“I was a Brian May obsessive. I had the Star Licks video and had learned it all by the time I was 14”: Hooked on “bombastic lead rock guitar” before catching the songwriting bug, Seb Wesson is on a search for songs with meaning

Hertfordshire-based Seb Wesson’s new Man From The Moon album is his first full-length solo release, following his 2017 Tigers EP.

Cutting his teeth in indie-rock band Munkster, Wesson started playing solo and session music after the group’s demise, as well as providing lead guitar licks for alternative-rock outfit Captain. It’s a busy musical life, and there’s really one man to thank.

“I started playing when I was seven or eight and I was really into Queen,” Wesson begins. “I had their greatest hits on vinyl and cassette, and I was a Brian May obsessive. I had the Star Licks video and had learned it all by the time I was 14.”

Moving Forward

Seb Wesson feat. Hope – Deep Water (Live in the Library) – YouTube

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When listening to Wesson’s solo music now, the Queen link seems surprising.

“I got into songwriting, so the incredibly bombastic lead rock guitar first got me hooked and then I got into songwriters,” he explains. “Dire Straits followed Queen – Mark Knopfler was another big influence – then there was James Taylor, Damien Rice, and Elliott Smith. I got into appreciating well-written songs and began attempting to do similar things.

“I wrote a bit in the band [Munkster], but it was more of a four-way thing and lyrics were more of a collaborative effort in a way. So after that I started trying to get good at writing songs as a one-man setup.”

Creative Flow

After Munkster split, Wesson kept busy playing in a function band, writing some solo songs, and also working with R&B singer Lemar, with whom he toured and made two albums as a session player.

“Although session stuff can be creative, I wasn’t writing much around then,” he says. “But by the time I quit the function band, the creative force came knocking and I started working on songs again and did the EP [Tigers] in 2017.

“It was a great exercise and it opened the floodgates. It was that simple thing of coming up with a set of chords for a verse and a middle eight and then creating a melody, recording it, and enjoying what you hear. That was the shift.”

Simple Pleasures

Wesson’s debut album is a confident-sounding 10-track record, arranged with a lightness of touch and a keen ear for melody and space.

“Everything was written and recorded on my Martin D-28,” he says. “That was a big part of it because it’s my dream acoustic and the songs come out of that. The other key thing was simple techniques – all of it was tracked on a Shure SM7B [mic].

“I used an old ’68 Fender Pro Reverb amp [rescued from the trash outside a London guitar shop!] panned the acoustics, and quadruple-tracked the vocals. I wanted a timeless, organic-sounding record. There wasn’t going to be any fancy modern stuff.”

Mark My Words

The Wave – YouTube

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The album’s sound never feels overstuffed, which is a discerning move that gives Wesson’s writing room to breathe.

“When I was doing my band stuff, lyrics were such an afterthought,” he tells us. “As long as it had a great set of chords and a hooky element, I could almost fill in the lyrics with some nonsense. Now, I think a big part of being good at writing is having something interesting to say; it makes you more enthusiastic when there’s a topic.

“Every song on the album has a core subject: The Wave is about a Japanese tsunami, and The Festival is about a time I forgot to go and see Elliott Smith – I was too young and stupid and I really regretted it afterwards…”

Seb Wesson – Free Fallin’ (Acoustic cover) – YouTube

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Building Blocks: Seb Wesson’s journey as a guitarist saw him trying his hand at lutherie

Wesson’s earlier instruments were slightly less flash than his “dream” Martin D-28, but then, he did make them himself…

“I’ve still got the first one,” he laughs. “It’s a bit ramshackle – we didn’t use moulds, just got the shape in and cinched it with string and let it set after hand-steaming it. I wouldn’t describe it as a guitar I would use, but it was a great experiment.

“I built some Selmer-style guitars afterwards with a mate of mine and they were much better. They were called W&W, and there’s still probably four or five out there in the wild…”

• The Man From the Moon is out now.