Variety Mix; 726; Reggie Watts (recorded 2003-07-10)

It's 90.3, KEXP here in Seattle, just a few minutes past one o'clock, that was a request for one of the new songs we have from Michael Frante and Spearhead. We don't stop. I'm Stevie Zoom, and I want to introduce our in-studio guest here, Mr. Reggie Watts of Mach Tube. Welcome back. Thanks. Reggie Watts is having the CD release party tonight of his solo debut, Simplified. And Reggie, how about if you introduce the band with you here today? Sure, no problem. We have Steve's Kefadi on keyboards and roads, and we have myself on vocals. Thank you very much. Thanks for coming in, Steve. It's great. My pleasure. The Baltic room tonight, things are going to be happening, and this morning I was listening to the new album for the first time all the way through, and I was kind of looking at some stuff online.

And I saw one of those, and you see these stories every now and then about an article on, you are your record collection. And I thought that was kind of appropriate that what I was listening to and kind of knowing what you were putting into this solar release and reading one of those stories about all the influences of your record collection. I think that's kind of briefly what's going on here with this. Yeah, the record is just one of those things that I wanted to kind of embody my upbringing, you know, and put it into a format that incorporates what I do now. So anything from Holland Oates and New Order, and I don't know, anything else, Joe Jackson, stuff like that. It's just an era in which I was very influential in my upbringing, and I think that it still applies to today. So it's kind of an experiment. The other part of that article had to do with the psychological factors of all that, but we're not going to bother with that here. We're not going to quiz you on that and put you through that.

Tonight is the CD release party for Simplified, and they're going to do a couple of tunes here. Hopefully for the first one, we'd love to hear some music. I can't believe time, it's out the door again, I owned my broad mind of mine. And just as a pull away, a few sins of emptiness, and they ain't got missed my life, and you're thinking well, you're taking people together to name you.

Try and learn how you came to be I can't believe this time It kicks you in your down No matter who you are And just when you're working

A sense of what it's saying It's back to work again You're part of the world Even when you try and learn how you came And when you're working Try and learn how you came to be And when you're working

And when you're part of the world Even when you try to run away And when you're working Try and learn how you came to be And when you're working All of the world's all Even when you try, all the way All of the world's all All of the world's all All of the world's all

All of the world's all All of the world's all Even when you try, all the way All of the world's all All of the world's all All of the world's all All of the world's all Even when you try to roam in all of the years. Thank you very much.

Live music from Reggie Watts here at KEXP, part of the world, the name of that tune from the solo debut, simplified. The CD release parties happening tonight at the Baltic Room, and I believe it's going to be in the stores this coming Tuesday. That is the plan. Yep. All right. Now, it's a solo debut. Are these songs a collection of songs that you've kind of written over a short period of time, or are they just kind of things that have sort of added up over time? Some of them, there are about two of those that kind of had from a long time ago on my sequencer, and then a lot of it, I'd just like to write in the studio, so I would have Steve Fisk would set up a beat or something, and then I'd write the song over it, and then we'd kind of finish the structure over in that afternoon, and then with Prince Board, it was the same thing. Just kind of create the songs in the studio, I think. For me, it's easier, and it's fresher that way as well. Now, it's self-described as new-wave soul. That song kind of gave an idea on that. You kind of mentioned Joe Jackson and Holla Notes, and putting that together, obviously, with listening to great soul singers from the 60s onward,

Al Green, and a number of people. That's just kind of adding up, I think, to a lot of what you've been listening to and been influenced by. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I've always been interested in synth pop, and I've always been interested in also hearing what it sounds like with a more soulful voice on top of it, hopefully it comes across like that. As I said earlier, I was listening to the whole thing for the first time this morning, and it sounds wonderful, so I think a lot of people that have enjoyed a lot of the projects and mock-tube and everything in the past are going to enjoy this one as well. It leads off with this song, Want to Get, The Do At. Yeah. Talk about that a little bit. Was that the first time you kind of were writing something in the sense of planning to do at? Well, I was in the studio, and we had done a little bit of pre-production with Prince Ford and LA, and so we'd gotten the basics of the track, and then we went into the studio, and as we were recording it, I heard there was a girl named Debbie Nova that was in the studio.

I don't know if her record will ever come out someday, but she's got an amazing voice, and I thought it would be nicer she's saying with me, and she ended up not being able to do it, and I just thought of my friend Rosie, who thinks she's got a couple records out right now, but she's got an amazingly unique voice, and so I had her come down to the studio with a guitar player, and she's saying the parts, and she was actually the perfect fit for it, because her voice is so sultry and sexy, and so it really made the track more than what I had originally envisioned it as being. Now, she's in Los Angeles as well. She lives in LA, yeah. Okay, yeah. Well, the CD release party's happening tonight at the Baltic Room, and then I see that you're going to be adding some frequent flyer miles this week, and you're going to, you have CD release parties this weekend in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and that's it. Yeah, just Los Angeles and San Francisco. That's enough, really. And then Mach Tube is playing Sunday at the Capitol Hill block party.

That's right. Yeah, so you're busy. That's great. It's going to be interesting. All right, if you're ready for another tune, we'd love to hear some music. Okay, let's do it. All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it.

All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it.

All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it.

All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it.

All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it. All right, let's do it. It's kind of a day in the life of kind of documentary about what I do, and it's kind of actually it's over a span of time.

It's kind of following me around seeing what I do, I guess. It's an interesting thing, I wasn't too sure about it, but I think it's pretty well edited. So now this separate from that, there's another documentary Seattle groove. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, well, yeah, that's Laura Kamansky and she's documentary, I would say she's a documentarian, but she's kind of encapsulating the whole improvising scene here in Seattle that goes from Baltic Rim to Scarlet Tree, other groups, Siamese, and just kind of puts them all together and they kind of interrelate with each other and how it exists and how it sustains itself. It's a pretty vibrant community compared to many other larger cities. Yeah, it is something that has been very vibrant the last few years and it's been growing

in a way you sort of have to sort of keep up with a lot of it if you want to kind of follow it, so that's a pretty good way for folks to sort of get in touch with it. Yeah, I hope they get it. It's pretty crazy stuff. Simplified is the title of the solo debut of Reggie Watts of Mach Tube and I know Mach Tube stays busy as well. How was the Sasquatch Festival? Sasquatch Festival is amazing. Just all the bands backstage were really cool. Wayne from Gosh, I'm forgetting their name. Flaming lips. Thank you. Wayne from Flaming. Who? From Flaming lips. It was such a great guy. He was watching everybody. He was really mellow and I thought Coldplay would be kind of stuck up but they actually were really nice guys. And when I had just gotten my mastered version of Simplified from New York and so it has a white label and they signed it. So that was kind of cool. I'm just a big fan of Coldplay. Everybody on that stage was amazing. And there was a lot of Seattle bands and that was really hot.

Right. So it was great in the fact that you were not only performing but be a fan of other bands as well. Yeah, absolutely. It's just the community was great. And the audience was amazing. They were just great. So everything went off. Well, that's a beautiful festival. I hope to play it again next year. Well, I want to thank you and Steve for coming in here today. Again, tonight it's going to be happening at the Baltic Rim for the CD release party for Simplified. And I'm not sure what we got lined up here. We're going to improvise something. I was told improvise. Yeah. We're going to try. All right. I'm looking forward to this. Yeah. Okay. So are we. You ready? No. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But I, something the range that you've been Scured in the facts of a love But no one even tries to give yourself an help now Hope that it's so bad, it's me Quality when we get in chance, I turn it out And I'm starting to want to go on the sides

And I'm gonna buy the piece of anything And then you give me something I would love It's a lot of nothing But no one will be sure that to me If it doesn't but you can't do I hope that you'll be missing And I may be through Cause we have a dance to solve the matter And we're headed for I'm heading to a van I'm heading to a van I'm heading to a van I'm heading to a van I'm heading to a van I'm heading to a van I'm heading to a van I'm going through You need it most I want to be there Sugar blast You can't leave it alone for the rat Takeings bag I hope that there is something that I'm gonna bring I'll do what you never let me know I hope that I'm going to say Oh, but there's something that you won't know But sometimes it can never live

But you're going to be in the things that you can never give us up at the top out of everything that you can give in your love it's like a lovin' in the situation that you can give in up and now there is a temptation for you to give it something else I don't know if there is a character of you on the one but you got to give it to win the time you want to give it all yes I'm just sitting there I'm just sitting there I'm just sitting there I'm just sitting there I'm just sitting there all the day I'm walking my arms I'm gonna see believe and it's that so astion So it new so new new new new new new new new new new new new Life Music at 90.3, K-E-X-P, Reggie Watts.

Thanks so much. The new CD is simplified and the CD release party is happening tonight at the Baltic Room. It's going to be in the stores on Tuesday and you've got another chance Tuesday night. This coming Tuesday, the 15th, 7 o'clock. You're going to be performing over at the Sonic Boom store on Capitol Hill. That's great. Thanks. Thank you, Tom, for being our engineer. Thanks, Steve, for coming in and Reggie, thank you once again. I'm so glad to be here in Seattle. I'm glad you're here in Seattle. This is great. Thanks, man. All right. K-E-X-P in Seattle. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you much. You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You You You

You