Interview

Written by journalist Joel Gordon

For immediate release. Available for use by all media.

There was no chance of missing the young gentleman that floated across the bustling cafe, wearing what can only be described as 'a shock' to me.

Wentworth met me in a cafe in bustling Melbourne for what was meant to be a quick coffee, but quickly turned into the longest and most intriguing conversation I'd had in a long time. 

Wearing head-to-toe, a glossy skin-tight pink bodysuit that seemed to have a hundred or so used dentures (yes, you read that right) attached to it was only the beginning of intrigue for me it would seem.

Wentworth went on to detail his life with an air of mystery. It was hard to get straight answers from a guy who seemed like his mind was running a hundred miles an hour.

Wentworth wanted one thing to be clear, he has felt like a misfit his whole life and now fights tooth and nail for the outsiders to not feel alone, something he didn't have growing up.

"The clothes were an afterthought and not an attention grabber" he says definitively. "As an artist, I'm not doing my job unless every part of me is screaming out my mission and my individuality. That includes my clothes. How am I meant to connect with the right people unless I'm wearing something that I designed or hand made. It's the fastest way to connect to the people that need it and understand it."

Dressing in often controversial outfits and making bubble-gum pop songs, Wentworth's mission is to show the outsiders that they can be authentically themselves.

Originally from outer Melbourne, Australia, Wentworth splits his time between Los Angeles and his home town. This pop artist has big ambitions, but always comes back to his core message "Being an advocate for the rebels, the misfits and the troublemakers."

Splitting time between Melbourne and Los Angeles has been an adventure for a boy that grew up in countryside Victoria on a small hobby farm. However, wearing controversial outfits everywhere he goes and being followed by an entourage of topless hunks at events has garnered attention from some of the industry tastemakers. 

"Growing up in the countryside helped me a lot to define my vision. I grew up living in a barely decked-out shed and there was nothing around except a suitcase full of DVDs of iconic films, an untuned piano, and my imagination. In that shed is where the vision came about. I thought there's no stopping someone who powers ahead regardless of what anyone says. I didn't have the internet, I had old movies. It never occurred to me that people say "no" to things. I just thought this is what I'm doing and from then on, I just had tunnel vision.”

And he hasn't taken "no" for an answer since.

“How can you be a true artist by letting someone else design what you're wearing on your own body? It never made sense to me to wear someone else's designs. I look around at events and think why is nobody else different?”

One of Wentworth's strengths is writing pop music via a method coined as 'top lining'. He is also a writer and has found himself in sessions in LA writing for the likes of Rihanna, Ariana and Skrillex.  

"Toplining is one of my passions" Wentworth mentions, before interestingly adding on “I've written three to four hundred songs. Some have ended up in the hands of other people and some I kept for myself. I definitely want to keep writing for other people. I write a lot of songs that I don't feel belong to my identity.” 

As for outfits and looking different, Wentworth mentions a few of his favourite ones he has done.

“I love the dentures. I don't know why, I think they're revolting, but I also think they're remarkable. I have an outfit I wore in LA that had several freeze dried piranhas attached to it, an outfit with a live beehive on it, an outfit with live mice in my glasses, a snail outfit, a lobster outfit, a fish outfit. All drawn from memories from my childhood.”

Wentworth currently makes and sews all of his own outfits. 

"I'll make my clothes top to tail for as long as I can" he says, although I get the impression that the outfits take a long time to make and Wentworth is getting busier and busier. 

I ask what Los Angeles means to Wentworth aside from work. 

"LA is my family. I have a wardrobe there full of my clothes and all my stuff. The culture in LA is very different to Australia. In LA everyone wants you to succeed. It can be difficult in Australia to get ahead because people want you to succeed, but only so much and no more. It also helps with connections. In Australia it's 6 degrees of separation between you and someone you want to speak to. In LA it's more like one or two degrees at the most.” 

One thing I know for sure is that we haven't seen the last of Wentworth. He has a presence and a glint in his eye that tells me we are watching the embryo of something being born.