Growing up in Wellington, Jesse Sheehan was immersed in music from a young age. He played gigs with big local names and won Rockquest in 2009, the first solo artist ever to do so. From then on Sheehan has been following his musical path.
His album Drinking With The Birds was pushed by Neil Finn. Jesse was asked to audition by Finn to play guitar on his world tour, Finn who was so impressed that he put himself forward to produce the album, this ultimately landed Sheehan the roll and on he went to work alongside one of NZ’s most valued musicians.
Drinking With The Birds is an album that showcases Sheehan’s maturity, in both his song writing, content and sound. It has a timeless quality to it that I believe people with a variety of music tastes and ages, could listen and find something they like.
Stand outs for me are Sentimental Fools, a song about a man contemplating life. With Sheehan’s smooth vocals of soft snare drums, piano, harp and beautiful harmonies, this song is beautiful to listen. Definitely one to play when lazy in the summer sun.
Another is Stone Girl a song filled with those old school 1960 Rock vibes. What I love about this album is that each song is something very different from the last. Sheehan has used this album to showcase his music capabilities and that he is a diverse NZ artist.
Growing up in Wellington, Jesse Sheehan was immersed in music at home from a young age. He played gigs with local big shots while still in high school and in 2008 his band the Stray Dogs were placed in the national 6 finalists of Rockquest. In this same year he was placed 2nd in the national Play It Strange song writing competition with his song ‘Cake and Love and Wine’. Back at Rockquest in 2009 this time as a solo artist, he won it, the first solo act to do so.
This was enough to set Sheehan on his musical path. After completing high school Jesse made the move to Auckland to immerse himself amongst musicians and new friends. He recorded and released his debut EP in November 2011. The six self-penned tracks on ‘A Crack In Everything’ started to get him noticed both within the music industry and to an enthusiastic live audience.
‘A Crack In Everything’ features his first two singles, both of which were judged in the final top 20 of the Apra Silver Scrolls awards in consecutive years. .