Jesco formed in 2013 when four friends got together in a room to make strange music. While each coming from a completely different musical background, they found common ground in folk. Starting with a psychedelic dark country sound, they soon cobbled enough songs together to play festivals, bars and house parties. Throughout the years, they shared the stage with various acts such as The Goddamn Gallows, Daddy Long Legs, Hackensaw Boys, The Dead Brothers and Left Lane Cruiser. These bands were among many that influenced Jesco to evolve their sound in many directions.
They performed in several competitions including De Grote Prijs van Utrecht and Clash of the Titans, in which they reached the finals. This is what Dutch music magazine 3voor12 wrote about their show:

“Jesco seem like the most complete band of the evening; an enthusiastic, flamboyant singer, a well rehearsed band with a good stage presence and a fairly original sound with their mix of bluesy rockabilly, country, americana, raw rock and a Tom Waits-like atmosphere… This band shows great joy and expresses passion for this style, while giving it their own twist.”

In 2014 the band released a live recording, and in 2016 released their first EP Just Business. Around this time, accordion player Joost Bos joined their ranks, injecting a traditional element to their sound, inspiring new songs and styles with his influences of Irish trad and zydeco.

Shortly thereafter, guitarist and founding member Bram Schouten unfortunately left the band, which made it necessary for the band to develop their repertoire in a new direction.

In 2019, the drummer Loek van Oijen decided to leave the band, though sticking around to finish the full-length album “Bored or Sad”. After some searching, the band stumbled upon a goldsmithing hillbilly washboarder, Victor van den Hende!

Bringing together instruments such as banjo, washboard, a bell, harmonica, steel chains, accordion, double bass and percussion to craft what’s best described as “Filthy Folk ‘n’ Roll”. Jesco’s stories are mostly about the madness of the mind and the tragic denizens and outcasts that stumble around and within us. With a dark sense of humour, they hope to invite the audience to relate with, laugh about, or be appalled by the characters and tales which inhabit the melodies.

They began to play for the stage as well as the street, fully amplified, acoustic and anything in between. In the summer of 2017 they did their first tour through Ireland, scraping by, busking and playing pubs! While there, a new acoustically inspired EP was recorded, called Worms, which was released in 2018. In 2018, Jesco embarked on their second Irish tour along the west coast. During 2018-21, the band put all their effort into their first full-length album: “Bored or Sad”, which was released in April 2021. In 2019, Jesco signed with Rootstown Bookings.