Eighteen years…..
That’s how long it has taken Chris Watson to finally be willing to stand on his own. No band, no one else’s songs, no bending to what other people may want him to sound like…..
Eighteen years ago (that makes it 1992) Chris gave his first performance in high school as a singer. He’d only been playing the guitar a few short months after evolving from initial desires to be a drummer. The first song was simple; Runaway Train by Soul Asylum, but the second was quite a bit more difficult. That song was I Saw Red by Warrant (hey it was the early 90′s) and was a tough choice for an inexperienced singer to attempt. But it gave Chris the confidence to continue down the path of singing and soon to begin writing his own material…..
Two musical events happened that changed Chris forever. In 1993 Pearl Jam had just released Vs. and performed on stage at the MTV awards with a wild and crazy Neil Young. The image stuck in Chris’s mind. This crazy old man was up there, just being himself, playing simple music with powerful lyrics and possessing an electrifying presence that energised the members of Pearl Jam. Immediately Chris knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to be that crazy man onstage. This was followed in 1994 by the release of Stone Temple Pilot’s Purple. An album whose mark Chris still carries on his arm today in the form of a tattoo of the album’s logo. This album opened up his mind the possibilities available to a songwriter. Chris knew what he wanted to do, and know new how much he could do within the construct of a “song”…..
These events coincided with the first real dark shadow on his life. This was a period of time in which his mother was first stuck down by cancer (and eventually succumbed some 10 years later), and the new found love of music was the only thing that help Chris attain any type of peace. ….
A few bands by this time had come and gone (Neuralgia, Seduction) and Chris was happy making his own music for some time, with small amounts of success. He received some critical acclaim from Mp3.com.au in 2003, snagging an award for best Adult Alternative Song, and some minor airplay in the USA College radio market. But that doesn’t pay the bills. Working full time made it hard to find the energy to work on new music, and then things ended up a lot more hectic when asked to fill in the vacant guitar slot for Newcastle based cover band Sledge (a position he “filled in” for three years, a couple of hundred gigs and thousands of kilometers)…..
In the few years since he left Sledge a lot of things have happened, some good, most bad. And it is now that Chris Watson finds himself determined to do the things he loves the most…..
Writing. Performing. Recording. With more reason now than ever before…..
