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Module 2. Experimentation and Emergence: Finding a Voice

Course 1: Singing the News. Understanding Jesse Welles and the Wellespring Project
Estimated Time: 25–30 minutes

🧭 Module Objectives

  • Describe Jesse Welles' early experiments in songwriting and self-production.
  • Identify how his bands—Dead Indian, Cosmic American, and Welles—shaped his musical identity.
  • Recognize the recurring themes of authenticity, restlessness, and community that define his pre-fame years.

A Restless Experimenter

After high school, Jesse Allen Breckenridge Wells briefly attended the University of Arkansas, later transferring to John Brown University to study Music Theory. He wrote songs obsessively, filling notebooks and hard drives, even when he didn't know what they might become.

He often framed creativity as compulsion rather than ambition:

What I really love is being handed just a shit show, a basket case, and making something out of it. (Nylon interview, 2017)

This impulse—to create from chaos—would define his early years of experimentation under a revolving cast of names and sounds.

Jeh-Sea Wells: The First Persona

Under his early solo moniker Jeh-Sea Wells, he released DIY recordings to Bandcamp and SoundCloud. The songs were rough but deeply personal, weaving folk melodies through grunge distortion and lyrical introspection.

Critics later saw in these recordings the seeds of the "confessional clarity" that would mark his protest era. He described himself then as "confused" but determined, equal parts football player and Lennon acolyte, "a high school boy trying to be wintery and yellow and liquor-y." (Nylon interview, 2017)

Here's an early original Jeh-Sea Wells song--"When the Seasons Change"--from his self-released album "Indian Summer" (2013):

Jeh-Sea Wells was not a brand—it was a mask for experimentation, one that allowed him to fail publicly while learning craft.

Dead Indian: Raw Energy, Found Family

In 2012, Wells formed the garage-psych trio Dead Indian with friends in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The band's sound was loud, gritty, and unapologetically unrefined—a reaction against polish and pretension. They recorded and performed with minimal gear, often in converted apartments or makeshift spaces. Early media attention described him as living in an "art commune."

In later interviews, he remembered this as a time of community and rebellion:

We were all broke as hell, just trying to make stuff work. That's not a commune—that's called community. (Pancakes & Whiskey interview, 2018)

Here's a 2013 acoustic version of the Dead Indian song "Big Grey Sky":

Dead Indian became a crucible for live energy and performance, teaching Wells how to connect viscerally with an audience.

Cosmic American: Searching for Groove

After Dead Indian dissolved, he founded Cosmic American, leaning into psychedelic and roots-rock influences. He described it as "a Brian Jonestown collective" with "dual guitars, dual solos," (ION Magazine interview, 2018) a kind of joyful chaos.

Here's the 2015 Cosmic American song, "Lay Back":

Here, his songwriting broadened, from angst to atmosphere, from self-expression to collective mood. These sessions also revealed a pattern: he kept outgrowing his own creations, abandoning projects as soon as he felt boxed in.

Becoming Welles

By 2016–17, he had moved to Nashville, signed with 300 Entertainment, and adopted the simpler, punchier name Welles. It was part reinvention, part distillation: a return to his given name with a subtle tweak—adding an "e" that both humanized and mythologized him.

The new identity matched his growing fascination with classic rock aesthetics—Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, Black Sabbath—filtered through the confessional lens of 1990s grunge.

I never try to hide my influences... Rock 'n' roll today is the same thing it was in the 70s. It's the smell of gasoline and the utter disregard for societal standards. (Guitar.com interview, 2018)

The Welles persona was the first to capture the national spotlight. But as we'll see in Module 3, that visibility came with constraints, and a reckoning with the machinery of fame.

Themes Emerging

These formative years established several through-lines that will continue across the next modules:

  • Authenticity through imperfection – Embracing flaws as proof of truth.
  • Art as survival – Creation not as luxury but necessity.
  • Restless identity – Each alias an experiment in voice and self.
  • Community as catalyst – Music born from and for collective experience.

Each experiment brought him closer to the balance he would later strike in his stripped-down, solo protest work.

Where We're Headed

Next, in Module 3: The Welles Era: Noise, Recognition, and Reckoning, we step into the major-label years. Fame, festivals, and national tours brought validation, but also disillusionment. What happens when authenticity meets the machine?

Knowledge Check & Reflection

Sources & Further Reading

A LOT of material about Jesse Welles, his history, and creative work is available online. We can't provide a comprehensive list of these sources, but the following are quoted in or specifically referenced in this module:

Updated on Nov 6, 2025