On her debut full-length comedy album, Weird Vibes, which will be released on Nov. 3 via Blonde Medicine, LA comedian Jessica Sele jokes that if a cafe displays a sign stating, “Good vibes only,” she’s not going inside. She has what her yoga instructor mom calls, “Rock energy” or what is more commonly known as weird vibes.
From describing what it’s like to be someone who lives in LA, but is not Angeleno to unpacking the different energy needed to date men vs. women, Sele hilariously unpacks everything throughout the album.
“It’s kind of a response to feeling like you’re not fitting some kind of a norm and the social stress of trying to make yourself work in society a little bit,” Sele said with a laugh describing the album. “A lot of that material was a way for me to release some of that. A lot of it’s heavier and some of it’s lighter. What I like about comedy and this material is that it’s not only for the people who feel like the misfits, but, for people who maybe don’t understand those people, it’s like a way of saying, ‘Let’s all relate for a second, you know.’”
One thing that Rebellious Magazine readers will relate to is Sele’s Chicago stories, which come up once or twice on Weird Vibes.
“I love Chicago. I actually have only been a few times to do comedy. I just found it so fun and special. I can’t really describe it,” Sele said. “I’m a sober person, but when I’m in Chicago I’ll stay up all night dancing. That’s hard to do when you’re sober because you get more tired and more aware of your body hurting and stuff like that. I feel like Chicago is just so fun you can’t resist it.”
Elsewhere on the album – on the track, “My Sexuality is ‘Whatever’” – Sele details an argument she got in with a straight, male friend after declaring that Frodo was more attractive than Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings film series. When asked if this has happened when evaluating the hotness of other casts, Sele was happy to report that society is catching up with her refined taste.
“I think nowadays people’s tastes are catching up to me a little more because the kinds of stars that I feel like are popular are hotter in a way that I can relate to. Like Pedro Pascal is having a moment and I’m like, ‘Yes, I love that.’ I think that I’ve always been attracted to people that look a little weird, not like James Van Der Beek who’s just like, ‘I have smooth skin and bleached hair.’ I never could get into the no imperfections sort of look,” She said. “I feel like I’m in the same boat with most people now.”
One area where Sele is not in the same boat with a large percentage of the population is when it comes to a love of Taylor Swift. While she is not a Swiftie, Sele does think that fans of the “Bad Blood” singer, will find a lot to love when listening to Weird Vibes, which, luckily, comes out a week after 1989 (Taylor’s Version) dropped.
“I don’t think I would win that competition,” Sele joked of a head-to-head release battle with Swift.
Regarding the Weird Vibes listening experience, she added, “At first you may look away thinking this is not very normal, feeling, ‘I would like to listen to Taylor Swift again,’ but I think that listening to my album will give you a deeper appreciation of Taylor Swift. Because if you listen to my album you will be able to dive deeper into the weirdness and then you might even see more of it in her.”
Click here to pre-order Weird Vibes by Jessica Sele ahead of its Nov. 3 release date and catch her in Covina at Chatterbox Comedy Night where she regularly performs. Additional tour dates and updates can be found by following @JessicaSele on Instagram.