Patrick Sisson - Writer, Journalist, Cultural Documentarian, Music Lover

Buzzin’ Fly Turns Five: Ben Watt blows out the candles with new comp

Feature
Earplug
July 2008

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It’s not uncommon for DJs to find their names on the charts, but few see themselves listed as author of a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. London’s Ben Watt received the honor for Patient, his 1998 account of his battle with the rare Churg-Strauss syndrome.

But then, few lead lives with such eclectic headlines: rock star marries musical partner (Tracey Thorn, his collaborator in Everything But the Girl); disease survivor pens inspiring tale of survival; musician starts second life as a successful producer, DJ, and promoter.

The latest chapter in Watt’s tale revolves around Buzzin’ Fly, the house label he launched in 2003. Five years on, the imprint has become a home for eclectic deep house (the newly released 5 Golden Years in the Wilderness offers a three-CD retrospective celebrating the anniversary). Watt rang up Earplug’s Patrick Sisson from his studio to discuss label dynamics, the post-punk era, and being a famous father.

Earplug: With so many labels going the mix-CD route, why did you decide to release the anniversary compilation unmixed?
Ben Watt: I feel that the idea of the mix CD is under pressure at the moment because there’s so much competition. We’re so well served with podcasts and instant streams and live sets from gigs. So let’s just go the other route. Let’s do a triple album where every track is unmixed, and then people can have as much as they want. Take ’em to the salad bar, let them grab their plate. I felt that it was in keeping with the openness of the label.

EP: What was the inspiration behind your more rock-oriented Strange Feeling label?
BW: I was a teenager in the late ’70s and made my first record in the early ’80s. That period clearly goes down in pop history. I think people often forget that it was not only an era of great experimentalism and underground music, but also that disco was cool. When I was growing up, I was listening to Chic, Loose Ends, and Earth, Wind & Fire at the same time I was listening to the Clash and Subway Sect. They were two concurrent sounds that both seemed very fresh. It just felt so normal at the time. I started Strange Feeling because that’s the era I came from, when everything was possible.

EP: Listening to singles like “Pop a Cap in Yo’ Ass” and “Old Soul” made me wonder if you considered yourself a storyteller. Those lyrics really told a tale.
BW: All that spoken-word stuff is part of an ongoing project I’ve been trying to complete since about 2002. When I took a break from Everything But the Girl and started doing Lazy Dog with Jay [Hannan], I found the DJing was inspiring up to a point, but I still had a desire to write lyrics. I felt I really bent myself out with traditional lyric writing and had come to a dead end. I wanted to find a new way. That’s kind of how I came up with these short stories — writing narratives and finding really interesting people to read them dry, with no music, like in a voiceover studio. Once that performance has been captured, I edit it, chop it up, and start putting it to music. The tracks you’ve mentioned are the ones I’ve cranked out over the last few years that I’m happy with, but it’s part of a whole project I’m trying to release, ideally at the end of this year. It’s a bit like my unfinished Thomas Pynchon novel.

EP: What do your kids think about your job?
BW: They’re a little confused. The girls are ten, so they’re working it out, and they know that [their mother and I] had a career together. They’ve seen performances of ours on DVD and are now realizing there is a bit of a cachet at school from having parents that do a so-called “cool” job. They’re just getting a handle on what a DJ does. They don’t have any idea what the terrace is like at Space, in Ibiza. It’s very hard to explain that kind of energy and hedonism. You can give them the language to describe what Daddy does — he plays music at parties where people dance — but it doesn’t quite sum it up, does it?

EP: You’ve spent five years running a label. Any advice for someone looking to go into a similar enterprise?
BW: Be prepared to lose money. Be prepared to have moments of extreme exhilaration and self-fulfillment. Be prepared to have moments of extreme self-doubt. When you work with other artists, you are dealing with people who both are at their most creative and their most vulnerable. If you’re prepared to deal with that, you can run a label. They’re putting their souls into their music, and they’re prepared to be judged. You have to take that responsibility on.

EP: You’re well known for hosting Sunday-night clubbing events. What are your cures for surviving Monday morning?
BW: One of the great underrated things is taking paracetamol before you go to bed. A pint of water and two paracetamols is usually a pretty safe cure for me. Well, it used to be, but not so much anymore. I think the whole point is you’re supposed to feel shit on Monday. It’s kind of like your membership card for being a Sunday clubber.

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