JESSE was born in 2007 from the minds of two frustrated teenager musicians that were looking for a new appearance and musical output, to satisfy their hedonistic needs. Alter egos Kalifornia-Keke and Stiletti-Ana were created to perform fast and arrogant synthesizer music and to have fun wearing unfashionable outfits.

This ingenious concept led into unintended success and JESSE became the first real band for the boys to release records and play hundreds of shows. The hype and success came easily, however Kalifornia-Keke and Stiletti-Ana never cared too much about it and just kept making music and developing themselves. The fast synthesizer music and enthusiastic experimentations with electronic instruments wasn’t anymore challenging the creative minds enough. That is why Keke and Ana started to use wider instrumentation and invite other musicians to studio to create more complex and ambitious music.

After releasing their second album Tum Tum Tum they took a broad step towards such genres as world music, afrobeat, funk, ambient and cosmic disco. They have continued on this path and grown into a four member band. Their fourth album Twotinos (2017) included many psyched out slow and cosmic jams and was produced by the legendary DJ Sotofett. The fifth album Fluids (Höga Nord Records 2018) is again more electronic and esoteric and shows JESSE’s endless quest for lush, smooth and soft tapey new age vibes that has become their signature sound.

Dj-mølje: Simon Opitz, Trym Søvdsnes, Asel, Stiletti-Ana & Kalifornia-Keke