Sam Wisternoff entered the music world well before adolescence, rapping on the streets of his native Bristol, England, once he turned eight. At ten he and his older brother, the DJ who later joined the house duo Way Out West, landed a deal with the local imprint Three Stripe Records under the name True Funk Posse. The project issued a lone single while its MC had yet to reach his teens. Between 1993 and 2000 Wisternoff played in the rock outfit the Pudding, whose sound reflected the influence of the Pixies and Sonic Youth. Under the alias SJ Esau—a moniker an ex-girlfriend coined after mistakenly claiming his middle names were Jeremiah Esau—he began making slowcore experimental indie pop, issuing his debut album Queezy Beliefs on his own in 1999. Additional self-released efforts and European tours preceded his signing to Anticon, the imprint he has called his favorite; he had already collaborated with Why? on the 2005 remix collection Stop Touching My Cat. The label released Wrong Faced Cat Feed Collapse in early 2007.
