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