When it comes to popular music, there are two things the Brits love to do more than anything: 1 | Anoint and worship new heroes; 2 | Destroy and dismiss them at the earliest opportunity. Singer-songwriter Will Westerman is currently enjoying the first half of that equation. No wonder. His justifiable hyped debut full-length Your Hero Is Not Dead is a superlative collection that fuses gentle indie-folk with experimental synth-pop — then tops it with his melancholy melodies, tenderly soaring croon and thoughtfully grounded lyrics. He’s already been breathlessly compared to everyone from Nick Drake and Peter Gabriel to Arthur Russell and Rex Orange County — and while all of those theories make a certain amount of sense, they don’t really give you the whole picture of what’s he doing here. Or what he’s capable of coming up with down the road on would could be a long and creatively rewearding career. Assuming he gets a chance to get anywhere before you-know-what happens.
THE PRESS RELEASE: “Your Hero Is Not Dead – the debut album by West London songwriter Will Westerman is full of supremely crafted songs about moral, political, and ethical grey areas. Recorded alongside his close friend and producer Nathan Jenkins (aka Bullion) in Portugal, they find Westerman attempting to resolve external issues by looking inward. Like a young Peter Gabriel in a late capitalist world, Westerman’s music falls somewhere between artful soft rock and confessional electronic pop. Already getting attention of high end tastemaker media from both sides of the Atlantic, Westerman’s unique sound and aesthetic Is encapsulated in this exquisite debut longplayer.”
