Paul Wesley
Austin, Texas, United States
Music
Press
Texas native Paul Wesley grew up around music—his mother played piano in church, and at age 12 he bought his first guitar with money he saved up by mowing lawns. It was at this point his mother sat him down and forbade him from playing "the devil's music."
Her warning lasted about as long as a '60s bubblegum pop song and Wesley formed a band with his best friend. Years later, he has recorded his first album, When I Let Go, in a process that's taken nearly a decade—mostly due to the time he spent trying to record it by himself before turning to the professionals.
With help from over 40 artists such as Dustin Tanner, Bruce Robison, Allison Russell, Bukka Allen, Tosca Strings, and Warren Hood he winds together twelve songs of love, rejection, betrayal, and forgiveness. Cuts like the opening track, "Evangeline," are flavored with gospel while others ("Pretend," "Allie's Song") are more rock, with an almost Springsteen-vibe.
"'I Can't Explain' is probably the most stripped down and the most personal," Wesley said about his favorite track. "I probably sat down and wrote that song in a few hours, but the relationship that I wrote it about had ended four or five years before that."
The mix of the upbeat with more somber tunes ("Christmas Eve, 1992") makes this first record from a new singer-songwriter a pleasant listen even with the occasional low point ("Fourth Street (Redux))." - austin.com
Meet new songwriter Paul Wesley. A native of Pasadena Texas, the now-Austinite has been crafting his debut for years now, and it was worth the extra time. When I Let Go is an album full of beautiful and broken tunes propelled by Wesley’s gentle voice, and it is an impressively polished album for a debut. The new video for lead single “I Can’t Explain” captures Wesley at his most heart-wrenching, with help from from director Paul Pryor of Upstream Visual. To film the video, they found an abandoned house out in Lake Victor, Texas, that fit the forlorn essence of the song, and just to make it a bit more devastating, spliced in some vintage home movie footage. Nothing says heartbreak like the grainy nostalgia. Wesley’s debut is out now and you can check out the video below. - www.austinsound.net
http://www.uncommonmusic.org/2009/interview/letting-go-with-paul-wesley/ - Uncommonmusic.org
Discography
"When I Let Go" (April 2009 release)
Photos
Bio
Like many teenagers who pick up an acoustic guitar and are quickly smitten by the instrument, Paul soon wanted an electric guitar as well. But while other aspiring musicians his age sought out cheap, entry-level instruments, Paul decided that he would settle for nothing less than a Les Paul Custom-- arguably the holy grail of rock guitars. The obvious problem with his plan was that he had no money, and his parents would never spend that kind of money on a guitar. Undeterred, he spent over a year mowing lawns, doing odd jobs, and pinching every last penny until the day he had exactly enough for the black and gold Les Paul Custom of his dreams.
That same quiet determination and desire for excellence permeated the making of his debut record, "When I Let Go." Recorded over a two year period, the album features accomplished studio veterans including Tosca Strings (David Byrne), Grooveline Horns (Jason Mraz, Kelly Clarkson), bassist George Reiff (Jakob Dylan), keyboardist Bukka Allen (The Bodeans), and more than 40 other musicians, including a gospel choir and even the drum corps from the local university.
In the fall of 2008, the record was mixed at New York's Avatar Studios by engineer Kevin Killen (U2, Peter Gabriel). At last, "When I Let Go" is the realization of another dream-- to make a superlative record.
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