Illinois native Scott Wesley was into music from an early age, writing his first songs at age five on an old upright piano. By his teens, he was working on the other side of the industry, writing contracts for a label and licensing music to the likes of Microsoft, all the while performing at SXSW and building a fanbase. Finding himself growing out of Chicago, historically heavy on the blues, Scott moved to Nashville, citing it as “one of the best career decisions I’ve ever made”. No longer working with a label, he got together with producer Paul Kimsal to start working on his debut record. The result is his self-titled, five-song EP, which we are FTCR are excited to premiere for y’all! The record doesn’t drop until next Friday, September 11th, so you’re getting an exclusive sneak peek right here.
The lead single from the project (and its opening track) is ‘Heavy Rotation’, a swampy country-blues song with pop inflections and a hook that’s wonderfully catchy. The song is a message to a girlfriend/wife who is sceptical about his music career and wants him to get a “real job”. He protests, insisting that he’s going to write a hit song and it’ll mean they never have to work again. It’s a fun track, perhaps inflating the truth slightly, but full of hope and optimism that matches its great drinking vibe. A lot of musicians will relate to it. The second single from the project is ‘My Love’, a darker, more subdued offering featuring aching pedal steel and fluttering mandolin, and a feel that’s more akin to Americana. A classic heartbreak track, it finds him wishing he had given a long gone lover more, but kids himself that she’s still in love with him as she manipulates him for money.
‘Front Porch Light’, meanwhile, is a sweet little pop country ballad that follows on somewhat from the narrative begun in ‘My Love’, as he lets a lover know she can come home at any time, and he will “give up the fight”. Scott seems to be something of a romantic, and ‘Fell For It Again’ is a perfect example of that. Also a ballad, it describes how an old lover manipulates him when he’s at his most vulnerable, making him fall back in love with her only to realize she’s just using him. It’s a great lyric that shows he isn’t afraid to dig into deeper emotions and wear his heart on his sleeve in his music.
‘That Girl’, meanwhile, is an upbeat, southern rock-esque foot-tapper about Scott’s soulmate – who he hasn’t met yet. He describes a woman who’s something of a wild child, not taking any crap from anyone. Instead of resorting to country clichés about a girl who goes crazy on a Saturday and is in church on Sunday, in other words the angel/devil dichotomy, he just wants that rebel – the woman who is going to challenge him and scare him and fight him, because that’s what’s more desirable to him. I like this, because there’s something quite feisty and feminist about the woman he’s hoping to meet.
Originally posted here.
