Montreal Soundtracks: Patrick Watson Interview & Giveaway

The music of Patrick Watson (www.patrickwatson.net) is the perfect soundtrack to a long train journey. It has a childlike quality that conjures up a wide-eyed traveler with his face pressed up to the glass, watching the world go by, and a rhythmic urgency that can make you feel like you’re going places, even when you’re standing perfectly still.

Patrick Watson is certainly going places. Since beating out the likes of Feist and the Arcade Fire to win Canada’s most prestigious music award in 2007, Watson and his bandmates have released their second album (2009’s Wooden Arms) to critical acclaim. Meanwhile, Watson has been juggling fatherhood (14-month-old Oscar interrupts our phone conversation intermittently) and has been in increasing demand as a composer of film scores.

Vocally, Watson sounds like a higher-pitched Nick Drake, or a less bummed-out Jeff Buckley. His rich warble is set over chamber pop instrumentation, with a healthy dose of improvisation with found-objects (spoons, pots and pans, even a bicycle) thrown in for good measure. The end result is classically-infused experimental soundscapes that sound positively cinematic.

We caught up with Patrick Watson (and baby Oscar) at his home in Montreal, and had a chat about Star Trek, seedy Hong Kong hotels, and what to expect from his live set at Yugong Yishan this Sunday.

the Beijinger: You must spend a lot of time explaining to people that Patrick Watson is not only your name, but also the name of your 4-piece band. Ever thought about renaming yourselves?
Patrick Watson: Yeah, everyone is confused by it. Originally I thought we were going to be more of a multimedia act. Then we started selling out lots of concerts and special events in Montreal, but they were so expensive to tour with that we decided to make a more simple show and that simpler show grew and grew. It gradually turned from a multimedia project into a band, and then by the time we were doing well, it was hard to change the name!

Lately we’ve been referring to ourselves as “Patrick Watson & The Wooden Arms” [after the band’s 2009 album, Wooden Arms]. We’ve been trying to find a name for a while, and that kinda works, so we’re like, “OK, let’s just use that!”

tbj: As a classically-trained musician and composer, do you enjoy performing live or do you prefer to stick to the studio?
PW: Our concerts are a lot more playful and spontaneous than our records, and people tend to like us better live than they do when they hear our records. We tend to draw kind of a peculiar crowd to our shows in the sense that it’s all different ages, all different walks of life. We’re really lucky because we have all different generations of people who come to listen to us play. At some of our concerts in Montreal there are people in the audience from age 14 to age 45.

tbj: I love the soundtrack you composed for the French-Canadian movie C'est pas moi, je le jure! Any other film projects on the horizon?
PW: I just finished working on a French film last January. I love doing film scores so I do as many as I can when I’m not touring. It also helps me learn how to write. Take strings for example; it’s so helpful doing so many film scores because it taught me how to arrange for strings, and then when it came to this last record I knew exactly how I wanted to use them.

tbj: Your music has a definite fantasy element to it. To what extent do you think of it as escapism, and to what extend does it touch on issues from your quote-unquote “real life”?
PW: It always relates to real life. It’s kinda like fiction. For example, you know the original Stark Trek TV series? [Star Trek creator] Gene Roddenberry hated the show. But he made it because it was a way of talking about things that mattered at the time. There’d be a Russian and a Chinese guy working together on the same deck, and this was in the ‘60s. People in middle America watched this in their living rooms without even questioning it because it was presented as science fiction, so it was acceptable. To me, good fiction is very personal because there’s no holds barred. You can say exactly what you want in a fictitious story. My music is escapism, but it’s also a way of telling personal stories in a way that I feel more comfortable sharing them.

tbj: Word up. Ever been to China before?
PW: I passed through Hong Kong when I was on my way to Vietnam. I stayed at the Chungking Mansions. A seedy place. I remember getting in the elevator at one point and this huge gentleman just grabs my balls and goes “What are you doing here?” and I’m like “Hopefully not you!”
Then I remember a 4-year-old kid woke me up in the middle of the night to ask me for a cigarette, and when I turned on the lights there were bugs all over my body! It was one of those surreal experiences, and on top of all that it was my first time traveling alone. This was 8 years ago so maybe it’s changed by now.

tbj: So I take it you won’t be staying at Chungking Mansions again when you pass through Hong Kong this week?
PW: I might go stay there a night by myself, just for old time’s sake.

tbj: You’re a brave man. On that note, I don’t think I have any more questions for you.
PW: Well, if you think of anything else you want to ask, just call me back tomorrow!

Patrick Watson plays at Yugong Yishan on January 17 (Sunday). RMB 100, RMB 80 (advance). Door opens at 8pm. 3-2 Zhangzizhong Lu (100m west of Zhangzizhong Lu subway station), Dongcheng District (6404 2711). 东城区平安大道张自忠路3-2号(地铁五号线张自忠路站往西100米)

We have 3 pairs of tickets to Patrick Watson's Yugong Yishan gig on January 17 to give away. To be in the running answer this question: On his first visit to Hong Kong, Watson stayed at the infamous Chungking Mansions, a tower block that was the setting for which famous Wong Karwai movie?

Send your answers to: danedwards@truerun.com