Melbourne singer and songwriter Alex Watts will be releasing his debut solo album, Another Step in the Dark, this month after the last few years of touring, writing and preparing music with the Foreign Tongue led him to this point – branching out from EP territory. Ahead of the August 20th release of Another Step in the Dark, Watts fills us in on the making of the record and how important timing has been for him when it’s come to its release.
“It feels great,” he says. “As you said, it’s been a while in the making, I was playing with the Foreign Tongue for several years before putting out my first solo EP two years ago, but I had this album in mind’s eye throughout all that time. I just had to wait for the timing to feel right, which it does right now.”
On paper, Another Step in the Dark is described as a song cycle detailing the arc of a relationship and all the light and dark elements of it. We’re talking courtship, betrayal…the whole box and dice. With Watts’ fusion of pop, soul and rock driving the lyrical narrative, the album is presented as something a little more than your standard debut.
“I first had the idea of making this concept album when I was in high school,” he explains. “Although the concept and style has changed completely in the time since. I just wanted to tell an interesting story and I love the idea of pop songs that can fulfil their basic function, but be part of a larger piece. It was also an interesting writing challenge to try and tie in all these ideas, both musically and lyrically, without compromising what the tracks are individually.”
Working out of Melbourne’s Soundpark Studio and with Jez Giddings at Hothouse, Watts brought in some stellar local players to help flesh out these ideas in studio. With Eliza Lam on bass and Mark Gregory on drums, the album was recorded to tape and tracked live. Watts recalls the process of working with both musicians and the highlights of his time in studio.
“When I released the Sing, Strum & Strut EP two years ago I was thinking ahead to this record, so when I put together a band to tour that EP, I got them to learn some new songs.” he says. “The arrangements for four of the songs were done then. Then I went away and wrote some more songs and Mark, Eliza and myself worked out the basics in rehearsal. We tracked most of it with the three of us live in the studio, then I got to work with the other players both at Soundpark, in the case of the strings or horn players, or at our home studios. Because we recorded it as a rhythm section and built the tracks up like that, it was exciting to hear it all come together, especially because it was a fairly stress free and natural process, everything came together remarkably easily.”
“I really enjoy producing,” Watts adds. “[It] is something I’m looking forward to doing more of. Deciding to do it all myself allowed me a lot of freedom to persue dumb ideas like, ‘Let’s put another drum kit on the left channel but way too crunchy and gated,’ or ‘What if I send that sitar signal through my wah-wah pedal?’. Even though everything was done to tape in the studio, having my own setup allowed me to take everything away and finesse it in my own time. Next time around, I think I’d like to do even more on my own.”
The launch of Another Step in the Dark in Melbourne coincides with a one-off art exhibition at Hugs and Kisses on August 20th. Supported by the talented Emma Russack and Alexander Biggs, the event will feature the work of 10 Melbourne based visual artists who have been working on the album in their own way – interpreting one of the album tracks through animation, photography or painting. An interesting and intriguing visual accompaniment to Watts’ music, the display is going to be a drawcard for punters in itself. As to how the Melbourne scene is treating Watts as a fan as well as an artist within it, he notes the sense of community existing between artists at present.
“There’s been a lot of synth, beats or R&B acts that have impressed me over the last year, such as Squidgenini, Yeo, Huntly, Saatsuma or Silent Jay and Jace XL. It’s a healthy scene and the attention generated by Hiatus’ success certainly helps. There’s a definite sense of community, with a lot of the bands I enjoy sharing members and lineups all the time.”
“Most of the visual artists I asked to be part of the project are also musicians,” he explains. “Just because that’s the world I operate in and so was familiar with their work. However with the music, I was very much producing the arrangements and, although being open to everyone’s input, I kind of had ideas about most of the parts I wanted people to play. With the visuals, I gave everyone an outline of the plot, a copy of the song and the lyrics, and left them completely free to make whatever they wanted.”
As to what the artists (including Ben Montero, Cesar Rodrigues, Celeste Potter and Kate Moon) each brought to the final result of Another Step in the Dark, Watt’s came away impressed with how each artist reacted and added to the storyline with their visions.
“Getting the visual artists involved and putting on an exhibition was a bit of a ‘What if one day I could do that?’ kind of dream, until I started thinking in detail about the album artwork and thought, ‘Why not?’. I reached out to people whose art has impressed me, whether it be Celeste Potter on Ouch! My Face or Jen Cloher’s album covers, or Ben Montero’s stuff and most people I asked were into it. As I was hoping, it was a really interesting experiment in that the artists all thought about the song and the lyrics and reacted in unique ways. I think it adds another dimension to the storyline.”
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Alex Watts launches Another Step in the Dark at Hugs in Kisses on August 20th. Tickets are available HERE. Pre-order Another Step in the Dark via www.alexwatts.com.au.
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