A good and productive weekend in Irvine.

Pull out your map and trace it. Alyssa lives in a small COMMUNITY in Irvine. Apartment buildings circle a pool and fitness center. Kids bicycle and scramble all around the streets. And her roommates are out of town. So here I tell my own roommates “will you feed the cat, I believe I will be in Irvine all weekend.”

And here in our hull up we began and completed MASSIVE PROJECTS. Two music videos, the May newsletter (which hopefully you received), and a song with Larek (my former guitar student, a young genius).

The first night we filmed Leave Your Husband. We had walked to the Albertsons and were clowning trying to make a good TikTok video. I dramatically recited the lyrics while waving my arms wildly. Then I thought “what if I did this for the whole song… and what if we put the actual song on top of it!? Then we'd have a music video!! And we could add a bunch of cool effects in the computer software!"

Well we rushed home and filmed a one take wonder. It was now past midnight but we were not deterred. I walked down the street saying “Leave your husband, he's f*cked” and various other insane proclamations. Returning home I struggled to find a program to edit the footage on. My computer hard drive is completely out of storage and Alyssa's computer had a virus. So what was I to do??? After a bit of research I found KAPWING, a browser based video editing software. You know what the means??? No downloads!! It takes up no space.

So I threw the single video into the software and carefully synced it with the song. Now it was time to press “Erase background,” which erased the suburban backdrop and replaced it with a solid color… what color did I choose, I'm trying to remember. I believe it was blue?? In any case, the video was done!! And many people emailed me saying they were relieved to see such a raw and DIY video in this landscape of perfect nonsense. I'm facetious here – no one messaged.

It was late when we fell asleep beneath stars in the backyard. In the morning Larek came over and we repeated the music video process, this time with a song called You Took It All For Granted, a sad ballad about addiction and suicide. I walked down the street with an acoustic guitar, miming the words. Larek followed and made dramatic dancing gestures. I edited the footage together with special effects such as explosions and robot dogs between takes of a song Larek and I recorded together. Mostly I plugged in the mic and pressed record on the computer while he played some guitar and sang. But I will add my Watson touches to the song eventually and we will hopefully release it as a colab.

We pushed the video and rode bikes to the Albertsons again. There was a Starbucks with delicious breakfast sandwiches. Larek told us remarkable stories of his unfolding youth, and we felt bittersweet for our own longgone adolescence. He left and accidentally stole my cable which was plugged into his mic >: (

At night we watched my favorite Twilight Zone Episode Come Wander With Me. The last episode they filmed. And I stayed the night again and she called out of work in the morning. But it was Monday and I had to go. So I went to the front door and said goodbye. The sun was coming down, it was already hot. The work week was upon us. And that was how we got the two new music videos. Please enjoy.

-Watson

Our new song has been out for a few weeks so I thought I would draft up my explanation of it.

This song was written as I ventured to a park in Marin County, CA. I was living in a van and remembering my childhood all day and night as I made a meaningless pilgrimage across our great nation.

Mostly I was recalling my childhood neighbor Tony. He was an alcoholic man who would explode on his family loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. This was almost every night for awhile, until the HOA got involved and some intense drama led to them selling the house and moving Godknowswhere. 

I remember at a neighborhood party he blended in with the other men and almost seemed normal. I remember looking at Tony with fear and awe. His children were very cool. They were dealing with more than most of us but they loved Pokemon just the same. I met up with the son, later, in college. 

“Aren’t you… my old neighbor?” I asked him in the crowded living room of a raucous party house. 

“WHAT’S UP MAN!?” He said, evidently excited to see me. No real sadness or fear in his eyes. Maybe he turned out fine after all.

His father Tony died recently. Cirrhosis. My mom mentioned seeing the memorial page on Facebook. His wife had left him. I will remember him young and terrifying.

The other song we released is called Tuco Says. This is the story of my old bandmate Tuco. He was a great guy who gave up music for life on a community farm. Sometimes I think he chose the wiser path. He left our old band Blistered Apostles and it broke up almost immediately after. Watson Moon was formed from the ashes. What can I say about Tuco? He was a reasonable man. You've definitely met people just like him. Sometimes I write him letters. I say “I'M STUCK OUT HERE MAN I'M IN THE DOLDRUMS.” and other ramblings.

Sunny and hot in California this weekend. Summer coming soon. We have bought our plane tickets to Seattle in June. Taylor's got a farm and another baby on the way. Dad moved to West Seattle. Mom's on Mercer Island. I have not seen either of their new homes yet. Very excited. Hopefully the plane is smooth and does not crash. Haha just kidding but you know I worry. But overall life is good. Very good life in this dreamland in the 21st Century. It's this and that and a lot of things. Ok, get some sleep. And I will too.

-Watson

April 19. Easter tomorrow. Today bassist WESTIN came over and we practiced for this upcoming show at the Tiki Bar. Costa Mesa, CA. May 15. We are developing a improv style that we can use to jam out all the songs. And Wes has good ideas. Good ideas and contributions for transitions and style stuff. I'm all for it. Alyssa is gone in Turkey and Istanbul so tragically no drums in the rehearsal today. The live show situation has been in limbo for essentially the entire length of the project. Most shows we played with a steady line-up is maybe 4 or 5. We did do that UCLA radio show way back in 2019 though that was fun. 

Definitely something we've got to figure out this LIVE BAND situation. I grew a bit jaded and exhausted with the idea of a SCENE. Surely there must be a SCENE here but it's very different than Seattle. And I'm older now and we don't all live 10 to a house and stay up all night making music. I'm hoping I can blow up on the internet first and then piece together a band when there's actual demand for Watson and people KNOW the songs and come out specifically to see us. 

Sometimes this feels like a lofty and unrealistic ambition and I get very discouraged. I mean, I know some people do it. But we ran the Discovery campaign on Spotify and got like 1 playlist add per 1000 listens to a song. That's bad!! We gotta write a song that people hear and they say “I gotta add this to the playlist!!”

Yes with Alyssa gone just been going to work and working on mastering some older tunes. There's the Gabi Petito song… (psychedelic with phasers) and that is accompanied by a song called Tuco Says about a bandmate who gives it all up for a family on a farm. Releasing two songs at a time has been my go-to but its maybe not the best technique because one of the two tunes always gets totally ignored. I just put them on for the true fans. Or to increase the chances of at least ONE of the songs drawing people to it from hearing it on TikTok. 

Who knows!? 

Got a pedal steel from Amazon so hopefully I can put that on some songs.

Have to organize the Watson Newsletter for April we have been slacking on that. We keep pushing the date out. Must find articles to include. Many say this newsletter is hysterical. 

That is your update from Watsonville and thank you.

2 new songs coming out on Friday!!! one of them is called LEAVE YOUR HUSBAND and i'd like to discuss it here. 

The scene:

One mother talks to another in the yard as they watch the children play.

She says:

"Leave your husband
He's wrong
He did something you can't forgive him for
Be strong
He'll never vote that evil way again
And then
He'll never leave the cat outside all night
To starve
You'll never see his trash out in the yard

Leave your husband
He's fucked
He's working against you and everyone you love
I'd never lie to you my darling
Like he did

He took away your rights like nothing
Thinks he's God
He slanders you when you are not around
Put him underneath the ground
Or maybe don't go that far
But go on jump into the car

Leave your husband
He's not working for you like he said he would
Leave your husband
Oh he's always in the backyard chopping wood
Leave your husband
And the kids will both be coming with you too
And you'll always get your way
Starting on this very day

He might have thought it'd last forever
Well he should have thought
About that before he went off and voted for the cop
Leave your husband
Leave him in the dust"

This song was written in Palm Springs while at my Dad's house. I was waiting for Alyssa to arrive and watching these Tiktok videos of women urging each other to leave their husbands in the wake of Trump's election. This was a tsunami of videos. Thousands and thousands of women leaving their husbands. It felt like a true movement. But all of this righteous indignation had no recurring song in the background. And I got to thinking that having a sound to tie these videos together would help. Music is a powerful thing, you know? I pray the moment is not too late to empower these women.

It is insane to ponder how people with such intensely oppositional political views could have ended up in a relationship in the first place. I think most of the time one party is radicalized After the fact, while the other either remains neutral or begins to lean in the opposite direction. Many such cases.

Anyway, you should have seen TikTok in the days after Nov 5. It was absolute insanity. People adopting secret codewords to identify each other in real life, people totally cutting off family members for their Trump votes. It was a spirit of mania. And scrolling thru these on Tiktok, I was inspired.

Thankfully I'd brought the guitar to Palm Springs (the trusty 12 dollar nylon acoustic from Goodwillauctions.com). I played my trusty 50's progression (C, Am, F, G) and sang the words.

I like to just start a recording and adlib on top of the chords. That's how I write most of the songs. And no need to stress out about remembering anything because you are RECORDING. Always recording. Anyway I felt it was a bit of a race against time because Alyssa was coming to meet my Dad's wife for the first time. And of course I'm not going to sit alone in our room writing songs thru that huge moment. 

So I sang “leave ur husband, he's fucked." Just trying to get on board this super significant moment in American history. Just trying to channel what I saw the women saying to each other. And I can never understand the struggle of having Reproductive Medical Options removed from my insurance so I can never truly understand. So I pretty much just took the words from the TikTok woman and sang them in a song. Because I'm no expert on the topic of any political topic you gotta understand. But much of this seemed to be focused on Reproductive Rights, which is abortion. So on some level the song is about that. But mostly I was just trying to capture the spirit of righteous indignation on TikTok in those days after the election.

Though these videos have trickled to a halt, I know this indignation is still there in those women. It goes underground sometimes as they are forced their the meat grinder of this wretched culture. We tell our women shut up and they do. There is a true evil that plagues our modern world. And in this song I tried to address it. It is the story of thousands of woman. In the song I play the concerned neighbor as the narrator. There are many details not included in the song but that still exist around it. Hard to explain. I see this song as like an entire storybook universe. And this is just the story of one house in the neighborhood. One mother talking to another mother in the yard. And saying “leave your husband.” And the lyrics begin.

Maybe I can expand this universe. A few other songs talk about other houses in that neighborhood. “There's Something Wrong In The Neighborhhood” is coming out next month. That's about another house. Maybe there is a way I can tie it all together.

Bout to go to cousin Reid's baby shower this weekend. I got some wonderful gifts for the baby. Will drive up the coast with Alyssa to the Bay Area. Have not seen Reid in years. Have only met his fiance once. That will be fun. A good trip. Keep your head up!! A new life is coming.

worked on this song “at least it’s simple” tonight 

psych’ed out the guitars

strange strange phasers and all that.

took it away from the basic rock song territory, which is what i wrote it to be! lol

but this one is about Gaby Petito, a tragic case I’m sure we all know about. Murdered by her boyfriend in the Utah desert. He got a little too mad one night. We will never know for sure what happened because he took his life soon after. His parents are still covering up for him. 

anyway, the song is coming along nicely. I just don’t really know what to do with the ending. If anybody has any ideas, let me know. There’s a secret bandcamp page with all my unreleased tunes and drafts on it. You guys can try to scavenger hunt find it.

I mistakenly thought our two new singles dropped tonight!!! so I was ready to go into promo mode posting on TikTok like a madman … but they are actually coming out next week. 

the two new songs:

-Leave your husband is an anthem for the girls who need to leave their husband.

-I left home when I was young is about a nightmare Hollywood scenario. We are fascinated with the underbelly of this nightmare place. Walk along Hollywood Boulevard. You will see the Shirley Temple girls skipping along as the homeless men reach their trembling fingers out with their last breath.

very excited for these two songs. 

hilarious artwork of tortoises and cigars done by the lovely Alyssa.

david from Molly (my other band) wants to record our whole album on Sat. Full day recording session. I’m torn as I had that day set aside for Watson. But maybe I can use the Molly recording sessions as an opportunity to gather  footage for a music video I want to make for You Took it all for Granted. 

so I may end up going. Don’t wanna let down the band. You’re supposed to say yes to life.

so that is what is going on in Watson world. just keeping you guys posted on the blog because I know we all love it. I wonder if anybody is reading these… I know Alyssa’s mom is. what’s up julie.

hopefully in the future, when WATSON MOON has achieved what I want, people will go back and read these blog posts. I know I would love to read this type of stuff about the inner mechanics of my favorite songs and bands. But mostly it’s just a low-key life here, teaching at the school recording when I can. And that’s the sitch!

Today I Experiment with a looser style. (even looser than normal!? laughing face that's hard to believe). So Excuse the looseness of the writing. Maybe one day an AI will replicate the devil-may-care of this. We will look forward to that.

It's Sunday. Returned from a family vacation at a place called The Westlake Village Inn & Spa.

This is a beautiful place with large birds flying in and out of ponds, a cold plunge, pizza parlor and many other amenities. I hear they host many weddings.

I brought Joe, my good friend since childhood, and later my dear girlfriend Alyssa joined us. The entire time I was consumed by this manic creative drive to make more songs, or at least to finish the ones we've currently been working on.

Of course it takes a certain commitment of energy to remain reasonable around the family. I'm sure this is a common conundrum, using up my social reserves with the family. Pushing on past emepty. And these quiet depletions combined with my secret mania and circus of songs bonkerrooing in my head, I did feel a bit crazy, yes.

So I've even told Alyssa I need the rest of this Sunday to myself, us returning around 2PM. 

Just the Sunday to recalibrate and hopefully recalibrate enough to get back to recording some tunes. 

I completed that one song about Tuko the other day. 

"Tuko says hes gonna leave the band

Raise a big family on a plot on land"

or something. I completed the recording of it mostly. Adding extra guitars and a shaker and stuff. I redid the vocals too but I'm not sure the new ones sound much better. I think the old ones will be used in some parts. Still have to do some big-picture structural stuff. I believe I may try to do that clipping during the mastering as it is TO A GRID. I'm telling you ya'll will LOVE THIS song.

now it mostly just needs to be mixed. Maybe I can do that today. Alyssa's stopping by right now. She's stopping by to pick up something she left here on her way home. Shouldn't stay long. Still I should get proper (add underpants and a shirt to myself). But I must keep telling the story…

My notes for what remains to be done:

• Maybe put louder guitars in chorus jam part
• Or guitar solo after bridge???
• Record new lyrics. See them below
• Pick a verse to cut  (maybe verse 4 about touching 40)
• What if this one had a guitar solo / jam outro?? Like if there’s space on a verse I take out

Most of those I already did. I'm not sure I have to take a look at it again. Hopefully I can get a master of it tonight… Then there are some other songs that need to be finished up from the latest drum-adding session at Alyssa's house. Maybe if I can get everything straight with Tuko i'll look at SHE'S NOT THERE aka AT LEAST IT's SIMPLE AKA GABI PETITO SONG. ykno it might find the most success if i made the official title “gabi petito song”. or referenced her in some way on there. many people are captivated by that story including me u in. but i am captivating by most things. THE GRUESOME AND THE PROFANE. well i shouldn't seem so dark, i'm sure we are all interested in the darker elements of human nature.

But Gabi song needs a lot of vocals to redone and we all know I can't record here at night.

We are running some experimental “campaign” for Watson this week thru Spotify for Artists. Starts the first day of April. We will see if it does anything. I'm not sure what it does but Kevin from The Stare said it's good. Apparently it just pushes our music out more thru radio?? Not sure, I'll keep you posted. 

Someday I'll tell you blog readers all about the family and the various cast of crazy characters that inhabit my life. But right now I want to dive into TUKO SAYS and see if I can finish it and get it ready for a master. Anybody have a better title for it!? Than TUKO SAYS? That ain't so good. 

Btw, for sh_t's and giggles let me give this all to CHAT GPT and have it rewritten it a more concise and literary way. 

Here's what it says:

Today, I experiment with an even looser style—hard to believe, I know. Perhaps one day, an AI will capture this devil-may-care approach. We await that moment.

It’s Sunday. I’m back from a family trip to The Westlake Village Inn & Spa, a place of large birds skimming over ponds, cold plunges, a pizza parlor, and endless wedding parties. I brought Joe, my childhood friend, and later Alyssa joined us. The whole time, I was possessed by a restless creative energy, itching to finish the songs in progress.

Being around family takes a particular kind of effort—one I sometimes underestimate. I drain my social reserves, and afterward, I need time to refill them. This, paired with the constant hum of unfinished music rattling in my head, left me feeling slightly unhinged. I told Alyssa I needed the rest of Sunday to recalibrate, to gather myself before diving back into recording.

The other day, I finished tracking Tuko Says.

"Tuko says he’s gonna leave the band
Raise a big family on a plot of land"

I added guitars, a shaker, redid the vocals—though I’m not sure they’re better. Might end up blending the old ones back in. The structure still needs tweaking. Maybe I’ll handle the clipping in mastering since it’s all locked to a grid. You all are going to love this one. It mostly just needs mixing—maybe today.

Alyssa’s stopping by to grab something she left. Shouldn’t stay long, but I should probably throw on a shirt. My notes for Tuko Says:

Louder guitars in the chorus jam?

Guitar solo after the bridge?

Cut a verse—maybe the one about hitting 40?

Jam outro if space allows?

Most of that’s already done. I need to take another look, maybe get a master tonight. Then there’s She’s Not There—or At Least It’s Simple, or Gabi Petito Song (working title limbo). Would it gain traction if I referenced her explicitly? People are drawn to the macabre, though I shouldn’t sound so morbid. Darkness fascinates all of us.

Meanwhile, we’re testing a Spotify campaign for Watson Moon starting April 1st—Kevin from The Stare says it’s worth a shot. Something about boosting our music on radio algorithms. We’ll see.

Someday, I’ll tell you all about my family and the colorful cast of characters that populate my life. But today, I just want to finish Tuko Says. Also, if you have a better title, let me know—because Tuko Says isn’t great.

Well???? Which do you prefer? I will say the AI does organize the thoughts in am way smoother way than mine. And it uses actual grammatically correct sentences lol. Sometimes the perfectionist in me goes crazy that I don't proofread any of these blog entries and there are many redundancies and non sequiturs. But I think of them as an exercise of saying “F*ck u” to that perfectionist voice. I think he is mostly the enemy of good art. Tho he can be useful every once and awhile shrug emoji .. Ok off to work I go.

David birthday dinner tonight. It was a surprise party but i accidentally spoiled the surprise so he had to fake it. I was walking with a student rambling about my busy week. “And I got this david surprise party on Thursday!” I said, a bit too loudly. Of course he was sitting right there.

His gf, who set it all up, still doesn’t know he found out. So I do feel terrible about that. The LIES the LIES. I hate to lie.

I play in another band with david called Molly. I think that is the name that has stuck. We try to sound like the strokes.

But mostly I’ve been thinking about this new song I wrote at 2AM the other night. Unable to sleep with Alyssa beside me, I wrote the lyrics as a little poem on my phone. KEEP THE BRIGHTNESS LOW AS NOT TO WAKE HER!!

then I snuck to the back room with my guitar to lay it down. One of the few times I write the lyrics before the music. and i had a vision of just a classic rock type song with RIFFAGE.

It may be out by now. it's the song that goes:

“We’re in real low place with the rock roll band 

Tuko says we might have to the sell the van

Break it all down on the lot for parts

Only play for pleasure when the weekend starts

Tuko says that we gave it all we got

You really gotta know when it’s time to stop

But I’ve been dreaming of this all my life

The only other way im gonna (I’d ever) live is on the street

Or something like that, I’ve been trying to get the lyrics where I want them as I am going to do the final vocal recording session tomorrow morning. I want the vocals to be smooth, Siamese Dream-breathy like, to contrast with the obvious rock n roll vibes of the music. The scratch vocals are more rugged. We will see what works. Whatever ends up having the most personality.

So that song is what’s been on my mind. 

I like it as an allegory for the musicians plight. Torn between a “normal” life and this Hail Mary desperate need for SUCCESS. And as I get older I feel the need to succeed in music more and more … because it’s the one thing I’m really good at. At least to garner a fan base. If I don’t make full time money off of it, I at least want a fan base to appreciate what I’ve spent all my life trying to perfect.

Just some thoughts before I go to sleep. Good people in my life. Did the drums for that song yesterday at Alyssa’s house with that Alesis kit. Double the snare up with that MT-kit. The free popular one. Was happy I didn’t have to do TOO much comping of the drums and that I’m getting better at knocking out solid takes to the click.

Anyway, just some thoughts to those who ever get interested in these songs. I’m really writing for you, the fan. The type of sh*t I’d want to read about my favorite songs. 

But it's late so I sleep now. GOODNITE!!

tues, mar 25, 2025, 9:23 pm

i thought now that i have this blog it might be fun to breakdown some of my most popular songs. talk bout the inspiration, writing and recording.

well turn away is a crazy one because it was written in a lesson with a student to show them how to write a song. i said: “ok let's take this basic chords: G, Dm, Am and C!” i said “well ain't that swell, these chords are classic and sound good! but what if we want to spice them up a little bit?? what if we want to play different voicings?!”

So i went up to neck to the 10th fret and played that Cmaj kind of voicing but with the B and E strings OPEN. “Doesn't that sound better!?” i said to the girl

And damn it did sound better. I was sliding those chords around thinking “this is really nice.” I was espesically captivated by the Dm to Am change. Well those chords weren't just normal Dm and Am anymore because they had the open high strings in them. 

I pulled out my phone and started recording, demonstrating my process. “Aight aight” I said to the student. “At this point I'd make a little demo and just scratch vocal on top of it trying to find a good melody.”

Well the Turn Away melody isn't really crazy it's mostly one note. But I think the chords are doing most of the work. At some point this student, already shy, is just watching me get really absorbed into making this song.

This must've been last year, sometime in 2024, when I was deep into this philosophy of “do it quickly”. You know, write quickly, record quicker. Don't do a million takes. Do one take and if it sounds f*cked, then that's fine. Because you don't get Alex G sloppy vibes by being a perfectionist. (And we want the Alex G vibes ofc). 

So anyway I don't get many concrete lyrics out of that lesson and the next day before work I sit down at my computer. We were suppose to release Grows On Trees that Friday but I was forcing the producer to go back and fix the bass levels. So it wouldn't be ready. So I needed something to release (this was self-imposed, of course. The only deadlines were placed by me. There was no label or fans breathing down my neck).

“What the heck do I have to record???” I asked myself. “Well I guess I could do that thing we did in the lesson yesterday.”

We had tried to write a second section for Turn Away but it wasn't happening. It didn't need it. I still had no real lyrics for the song and I only had an hour or two before work.

I did the guitars. Two acoustics and two electrics (I believe with the Gretsch) hard panned as usual.

And for the vocals I just kind of winged it. I wasn't sure if it worked but the syllabic sounds seemed to fit. “I'm your man, better love me while you can” all that. It could just have easily have been something different. Doubled the vocals. One take each. Went out to test the mix in the car. Fixed some bass levels. Did a master. Tested it in the car. Came back and tweaked a few things. And it was done.

Art??? I didn't have any art. But I had some pictured from an old photoshoot my old roommate had done in my office. Same place I make all the tunes. The best photo would work. Turn Away… to drop that very next day. And the people liked it. And so my work fast philosophy was vindicated. Modern World had that same kind of approach. But I've moved a bit away from it since then. Maybe I should go back.

That is the story behind TURN AWAY, Watson's biggest hit to date! Thank you student who needed to know how to write songs… though I believe she still hasn't written one to this day :(. 

sincerly

watson

Get home from work eager to write for the new blog. That is this blog.

We work at a music school for mentally deranged students (don't be offended if you are one of them reading this now). I even mentioned today in the massive group lesson. “BLOG FEATURE ON THE WATSON WEBSITE NOW” but I doubt (and hope) they will not come seeking this out. This blog is for the REAL FANS, to whom I – the watson behind the music, am not a real person but some obscure internet artist. Because once you know someone as a person you can't really become fascinated with them in that same way. Or at least, the more you know them, the more you understand, the less fascinated you become. 

So if you, as a fan, pour thru every word of every blog post (there are sure to be thousands), you will not have a real picture of me as a person. Not as much of an idea as if you had been in a room with me for even a two minute conversation. Don't you think? Because to be WITH someone is something entirely different than reading their words, even if their words are true and genuine and expressive. Because these words, as all art does, points to something beyond human, even as it is the most human thing. And I am interested in this. I am interested in Watson Moon the icon – the enterprise. To the cynical… the “brand.”

My real life relationships are just like yours. They are complex and they are for me to navigate. But the icon of Watson is for YOU. And I do believe in this ICON. I have the vision, though nobody else does yet. I have a vision of WATSON MOON. A vision you may witness, you may come to love. But not yet. For now there is no one, like I say. There is only people I know in my real life… who will read this and say “Oh that's Matt.” And though I love you all, I say this isn't for you. Because I'm speaking as Watson Moon. And you cannot understand Watson Moon as a fan does. It's like how I understand John Lennon or Kurt Cobain. Not really as a human… but as this… icon is the word I keep coming to.

Am I INSANE to cast myself in this life – to create this portrait then shove it into your brain. HELL YEA I'M INSANE. But if it doesn't work I'll just be a rambling mad psycho in Skid Row, my other comfort place. It's a win win. I gain it all or lose it all. Either way I live, either way I die. So I offer you this WATSON MOON. I can't help but be him… but he is not quite me… because he isn't flesh and blood. He's like the idea of me to someone who's never met me. A sketch of my personality. An impression. Does that make sense??? That's what Watson Moon is.

And it's just in the very very initial stages of being formed. Like I said, this is something that only I am harboring. So if anyone I know were to read this… I sound literally insane. But to you fan who read it down the line, you understand. 

Anyway, grappling with my public persona. Everyone must do it in this day and age.

It'd be great to write in this blog OFTEN. i think it'd be fun. And I hope many many people will read it. But how do I get them over here to read it??? And how to get them to the music??? These are the questions I'm obsessed with every day. With a student – thinking about how to get the music heard. With my doctor.  “You need surgery” he says. “Nah I need success w/ my music” I say. I hope I never relax with it either!! Cuz we MUST get big. There is simply no other option (unless I picture my magical version of skid row, my insane American fantasy I'll tell you all about later). 

BTW i ain't going back and making ANY edits to this shiz so it's gonna come off raw af. i thought that was the point of BLOGS?!! it's pure unfiltered… many not the more refined or concise but i mean whatevz. (its now 9:18 so it took me 18 mins to write all that. is that fast or slow??)

MUCH LOVE AND OK GOODBYE,

WATSON

Watson here. Long day of recording our new album today. Last night we fell asleep early. 9pm Alyssa and I were dozing. And we slept long.

But I should give some background. This is the first entry after all. 

My name is Matt. Aka Watson. Aka The Red Baron. Aka The Gross Shark. I created Watson Moon sometime in 2018 as my other band burned to ashes. Things fall apart. Many many such cases.

I got in the Prius and went to LA. Why not? That had always been the plan. And my cousin was there. Megan, an actress, soon to find much success. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4366442/

I'd already recorded See You Out There, our first full length. Inspired by Bowie I hulled up in my mother's basement eating nothing but peppers and milk. The peppers and milk part was Bowie, not so much the mother's basement.

Anyway, I'd “finished” it and mixed it myself, a horrendous mix that I pressed on to mail-order 300 CDs (most of which would burn up in a fire – more on that later). I figured I had to have something to show people in LA. I was thankful for my mother letting me stay at her house and focus on writing. I worked at the local electronics shop to save money for the move.

Crashing on Megan's floor I wasted no time hitting the sunset strip. I handed out the Watson CD's liberally but I found that the market in LA was quite saturated. With my savings I got an apartment in Culver City and start working at the Boys and Girls Club. Calabasas. You know where the Kardashians and Drake live.

There I wrote The Great American Novel. Since my collaborators were still in Seattle, I'd fly up to record drums, saxophones, keys, and vocals. Rob and Andy, of the Seattle band High Pulp, were deeply in the project. Gabija too, a Lithuanian ex-patriot trained in the veteran bars.

Drew, a pilot and radio DJ, mixed the record as we went along. He is a great man who BOUGHT his own house in West Seattle. In THIS economy? The man is incredible.

The trips to Seattle became my sanctuary as life in LA became increasingly intense. I took another job delivering illicit marijuana in Beverly Hills. When the lease expired on our apartment we left the furniture on the sidewalk and I moved to an “artist collective.”

In those days, before Covid decimated them all, there were several of these huge collectives in LA. Basically you'd pay $800 for a pod in a wall. These were curtained inlets, all in a row, large enough to sleep in but not much else. With a cubby outside them to store all your earthly belongings. These places were popular with artists moving to LA from all over the country who wanted to test the waters and live among other creatives before renting an apartment.

Included with the rent was the ability to book time in their custom built recording studios. So here I wrote and recorded another album, unreleased now and likely forever. “My Life In The Shallows With Ghosts," we called it.

When Covid hit I was relieved. I had just sold my amp and didn't know how I would pay the next month's rent. I must've not been working enough hours. In any case, the company designated our house (there were several) the “quarantine house” and everybody healthy was ordered to leave. I returned to my mother's basement for the last time. She would sell the house soon after.

In the dark depths of the quarantine I wrote a lot. Hundreds of songs. These were strange times. Most of these songs are still unreleased but a few have come out: “Annika” “This Is No Time To Dream” …

Eventually we would complete another album from the best of this material. “Sometimes In Tehachapi,” named after the city we later completed it in. Finished 2023 and as of now still unreleased, though I hope it will someday see the light of day.

As insanity gripped us all after months of isolation, I had a choice to make: put my roots back down in Seattle or get in the car and drive back to LA. An LA friend had a lease overlap and therefore a vacant apartment for a few weeks. She offered it to me. I took the offer and rocketed homeward.

Long intense times as Covid continued and I blew my stimulus money on very stupid things. Very stupid things and activities I won't talk about here. That's for the deep dive post. (Are you guys interested in those???) This is the general story. When the lease of that LA apartment ended I moved to Orange County to stay with Joe, a very old friend.

And there I was in Orange County. “I'll start working again,” I said. And I did. I got a nice place with a big yard and even got a kitty cat from the local animal shelter. “I'm finally settled down,” I thought.

And it was true. In this current home, since late 2020, I've set up a studio and written/recorded all the songs you probably know. All of PPBOTS was recorded here. 

So that is the story. The last few years have been very chill compared to the previous ones. And I'm blogging up a storm!!! Surely I will continue to blog and this will not be the only post!! Surely!

But anyway that's the backstory to what I did today.

Woke up with Alyssa at like 9AM or sum and we made some bagels with that interesting lemon pepper seasoning. Then we went to the library and RECORDED!!

The main songs I'm working on now are called:                      (working titles)

• Poor Old Tuko (or Tuko Says)
• Concrete and Cobblestone
• At Least It's Simple
• What's The Difference (Come And Take My Gold) (not very far along yet at all but I like a lot)

All of them are close to done except for drums. I always have to do drums last because I don't have a recording setup for drums here. So I either go to Alyssa's Alesis Nitro Max E-Kit or up to Eagle Rock to do IRL drums with Rob. Sometimes I even get a Fiverr drummer to help me out. I forgot all about that, I haven't done it in awhile. 

Rob's on:

Sadie, Leave Your Husband, Fly In The Aeroplane High, Cornered In The Alleyway, Zoomer Girl

The Alesis is on:

You Look Like Someone I Knew, What's The Temperature, O Vegas

And the Fiverr Drummer guy I always use is on:

Anne Marie, Bad Science

Anyway that is not really useful info except for the NERDS who are obsessed with Watson (there aren't any YET). But I'm hoping there will be some at some point! Like I read all of Billy Corgan's livejournal writings with fascination. I hope to someday inspire kids to read mine just cuz they love the music and want to know more about it. 

Trying to think about what we actually did musically today…. I recorded the bridge of Poor Old Tuko and tried to splice it in. Living in my current house kinda sucks because we can't record anything past 9pm. We got early sleepers. And, like most of you, I feel most inspired at NIGHT. So I guess ya'll getting BLOG POSTS instead of SONGS now lmao!!! 

Aight I'll sign off for now but hopefully will post again very soon!!! (btw its now 9:26 so writing all that took aprox 45 min…. is that fast or slow writing??

Love,

Matt