Jesse Wells

Welles is one of the many musical guises of Arkansas-based rocker Jesse Welles, who also operates under the moniker Jeh Sea Wells, and has served as the frontman for the bands Dead Indian and Cosmic American. Pairing the fuzzed-out, melody-forward attack of Kurt Cobain, the heartfelt indie rock swagger of Kyle Craft, and the rock and roll pageantry of the Struts, Welles emerged in 2012 as Jeh Sea Wells via a series of home-recorded singles and LPs released to online streaming sites. Later that year he formed Dead Indian with Dirk Porter and Simon Martin, and began briefly performing under the name Breck Shipley. Dead Indian issued two albums, Lead Me to the Sky and When We Live, before calling it quits in 2015. He reverted back to Jeh Sea Wells shortly after the group's demise and contributed a cover of Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box" to the Pigeons and Planes curated Nirvana cover song compilation Teenage Angst Has Paid Off Well. He then teamed up with Dead Indian drummer Simon Martin, Skyler Greene, and Blake Foster and formed Cosmic American, but the group folded the following year. Rebranding as Welles in 2017, he issued the Codeine EP via C3 Records. In 2018, Welles inked a deal with Atlantic imprint 300 Entertainment and released his debut full-length, Red Trees and White Trashes. ~ James Christopher Monger