John Watts is very excited about his new record Punkt.
“It means full stop,” he says. “It marks the end of something, the old way of doing things.”
By which Watts means both the music business itself, now driven by new imperatives in the way its output is discovered and consumed, and also his personal creative practices.
For nearly 50 years John Watts has been doing things entirely his own way. From the new wave and post punk beginnings of Fischer Z in 1977, through their lift-off in Europe and Australia, to many fruitful solo years traversing the globe, he’s enjoyed a freewheeling career that’s taken in punk, poetry, politics, fine art and much more, Watts has forged a loyal following that responds to his high-octane, direct and multi-facetted way of entertaining people. That isn’t going to change, but his creative approach already has.
“I’ve always been artistically in total control,” he says. “It’s the only way I could make it work. But Punkt. has been my first proper creative collaboration since the early days of being in a band. And I loved it. This is how I want to work from now on, pooling talents to make something none of us are expecting. It’s time to let go of mental restraints, expand and open new doors.”
Punkt. was written and recorded with producer Tony McInnnerny, a Geordie veteran who has deftly moved with the times, now as comfortable recording ultrapop or EDM as he was working with Jimmy Nail.
John is scattershot, Tony methodical, John is extravagant, Tony is measured; one wants it now, the other takes his time. It could be awkward but in fact they complement each other perfectly. Almost. “We can’t walk down the street together, I run on ahead, he lags behind,” laughs Watts, “but the musical affinity is great. He’s can be very critical of what I do, but I totally respect his opinion and questioning the ideas in this way, cutting and rewriting more than I would normally, has made this record much stronger. I’m really happy with it.”
Punkt. is Watts’ 26th album. It kicks off year two in his five year plan to rekindle his name in territories that have largely forgotten him.
“The question I get asked most often over here in Britain, whenever I do a show that kicks off, or speak to someone in the business is, ‘Why haven’t I heard of you?” Well, that’s what I intend to fix in the coming years.”
In Europe, Fischer Z are considered one of the most successful and relevant British post-punk bands, respected alongside the likes of Depeche Mode or The Cure. A show in Germany, the Netherlands or Belgium will be attended by large, enthusiastic crowds singing along to numerous hits, while in Britain they remain a cultish night out on a smaller scale, the crowd bulked out by foreigners who can’t believe their luck at seeing them in such intimate venues.
Fischer Z’s sole constant since the beginning, Watts (born in Berkshire, raised in Bracknell and based in Brighton), admits that maybe he didn’t get things off to a flying start on his home turf. In his very first published interview, for long-gone music weekly Sounds, when asked to describe his band he responded “middle-class pseudo intellectuals”, which earned him a reputation as a smart-arse. He wonders if things went downhill from there…
The band’s early records, released on United Artists - Word Salad, Going Deaf For A Living and Red Skies Over Paradise - were enthusiastically received, sold in increasing numbers and were championed by the likes of John Peel and Anne Nightingale, putting Fischer Z in the company of contemporaries Elvis Costello, XTC and Talking Heads, growing the kind of following that could sell out a Kentish Town Forum or Manchester International.
“I always considered Fischer Z to be art-punks. As a kid I was more interested in politics than music as a hobby, that’s where all my knowledge was. I didn't know who produced the records I liked, or the names of all the musicians. Going into music I started out off to one side of all the history. And that’s where I stayed!”
Watts and his crew were hard to pin down. He didn't want to enter into the implicit contract struck between performers and gatekeepers and he suffered for it. In Europe, however, both media and fanbase responded to Watts’ candour and the intensity which Fischer Z brought to performances. Watts would challenge non-committal crowds and win them over, even if it meant ending a show bloodied and bruised.
Watts has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, and can now see how this may have shaped his misunderstanding of the music game, and his performing style. “I take things at face value. I tell people exactly what I’m thinking. I don’t sugar-coat stuff. That made sense for post-punk. I was driven to write about politics and social disquiet.”
He has been described as “A kind of Bruce Bragg, politically astute blue-collar poet.” or “Bob Dylan if he’d been brought up on Captain Beefheart and George Formby.” in other words. a simultaneous man-off-the-people and a committed outsider. It’s one reason his career has been so unusual.
Punkt. pulls these qualities, and others, into a vivid version of the present day, on highlights like the anarchic steam-punk of the title track, the haunted Motown pulse of When Love Goes Wrong and the moving storytelling of The Conclusion, all filtered through widescreen productions that teem with detail and invention and could function in a club as well as on a concert stage.
John Watts entered pop music after studying to be a clinical psychologist in the 1970s at an experimental facility that didn't use any drugs or restraints.
“I’d be doing a shift there from 8-4pm and then get in a van and go to do a gig in Derby, or something. I’m not aggressive naturally, but, you know, I’d literally dealt with raging psychos all day, so I wasn’t afraid of the punk crowds. You've taken somebody in during the daytime, someone who’s cut themselves open with a broken bottle, you’re holding their stomach together and taking them to hospital and then you go out and play in Wolverhampton to some snotty little 17 year olds who threaten to put a cigarette out on your leg and you think, ‘Well, come on then!’” Which all helped Fischer Z gain a reputation for a confrontational style of performance. They were also recognised as a white band that could really play reggae. They got very busy and toured all around the world with Peter Gabriel and Bob Marley.
When the hits started to come - third album Red Skies Over Paradise was shifting 50,000 copies a week in Germany in 1982 - the band concentrated on their most successful territories. Their inexperienced management pushed them through almost five years of relentless recording and touring, after which Watts, who was responsible for all the material, interviews and artistic guidance, was completely burnt out. “I should have just taken six months off but I hit the self-destruct button and declared I was now a solo act.”
Having torpedoed the brand name, Watts was fated to focus on where he was best known, though he’s always lived in Britain and raised children here. But over decades touring in Europe, he crafted a solo mode that mixed social commentary, poetry and his sharp songwriting into impressive, wide-ranging two hour shows.
But the demand for Fischer Z never went away. So, after a long dormant period, Watts revived the band and these days straddles parallel careers, as the front man of Fischer Z - under which banner he releases all his new music - and as John Watts lone guitar-toting wordsmith and polemicist.
A recent onrush of inspiration has coincided with Watts deciding to shift focus to see if he can make a bigger impact back home. “I find it absolutely frustrating not to be able to work as much as I’d like in Britain, in fact in all the English-speaking countries. I absolutely love this new record, but it's just one brick in a huge wall. I'd like people in Britain, Australia and America to know that I've built that wall. I'm almost 70, but I intend to produce stuff in the coming years that’s as good as anything I've ever done. I want to keep the standard high, visit places I’ve never been before, and show people what I can do.”
