Our roving reporter, Rob Dyson, recently caught up with Jesse Reuben Wilson – AKA: L’Avenue for an in depth (and exclusive) interview. Read on to find out more about his love affair with Far-Eastern aesthetics, collaboration, and why he misses the 80s…
[RD – Rob Dyson. JRW – Jesse Reuben Wilson (L’Avenue)]
Rob Dyson: Jesse, thanks for taking the time to sit down with FutureSounds. We have known each other a long time, as you were a returning guest on the Forever Synth live radio show over several years – and we’ve bumped into each other at the occasional show. How are you feeling after your new, epic, release? An album which I must say is some of your best work since Into The Night (2020).
Jesse Reuben Wilson: Thanks so much Rob! Yes, you and Joe – the mighty Forever Synth dynamic duo were amongst the very first supporters of the project back in 2019 and I’m pretty sure you were the first L’Avenue radio interview! Good times! Miss you guys and your presence!
RD (interjecting): Well here at FutureSounds, we’ll be covering more synthwave as well as great new vaporwave, futurefunk and adjacent artist and releases, so no fear. What’s the vibe now Tokyo Nights is out?
JRW: I’m feeling great after the album – it was a mammoth amount of work, a great deal of time when into the detail and not just on the music but the art too…. I always enjoy every release, but this particularly was just a joy to make in the studio. I’ve had a longstanding love affair with the sonics and visuals of the Far East thanks to bands like Japan and Huang Chung (pre-Wang Chung) back in the early ‘80s so fusing these elements with modern synthwave was just a very natural marriage.
“L’Avenue was greatly inspired in the early days by The Midnight and one reason why I think they’re so unique is Tyler’s unconventional tone, style and lyrics. So, I wanted a more unique tone like that for [my work]”
RD: Over recent releases, you have been collaborating with singers – something which adds both a pop sensibility and potentially a wider commercial appeal. On Tokyo Nights, you’ve got Josh Paulino and Elise Devane. Elise we heard before on 2022’s Riviera. Tell us a little bit about how you approached these singers in terms of how you found them, and why you decided their vocals suited certain tracks. And were these songs always going to feature vocals or was it more organic than that?
JRW: I have a few projects outside of L’Avenue – one being Positive Flow, which heavily focuses on vocals and songwriting, so when I’m in the compositional zone vocal melodies, lyrics and vocal vibes just sort of enter the scene from time to time. I’m not ashamed to say that L’Avenue was greatly inspired in the early days by The Midnight and one reason why I think they’re so unique is Tyler’s unconventional tone, style and lyrics. So, I wanted a more unique tone like that for L’Avenue rather than having an array of different sounding featured vocalists.
I did a lot of searching on various platforms and eventually found Elise, and she had such a clear, crystal tone and she seemed to just capture what I had in mind for the tunes that I’d envisioned for a female singer. And then when I ran into Josh I was just stopped in my tracks. He just has such a unique sound, but he can be very soft and VERY powerful at the same time and has got great range. He really is the real deal and quite underestimated in my view.
He also added some really great ideas to Tokyo Nights and Kayla on ‘Rendezvous’. I feel like now I’ve found the right people for L’Avenue to make a cohesive sound on vocal tracks and will be featuring them more in future – so fans will start to feel like they constitute the L’Avenue sound.
RD: Nice. Looking forward to that! You’ve said that Tokyo Nights features some of your hardest, most complex work. Did you approach this with that intent? Did you consider it a concept album of sorts and build it up that way, or did the track ideas come in a more ad hoc way to you – which made you lean into a theme?
JRW: To be honest I’m sort of my own worst enemy and when working on a track I can layer up so much stuff, it gets a little crazy. Actually, on Riviera I tried to make a conscious effort to keep the sonic landscape much simpler. With Tokyo Nights that plan went to hell in a hand basket, haha! I just couldn’t stop the layering; it was like I was in a crazy cake-making bake-off! I’d hear one arpeggio and then hear another on and on and on. But a lot of the complexity was also timbre. There’s more bells in this album than on all the reindeers in the Northern hemisphere at Christmas, and there can be a lot of resonance so plugins like Soothe2 and Trackspacer really came to the rescue.
“I’ll let you in on a little L’Avenue secret …I have approximately 4-6 other albums or EPs in the works, 70% in the bag with titles and cover art…”
Most albums of mine conceptually are born out of the feel of a particular tracks or group and in terms of concept the titular track “Tokyo Nights” it’s actually one of the earliest songs in the L’Avenue canon but it never sort of sat right with any of the other albums, so it just gathered dust on the hard drive.
Before I go further, I’ll let you in on a little L’Avenue secret … ready? I have approximately 4-6 other albums / EPs in the works, 70% in the bag with titles and cover art … so L’Avenue is good for the next few years. Given all that material a lot of tracks sit there but then suddenly fall into a theme or I will mix’n’match … so I had Tokyo Nights and then a couple of others that had that Far East / cyber feel. And I thought it would be fun to delve into that world which I hadn’t done.
So, I ended up perhaps with 6-8 tracks which fell together for Tokyo Nights and then some I put aside and wrote new stuff. Sometimes the artist in me thinking “That’s not me best work” gets royally and rightly kicked in the family jewels by my beautiful German wife, who is a bit of a secret weapon in helping me gauge what’s good / bad in my head versus what’s good / bad in other people’s heads. She said to me “What happened to ‘X track’ which was going to go on Tokyo Nights, I loved that!”. So I listened to that again and a few others that I’d cast aside like unwanted children from Tokyo Nights and realised they’re strong – so there will be a spiritual follow up to Tokyo Nights …
RD: Fascinating. Well, the FutureSounds community will love to hear that there’s another stack of albums coming. Back of the net, as Partridge would say. Oh, can I quickly also ask about your guest Saxophonist, as they are incredible?
JRW: Ah yes, the RIDICULOUSLY talented Alex Bone. He is amaze-balls. I found him via Soundbetter. He’s not only a BRILLIANT sax player but a really talented producer / songwriter as well doing his own future house / jazz / pop thing. The modus operandi with Alex is most of the time I will have a concept of a solo or I will actually write sax lines using a plugin – and then get him to copy those and add in his own thing or then I will just say “At 2:03 I need a killer solo” and I get him to do 2-3 runs at it and then in some cases I edit parts of those together just like they used to do in the eighties with Michael Jackson guitar solos. My favourite by Alex track is Erica because I literally just let him loose to do what he does best. But he nails it every time. So together with Alex, Josh and Elise I sort have a bit of a band now. I just need someone for triangle, you game, Rob?
RD: The king of the primary school orchestra. Hey, if I can ting a triangle on an upcoming L’Avenue release, I’m in – I don’t even need a credit.
“Sunglasses Kid once said “We don’t discuss age in the synthwave circle of trust” – that is now firm policy.”
A L’Avenue release always means class, sophisticated synthwave, and an authentic display of an 80s aesthetic that doesn’t ever cross into satire or parody. We are both men of a certain age haha – does having a lived memory of the 80s help in developing the L’Avenue sound?
JRW: Ha, yes. I remember seeing a comment by Ed (Sunglasses Kid) once saying “We don’t discuss age in the synthwave circle of trust” – that not only seriously cracked me up but is now firm policy, haha.
In answer to your question – 100% yes. There was so much more of the 80s that is not understood or seen through the small lens of social media today. Because it was not only ‘life’ but it was a culture. Plus, there was no internet, no mobiles really (apart from the old bricks). Life was so much simpler and quieter. I miss a lot of things from those days: music magazines like Smash Hits, music newspapers like Melody Maker, TV shows like Top of the Pops, The Tube, The Old Grey Whistle Test, going to record stores and (yup wait for it) breakdancing and popping on Saturdays in town. It was an age where there was SO much amazing music. So, in essence I do find it to easy tap into the 80s world and recall the feel of the culture.
RD: Your music is also very soundtrack and filmic, do you visualise scenes or movies when writing?
JRW: That’s a very good question. And yes, but not consciously – usually when noodling around with a chords or the initial vibe of a track certain pictures came to mind. A very good example is “Malibu Haze” I just sort of saw scenes of Point Break and even early Baywatch (ahem, I’ve never seen it of course, just heard about it that show…) Black Rain is another obvious one which had an influence on Tokyo Nights as well the obvious but still stunning “Bladerunner”. Tokyo Nights is probably my personal homage to that.
RD: An area that I don’t see you in on social media is video; there aren’t the ‘How I did this’, or POV content creation that can be pretty ubiquitous (which I think is a good thing). Is this a deliberate act of staying mysterious and letting the music speak for itself…Or are you just Anti / not great at social marketing, haha?
JRW: Ha! To be honest, I never just felt like that was something I wanted to do or is what L’Avenue was about. I also think there’s sort of a social pressure in the ether now to do these kinds of videos. But the project has never really been about “me” but about a vibe, a concept, an experience. I feel people seeing me in the studio tinkering on a midi keyboard sort of reduces the scope of the concept. Spielberg famously said you should never show the inside of a UFO in a movie because it removes the mystery. That’s sort of how I feel about L’Avenue, I’m trying to convey experiences in locations we can’t normally get to. I’m sort of a “Journey in your headphones” peddler.
I thought if I did decide to do POV type reels I would have to do something different and unique, but I haven’t worked out what that would be yet…. It’s also the time to make these things – with the amount of time I spend in the studio already I’m surprised I’m still married, haha.
“Every Friday is New Release day but how many of those tracks stick with you? The 80s were all about quality and I think that’s why that genre is still so successful today.”
RD: Follow up to the last question – your audience is very loyal. How do you take L’Avenue to market, and has word of mouth and organic reach been your main way to grow your reach and build that loyalty?
JRW: I have grown pretty decent bases through socials already and also through Bandcamp which has created this amazing audience of people who seem to like what I do which is really rewarding! I’m very conscious that music today is very ubiquitous, but the ‘quality’ factor not so much. Every Friday is New Release day but how many of those tracks stick with you? The 80s were all about quality and I think that’s why that genre is still so successful today. The songs were incredible, the musicians and singers were incredible, and they didn’t need Autotune! And the same goes for the other art forms of the time: movies, fashion, etc. Today you can get everything within a few clicks, as a culture we’re now becoming conditioned to a quick buzz and then swipe left. I think most people want something more meaningful. As a consumer I want quality music and art … so I feel a duty to do that for other people. I want to give that to other people, and I think the L’Avenue base understands what I’m doing, and it resonates with them. I spend hours and hours and hours getting everything spot on including the artwork for them … and I think that’s respected because it has meaning. So, I think when a new release comes, people know that’s going to be of a certain quality and as I keep doing that it grows and grows.
RD: Let’s talk visuals. I know these are a big part of your art, and you create it yourself, right? As in design is one of your disciplines.
JRW: Yeah in my other life I’m a designer and have been for quite some time so it sort goes hand in glove with the project. With many other projects and labels I’ve been signed to in a lot of cases artwork has not been within my full domain, so it was one of the things that appealed to me as I go full in and design the project just how I want it. That’s the other thing with the retrowave movement – it’s so visual, much more than any other – and is there anything more aesthetic than the high of the eighties?
RD: Jesse, I have to ask, but I think I know the answer…Will we see a L’Avenue live show in 25/26 and might you bring some of your vocalists on tour with you?
JRW: You know it’s something I would love to do but like everything I do I’d really want to do it right – and it involves a lot of time (and money) and with other commitments, it’s hard to commit to playing live. And given that Josh is in Brazil that might be … ahem … a tad problematic.
RD: Ahh one day maybe… Before we sign off, Jesse, is there anything we haven’t talked about that the community of FutureSounds needs to know? Any exclusives on future collabs, like the fabled legend that you night one day collab with your old stomping ground synthwave pal, Duett?
JRW: Ben (Duett) and I have definitely talked about and it’s something we’re both up for … it’s just finding the time and the right vibes to work but I’m MORE than up for it. He was an inspiration from the beginning. Watch this space. There are a couple of other rumblings with some other synthwave royalty too but more on that later …
RD: Oooh almost an exclusive. So close! Mate, thanks for talking to FS today, and congratulations on another superb entry into the L’Avenue canon!
‘Tokyo Nights’ is out now on L’Avenue’s Bandcamp page, where you can still find vinyl, cassettes, MiniDiscs and even clothing – if you hurry!
Written by Rob Dyson