Alec Spicer
Denton’s Wesley Jensen Has Ditched Guitars For Synth As He Dives Into The Debut Single From His New Dream Pop Solo Project.
Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.
PARACHUTER — “Trouble Talking”
RIYL: Starting fresh.
What else you should know: PARACHUTER is a new dream pop act with a familiar face. After swiftly carving out a pretty recognizable name for himself in North Texas, Wesley Jensen (Wesley Jensen & The Penny Arcade) has all but shelved the sound we’ve come to know from him.
The Denton-based musician has traded his indie-pop/folk notes for a project rooted in synth and nearly void of guitar — his inaugural single as PARACHUTER doesn’t have a single guitar riff. Instead of fighting his natural progression into a style that drifts from his catalog, Jensen decided to dive in.
“I felt like the Penny Arcade stuff I was making was really starting to push more this direction anyway,” he tells us. “Part of it was to avoid confusion, and I felt like this music was something that deserved its own platform.”
Aside from serving as PARACHUTER’s debut, “Trouble Talking” — the product of Jensen driving himself crazy in his studio before deciding to make the jump — is also the first song he ever wrote for the project.
At just under four minutes, “Trouble Talking” is a starry, mid-tempo track with shades of Tame Impala paired with Jensen’s distinct tone. It is also a healthy medium of the mix of slower and dance-y songs Jensen has vaulted away for the project — enough to release an album, he excitedly admits.
“Not to be cheesy, but I want to be a parachuter, I want to take risks and I want jump out of the plane,” Jensen says. “So that’s how I’m trying to approach my music now.”
Cover photo by Zack Huggins