Mike Watt

One of the pivotal presences in West Coast punk, Mike Watt first gained attention playing bass for the singular San Pedro outfit the Minutemen, whose 1984 landmark Double Nickels on the Dime remains a high point, and later for fIREHOSE, whose 1987 album If'n captures their approach. Although Watt’s command of the instrument is widely admired, his methods and mindset have proved equally distinctive. His lines weave rock, funk, and jazz elements into a potent blend of groove and tune, and over the years he has joined forces with everyone from Sonic Youth to Kelly Clarkson. Most of his solo releases revolve around a single governing idea that threads the material together, whether his father’s Navy years shaping 1997’s Contemplating the Engine Room or a life-threatening illness fueling 2004’s The Secondman’s Middle Stand; throughout, he leads by example without overshadowing his bandmates. He also pursues spontaneous collaborations with trusted associates through outfits such as Dos, Spielgusher, and Unknown Instructors, while filling the bass chair for established groups on Porno for Pyros’ Good God’s Urge, the Stooges’ The Weirdness, and the Cutthroat Brothers’ The King Is Dead. No matter the setting, Watt adheres to his Econo ethos, turning the constraints of modest resources into a route toward clarity and resourceful independence.

Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, on December 20, 1957, Watt grew up with a father in the Navy, so the family relocated frequently until settling in the working-class port town of San Pedro, California, in 1967. At fourteen he met local resident Dennes Boon, and the pair quickly bonded over music. Boon, whose household favored country sounds and little else beyond Creedence Clearwater Revival, received an education from Watt in harder-rock acts including the Who, Alice Cooper, and Blue Öyster Cult. Encouraged by Boon’s mother to pick up instruments and start a band, the teenagers bought secondhand guitars from a pawnshop—Watt spending thirteen dollars on a Teisco, Boon spending fifteen on a Japanese Melody Plus. They formed a cover group that played mainstream seventies rock until they learned of the emerging punk scene in Hollywood. After attending a few shows they found the music itself unremarkable, yet they embraced the do-it-yourself principle of inexperienced players taking the stage with original material. Rechristening himself D. Boon, the guitarist joined Watt, vocalist Martin Tamburovich, and drummer George Hurley in the Reactionaries, whose debut performance opened for Black Flag at a San Pedro teen center. Seven months later Tamburovich departed, and the remaining trio became the Minutemen; though Watt has disputed the claim, the name is often thought to reflect their tightly wound songs, most under a minute. Their eclectic, fragmented style stood apart from the hardening hardcore wave, but their velocity and force fit, and the Minutemen became fixtures through relentless live shows and a string of critically praised SST releases. They began to exit the underground when R.E.M. invited them on tour in 1985, yet late that year D. Boon perished at twenty-seven in a van accident on December 23.

Devastated by the loss of his closest friend and collaborator, Watt withdrew from music until Ohio State graduate and Minutemen devotee Ed Crawford, acting on a rumor that Watt and Hurley sought a new guitarist, drove to San Pedro. Though the rumor proved false, Watt consented to jam. Crawford’s zeal, bolstered by encouragement from Sonic Youth (who featured him on one track of their 1986 album EVOL), spurred Watt to launch fIREHOSE with Crawford, billed as Ed Fromohio, on guitar and vocals alongside Hurley on drums. Their SST debut Ragin’, Full-On arrived in 1986 and earned strong notices, as did their concerts. Watt simultaneously maintained the side project Dos, a two-bass duo with former Black Flag bassist and then-wife Kira Roessler, which issued its first album, Uno con Dos, in 1991. As fIREHOSE gained traction and opened for the Beastie Boys, Columbia signed them; Flyin’ the Flannel (1991) became their major-label bow. J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. produced the follow-up Mr. Machinery Operator, but internal strains led to the trio’s 1994 dissolution.

By then Watt had earned respect across the alternative community, so he assembled an extensive roster of peers and admirers for his solo debut. He characterized 1995’s Ball-Hog or Tugboat? as his “wrestling record,” each song uniting a fresh cast of players who traded ideas while Watt frequently ceded lead vocals. Contributions from members of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soul Asylum, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers generated considerable attention, even though the music’s exploratory nature prevented commercial breakthrough. Watt toured with an unannounced Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Dave Grohl of Nirvana, Foo Fighters supporting; once the guests’ identities surfaced, dates sold out, and a Chicago performance was later released in 2016 as Ring Spiel Tour ’95. In 1996 Perry Farrell recruited Watt for Porno for Pyros’ Good God’s Urge and the ensuing tour. The following year brought Watt’s second solo album, Contemplating the Engine Room, a “punk rock opera” merging his father’s military service with his own Minutemen tenure and friendship with D. Boon. The sessions featured drummer Steve Hodges and guitarist Nels Cline, later of Wilco. Also in 1997 Watt joined Banyan, the experimental jazz-rock collective led by Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins; their self-titled debut appeared that year, followed by Anytime at All (1999) and Live at Perkins’ Palace (2004). Watt further participated in the Velvet Goldmine all-star band the Wylde Ratttz alongside Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Gumball’s Don Fleming, and Mudhoney’s Mark Arm; the group recorded enough material for an album, though contractual hurdles delayed its digital release until 2020.

In early 2000 Watt nearly died from an undetected perineum abscess that triggered severe flu-like symptoms. After recovery he reacquainted himself with the instrument by learning Stooges songs. J Mascis aided his return by enlisting him for the 2000 album More Light and its tour. In 2002 Watt split time between his new trio the Secondmen—Pete Mazich on organ, Jerry Trebotic on drums—and further Mascis projects. At a Michigan gig Mascis brought Ron Asheton onstage; the results pleased everyone, so Ron and brother Scott Asheton joined subsequent dates, each night delivering a high-volume Stooges set. The buzz prompted Iggy Pop to invite the Ashetons to record for his 2003 album Skull Ring, which in turn led to a Coachella appearance in April 2003. On Ron’s recommendation Watt replaced the late Dave Alexander, remaining with the Stooges on their intermittent tours until the group disbanded in 2016 after the deaths of both Ashetons. He also appears on the reunion albums The Weirdness (2006) and Ready to Die (2013).

Once the Stooges completed North American and European runs, Watt entered the studio with the Secondmen for his third solo release and second “punk rock opera,” The Secondman’s Middle Stand (2004), a cycle addressing his 2000 illness and echoing Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Stooges commitments occupied much of the next decade, yet he continued other work: playing bass on Kelly Clarkson’s 2007 album My December, joining Nels Cline and Yuka Honda for Floored by Four’s 2010 EP, completing the long-running collaboration with Richard Meltzer that yielded Spielgusher’s 2012 debut, recording two albums with Italian experimental duo Il Sogno del Marinaio (beginning with 2013’s La Busta Gialla), and touring with Tav Falco, later contributing to the 2017 Christmas album. In 2011 Watt delivered his third opera, the fractured and autobiographical Hyphenated-Man, with Tom Watson on guitar and Raul Morales on drums. He sustained his partnership with Cline in Big Walnuts Yonder, whose 2017 debut paired Watt and Cline with guitarist-singer Nick Reinhart of Tera Melos and drummer Greg Saunier of Deerhoof. Unknown Instructors, a jazz-punk alliance between Saccharine Trust guitarist Joe Baiza and poet-saxophonist Dan McGuire, issued albums in 2005 (The Way Things Work), 2006 (The Master’s Voice), 2009 (Funland), and 2019 (Unwilling to Explain). Watt joined other experimental-music figures for 2020’s A Love Supreme Electric: A Love Supreme and Meditations, offering fresh readings of John Coltrane’s landmark works. The swampy blues-punk duo the Cutthroat Brothers enlisted him for The King Is Dead, released June 2021, and before year’s end a second collaboration, Devil in Berlin, also surfaced.