You Can Be A Wesley: The Myth, The Band

Photos of You Can A Wesley at WERS during Local Music Week. (Corrinna Duemler/WERS)

By Amanda Agueda

When I first heard about You Can Be a Wesley, the story of what a “Wesley” is intrigued me. “The Entity known as Wesley roamed the universe before it was a universe, spreading his essence throughout an eternity without substance,” says the band’s MySpace. “Eventually he got bored, and created what is now known as the Big Bang.” Wesley, the story goes, called to lead-singer and guitarist Saara to find three other Wesleys: three whom could extend his powers through music.

This elaborate and endearingly bogus story may pitch the band a bit high. But the imaginative tale has some truth to it. You Can Be A Wesley indeed has the necessary “powers” to make waves in the Boston music scene.

The band’s live in-studio performance on WERS was full of excitement. They talked about favorite colors, their forthcoming album, and feel good indie rock from Allston. Their set started with their latest single “Creatures.” Saara said You Can Be A Wesley’s sound has changed since their last visit to the station. “If you listen to stuff on our EP and to what’s coming out on this album, it’s a lot harder and more rock and roll,” she said.

The next song performed was “Wildlife,” followed by news about their upcoming album. This yet-to-be-titled album (though Nick said they are thinking about naming it after their production studio) was recorded last summer and is set for release this June. Perfect timing for a band who will graduate from Boston University this year.

The final song You Can Be A Wesley performed was “Summerhomes,” an old song off of their last album. It left everyone in the studio certain they had just seen another band that will surely impact the Boston music scene, which is what You Can Be a Wesley is out to do.

You can see the band at a handful of shows they will play in Greater Boston throughout April and May, and they are planning a tour throughout the Midwest and East Coast following their album’s release.

Avi & Celia Revisits WERS With A Full Band

Avi & Celia visited WERS last November, but they are back for Local Music Week with a full band this time. With the drummer Jared Seabrook and the bassist Ben Kogin, Avi & Celia played new tunes, and sat down with WERS.org to talk about their tour and plans in the near future.

Interview conducted and transcribed by Lily Jeong

Welcome back! What have you been up to since your last visit at WERS?

Avi Salloway: Well, we have assembled and ensemble, and it’s been really exciting to develop new material with more people and more voices. On this live set you didn’t hear Ben sing but we’ve been getting him singing too for three-part harmonies.

Celia Woodsmith: And we are still keeping the washboard in it, which is cool. We’ve been touring a lot this last month on the road quite a bit, which is why I sort of lost my voice.

AS: We only had three nights off in the last five weeks. It’s pretty crazy.

Any particular acts you guys enjoyed?

AS: The other night we had Jesse Dee sit in with us, which was a retreat. I think probably this week we are going to play another show [with Jesse Dee]. (Starts laughing) We know that we don’t want to go back to Albany, and we have no idea why it’s the capital of New York.

What happened in Albany?

AS: Well, we came off a great show at New York City, and you know, like Frank Sinatra says “If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.” We go to Albany, we pull up trying to look for a parking spot, and there is this guy leaning over a car pulling together these wires. I was like, “are you leaving?” and he says, “I’m just fixing my car here!” He had no teeth.

CW: We drove away and were like, “should we call the cops?”

AS: That was just the indicator of how Albany went.

CW: That was our first experience in Albany and it sort of went downhill from there. Also, Avi broke his foot climbing a mountain.

AS: Celia carried me down.

CW: Yeah. He was on my back.

AS: I jumped off this cliff, and I thought I was going to land on this bed of snow, but really it was just a half an inch deep snow, and I just broke my foot. So I called Celia when we had a gig in an hour and a half away. She ran up the mountain and carried me down.