Andrew Watt

From Wikipedia:

Andrew Watt (born October 20, 1990), also known as simply Watt (stylized as watt), is an American record producer, singer, musician, and songwriter.

Career

Watt grew up in Great Neck, New York. He attended John L. Miller Great Neck North High School, and graduated in 2008. His first professional gigs came with playing guitar for Jared Evan, Cody Simpson and Justin Bieber.

In 2013, Watt was a founding member and guitarist of the rock band California Breed alongside Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) and Jason Bonham (Foreigner, Led Zeppelin). In 2015, Watt recorded and released his first label EP, Ghost In My Head. Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith and Queens of the Stone Age’s Joey Castillo played drums on the record.

Watt opened for Jane’s Addiction in October 2015. He also opened The Cult’s Los Angeles show in February 2016. In February 2016, Rolling Stone praised Watt for his vocal performance in a rendition of “L.A. Woman” performed live with Robby Krieger as part of a tribute to The Doors’ Ray Manzarek.

Watt is also a producer. Watt was the producer of Ozzy Osbourne’s album Ordinary Man which was released on February 21, 2020.

In March 2020, Watt announced that he tested positive for COVID-19, during its pandemic in the United States.

He won the Grammy Award for Producer of the Year on March 14, 2021. […]

What are you looking forward to in 2023?  

Well, I’m going on holiday – I’m definitely looking forward to that! And I’m doing some more recording. I’ve been recording with a couple of people, so I’m looking forward to doing even more. I’ve started working with this producer called Andrew Watt, and he’s very interesting – we’ve had some fun. Beyond that, I don’t have anything massive planned… at the moment! 

Paul McCartney – From paulmccartney.com, December 30, 2022

Watching Paul McCartney arrange background vocals and harmonize with himself? I’m taking that s–t with me to every production I do for the rest of my life.

Andrew Watt – From Billboard, September 29, 2023

“He’s not one of those guys that gets in awe of people,” said Paul McCartney, who presumably knows awe when he sees it. “He just gets on with it.”

[Ordinary Man] led to a second Osbourne album, “Patient Number 9” the next year, and to a Grammy for best rock album — and, in a broader sense, to Watt’s current position as rock’s premier boomer-whisperer, and therefore to days like the one Watt had last year, when a certain well-known guest came over for a cup of tea and a chat and Watt ended up writing an as-yet-unreleased song with Paul McCartney.

“He’s very resourceful,” McCartney said. “I said, ‘I’d like to show you something on guitar, but I haven’t got my guitar with me. And he said, ‘I’ve got a guitar.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m left-handed.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve got a left-handed guitar.’”

They jammed, and McCartney returned the next day with lyrics and a vocal melody. “Suddenly,” he said, “we had a song. From a cup of tea to a song. Doesn’t it sound easy?”

(In a subsequent interview, Watt — who is left-handed in all things except guitar — admitted that he’d jolted awake in a cold sweat the night before McCartney’s visit, realizing that he had no left-handed guitars on hand, and began feverishly calling around until he found a friend to loan him a clutch of lefty Hohners, Martins and Rickenbackers, just in case a cup of tea led to something more.)

From Rock Gods Call Andrew Watt When They Need a New Thunderbolt – The New York Times (nytimes.com) – December 13, 2023

What was this story where you got to have tea with Paul McCartney and then you started writing songs with him? Describe to me that process.

His manager – a guy named Scott Roger who’s great guy – I told him I would love to get with Paul sometime and then, right after that, I won the producer for the year at the Grammys, and then I think he told Paul about that, and then Paul was like “okay I’d love to meet this guy”. So I just got a text Paul wanted to come over for tea.

To your house?

So I’m like “Paul McCartney is coming to my…” so I cannot sleep the night before. I’m like what the [ _ ] so I’m literally starting to doze off and I sit up in the middle of the night, I’m like “holy [ _ ], I have no Lefty guitars.” I have only right-handed guitars, I’m a lefty but I play right. I’m like we’re supposed to have tea, but what happens if he wants to play a chord or wants to show me something or I could have Paul McCartney playing guitar in front of me, and I won’t be able to… so we start Googling and we kind of find a company that would rent them, then they’re around. So they’re coming over for tea, I am tripping out like never before, it’s the one time I was like, “okay I need you to slap me in the face as hard as you can” to my assistant.

You’re nervous…

There’s going to be a Beatle in my kitchen, how is that something that you can fathom… So we start having you know deep conversations about stuff and we started talking about Blackbird because it’s one of my favorite songs ever and it’s very interesting to play, it’s got like a very particular right hand and I thought I kind of have it how to play it, so I was like asking him if I kind of got it right and he was kind of showing me stuff and he was like “you know the most important part of that song is that you tap your foot while you play it” and I thought that’s a metronome. So they actually have his foot mic’ed in the studios. He was telling me that story there where he’s playing the song but you hear a little pulse and that’s just his foot tapping. So getting those kinds of little bits of information from the source, that’s like the reason why I exist. It gives me life.

Andrew Watt – Interview with Howard Stern, February 2025

Andrew Watt: Then he texted me and he said “I really like this. Can I come back tomorrow and let’s work on it a little bit?” So, he came back and then he kept coming back for like five or six days, and we made this really awesome song that I love and he loves. And then from there, we just kinda kept working together, and it’s been one of the most amazing experiences in my life just watching him work. He plays every single instrument unbelievably.

Howard Stern: When you say “watching the way he works”, you worked with so many people, […] he had a unique way of working when he writes a song, is that what you’re referring to ? He was different than other people ?

Andrew Watt: No, it’s just more like how he uses the studio, like I’m watching him bounce around to every instrument. When you’re playing with a band, everyone has their own role, or just a singer that is just using different musicians to make their song and stuff, and Paul plays every instrument himself. And so watching him bounce around the room to each thing and put down chords and then be able to play drums to a song that’s in his head in one or two takes because he just knows what it’s supposed to be, sit down, do the piano and one or two takes, same thing. And then when he’s doing vocals, he usually has a guitar around his neck, will go to the piano and he arranges harmonies like classically. You see those things and you learn them and you’re like ‘wow this is how Paul McCartney arranges background vocals’ like he sits down, he plays the root note with his left hand and he plays his melody note, and then he starts harmonizing to his melody note, and then he switches all of a sudden then he’ll start playing the harmony note, so he can work out what the harmony is, then he goes to the mic, records the harmony, then he’ll get the harmony above, and the harmony above, and he works them all out on the piano. I mean, those are the Beatles harmonies and the Wings harmonies, and those are the greatest harmonies in popular music, probably.“

Andrew Watt – Interview with Howard Stern, February 2025

Recording sessions Andrew Watt participated in

Albums, EPs & singles which Andrew Watt contributed to

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