his records and I’ve read all the books and seen all the films. He had this tragic life as well which makes the songs even more beautiful because you know that he’s just lying when he’s singing them.

Is the album coming soon?
No ‘Everybody Breaks Your Heart In Two’ is like a limited edition that we’re going to do on heart shaped vinyl. It’s going to come out first, and then we’re going to do the album. We’re going to do one more indie release and then it’s time to knuckle down and get on with the record.

Do you record everything by yourself?
No. All the demos I do everything on and play everything on. On the recordings I play the majority of parts, except the guitar solo which my guitarist did. We put drums on it, and I tried to do some beat boxing. It was produced by Elliot James – he produced the last Kaiser Chiefs record, and also the Noah And The Whale album. So I really like working with producers – despite doing so much of it myself. You really need a good producer as it just adds another dimension, they can push it in a direction you hadn’t really thought about it going.

Have you got the material together for the album?
It’s pretty much kind of written. The thing is with songs, and also because I’m unsigned as well, the reality of it is that there’s no pressure. We could make an album tomorrow or do it early next year, but the thing is every songs I think is good enough to go on the record I think makes the oldest song look bad. So I try to re-write them and get them up to the level I think they should be at. It can be a positive thing, meaning that my songwriting is getting better but there’s going to have to be a cut off point soon where we take twelve, fifteen songs and put them on the album. I think right now that it’s written but I still want to write a few more because I want to make the best record I can.

Does the visual component of Josh Weller compliment the music you make?
The thing is I started to dress like this before I began playing solo. I suppose if you dress like a twat then people are going to notice you but its become such a strong image. I just cut my hair because I was.. I did so many interviews for the last EP where they just asked me about fashion and my hair but not about music. I totally brought it all on myself, just by choosing to look the way I look. It came about purely from the music I like, the films I like and the fashion I like that’s the way that I would probably dress even if I didn’t make music. If I was doing a proper or a normal job. It is a reflection of who I am and I sometimes feel that if my music was a person then it would probably dress like me.

Who are your fashion inspirations then?
I don’t know. I was talking to my girlfriend recently and she was naming all fashion people, like designers.. and I don’t have anyone. None. I just love Fred Estaire and I love Chet Baker and I like that distorted take that Tim Burton does on things. Life’s short so you might as well just do what you like.