SJ Esau

Sam Wisternoff started his career in music early; by age eight he was already rapping in his hometown of Bristol, England, and two years later he and his older brother and DJ <a href="spotify:artist:5gTVJRQmuS88nOhhdHqErL">Jody</a> (who would later go on to become part of house duo <a href="spotify:artist:3HghjRl8Mo6OJWG0WElY2z">Way Out West</a>) were signed to local Three Stripe Records as True Funk Posse (or TFP), releasing their one single before the MC was even a teenager. From 1993 to 2000, Wisternoff was in a rock band, the Pudding, who counted <a href="spotify:artist:6zvul52xwTWzilBZl6BUbT">the Pixies</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5UqTO8smerMvxHYA5xsXb6">Sonic Youth</a> among their influences. As SJ Esau, however (a name he got from an ex-girlfriend, who said his middle names were Jeremiah Esau, which they weren't), Wisternoff explored slowcore experimental indie pop sounds, self-releasing his first album, Queezy Beliefs, in 1999. After some more self-released projects and tours around Europe, SJ Esau signed to his self-professed "favorite label," Anticon (he had worked with <a href="spotify:artist:0d7aBBLFcc4dlETnae6zcH">Why?</a> previously on his 2005 remix album, Stop Touching My Cat), and his record Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse came out in early 2007. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi