Roger Sellers the One-Man Composer

Some one-man-bands are a person on the street with a bunch of shit strapped to him screeching weird punk-folk. Some one-man-bands are a person taking all the many instruments they have painstakingly mastered and surrounding themselves with them on a stage with a bunch of layering equipment to create what must be called compositions, keeping all the parts of a complex song straight in their head and performing them perfectly.

Much as the first style of one-manners can be fun, it’s a very limiting format that doesn’t often result in the kind of deep, multi-layered performances that the second style can achieve. Roger Sellers is one of these second kind of artists. He’s more composer than singer-songwriter, but his sound is more Animal Collective than it is Andrew Bird. Standing in a hollow cradled by an array of more instruments than some entire bands can field, Sellers lays one set of sounds on top of another carefully and precisely, but with undeniable energy to create airy avant-garde pop songs. As a true multi-instrumentalist, and not just someone who can strum a little and owns a lot of musical shit, the result is top-notch experimental indie music where guitars and drums are there to add to the whole, not dominate it. Sellers has recently announced that he will be doing his thing during SXSW this year, and it’s hard to imagine that Austinites, with their refined musical palettes, would find his shows anything less than exactly the kind of thing that should be making it huge in this city. For a taste, see the KUTX-filmed version of his track "Waves" below, part of his newest album "8 Songs," which you can hear the rest of at his Bandcamp page here.