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Ben Watt

Ben Watt (born London, 6 Dec, 1962) is a UK musician, DJ, and music producer, best known as one half of the duo Everything but the Girl.

Contents

  • 1 Recording
  • 2 Club career
    • 2.1 Lazy Dog
    • 2.2 Buzzin' Fly
    • 2.3 Neighbourhood and Cherry Jam
    • 2.4 Current activity
    • 2.5 Nominations
  • 3 Writing
  • 4 Discography
    • 4.1 Singles
    • 4.2 Album
    • 4.3 Various artist albums mixed by Ben Watt
  • 5 External links

Recording

Main article: Everything but the Girl

Watt began recording in the 1980s with folk-jazz solo recordings on London indie label Cherry Red. He then concentrated for fifteen years on writing and recording music for Everything but the Girl, in partnership with Tracey Thorn, achieving several UK top 10 singles and albums and a global and U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-two ("Missing") in 1995, and becoming known for interpretations of electronica in the mid-nineties (Walking Wounded, "Protection" with Massive Attack, Temperamental).

Club career

Lazy Dog

In 1998 he established the London deep house Sunday club and compilation series, "Lazy Dog" with Jay Hannan. Moving away from EBTG's mainstream eclecticism and into club-oriented dance music production, he also turned out an accompanying string of dancefloor remixes including 5-star re-rubs for Sade, Sunshine Anderson, Zero 7, Maxwell, Meshell Ndegeocello and Sandy Rivera. Lazy Dog folded after five years of sell-out shows around the world and compilation sales of 100,000.

Buzzin' Fly

In April 2003 Watt launched his own independent record label and club night, "Buzzin' Fly", with a cluster of underground hits and a series of mix CDs (Buzzin’ Fly, volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4). The label has promoted Justin Martin (breakthrough DJ nominee at House Music Awards 2004 and 2005), French-Portuguese trio Rodmaal, Lyon's Manoo and Francois A and Portugal’s Darkmountaingroup. Watt also records his own club-oriented productions for the label including best-sellers 'Lone Cat' (2003), 'A Stronger Man' (2004), 'Pop A Cap in Yo Ass' (2005) and 'Just a Blip' (2007). The label won Best Breakthrough Label at the House Music Awards 2004 and was nominated at Best British Label in the DJ Magazine awards in 2007.

Neighbourhood and Cherry Jam

From 2002-2005 as part-owner-founder of new West London nightclubs Neighbourhood and Cherry Jam, Watt orchestrated the music policy and image of both venues, helping establish their reputation at the forefront of the capital’s club scene. Under his creative direction Cherry Jam's intimate surroundings hosted packed underground club nights as well as the Libertines' first official debut show, art exhibitions and the long-running spoken word night, Book Slam. At Neighbourhood, Watt brought in artists such as Groove Armada, the Rough Trade Records 25th Anniversary, the inaugural prestigious House Music Awards and a string of international DJs to guest at his own in-house nights until his resignation in June 2005.

Current activity

Now a central figure on London's club scene, Watt DJs regularly in the capital as well as all over Europe, Australia and North America with regular sell-out shows in many metropolitan cities. 2005 saw him tour extensively on the festival circuit (Good Vibrations, Homelands, Coachella, Ibiza, Lovebox Weekender, Electric Picnic) and he currently fronts Buzzin’ Fly’s two new London residencies – monthly underground Sundays at Plastic People, and quarterly events at The End. In 2007 he also launched a sub-label of Buzzin' Fly called Strange Feeling Records, a home to alt-indie. First signings have been the critically acclaimed Copenhagen band, Figurines.

Early 2007 Ben Watt signed The Unbending Trees, an acoustic band from Hungary, to publish their "The First Day EP" Sept 2007 and their album March 2008.

Ben also hosts a weekly radio show on Galaxy, called Buzzin' Fly Radio show every Friday at midnight.

Nominations

In September 2005, Watt received two nominations in the House Music Awards 2005 – Most Innovative Producer, Outstanding A&R – as well as one for Label of the Year for Buzzin’ Fly.

Writing

Watt's autobiographical book, Patient (Penguin, 1996), details his battle with a rare life-threatening auto-immune disease (Churg-Strauss syndrome). It was shortlisted for the Esquire Non-Fiction Award 2006 and was a Sunday Times Book Of The Year (2006) and a New York Times Notable Book of The Year (2007). It has been since been translated into Spanish and Swedish.

Discography

Singles

including "Pop A Cap In Yo' Ass" with Estelle and "Attack, Attack, Attack" with Baby Blak

Album

Various artist albums mixed by Ben Watt

External links