"16 QUESTIONS WITH MIKE WATT"
an e-mail interview by Chris Beyond with Mike Watt
- - January, 2003 - -

When a lot of people in the California music scene think of San Pedro, they usually instantly follow that thought with "That's where Mike Watt lives." Since co-forming The Minutemen in 1980, Watt has always been around the punk and independent music scene like that scary old mansion on the hill overlooking the town where only the most adventurous kids dare to enter. There aren't too many living people that people identify with a town like that. Since The Minutemen, Watt has played in fIREHOSE, Sonic Youth (under the name Ciccone Youth), The Madonnabes (a strange but fun Madonna cover band), The Black Gang, Pair Of Pliers, Hellride East, Dos, Banyon, and tons of other collaborations and projects including his solo album "Ball-Hog Or Tugboat" where he played with practically everyone from Frank Black to The Beastie Boys to Rollins to that dog. and more! These days Watt has been doing gigs with his newest band incarnation The Secondmen (as well as his usual gigs with Dos and Banyon). I think I first asked Watt for an interview a couple years ago and only now did we finally get around to doing it. (Well, I did take 2001 off didn't I?) Due to sickness and being late to some of his shows, we finally did the interview via e-mail a few weeks back. I asked 17 questions, he answered 16. Here they are!

C: = Chris Beyond (The Questioner) / W = Mike Watt (The Answerer)

C: What brought on The Secondmen? Are the songs more than one second long?

W: The songs are much longer than a second. a misconception about The Minutemen is that our name came from our short songs. that was not the case at all. We were trying to wrestle the name from the U.S. Revolution away from right-wingers who had appropriated the name for their own ends. The Secondmen are the band I'm making my new record w/and are a bass-organ-drums trio made of all pedro guys. I call them The Secondmen cuz my new record will be called "The Secondman's Middle Stand." It's about that sickness that almost killed me, an experience that had me much in the moment - all of it in intense pain and hurting. It was a motherfucking hellride but I made it. The record loosely parallels a favorite book of mine as a teenager, Dante's "Divine Comedy."

C: What is your favorite urban legend?

W: All of the ones floating around on the internet. Good sites to check on them are:
http://www.urbanlegends.com/
http://www.breakthechain.org/
http://www.snopes.com/

C: Are there any myths about Mike Watt that you wish would go away?

W: That I was in a band named after short songs! Seeriously, it's that I play hockey or write horror movies. actually, there are guys w/the same name as me that do that. The other one is that I fly to all my gigs and have an army of roadies and managers (handlers).

C: What character in what movie do you relate to the most and why?

W: The Dennis Hopper character (news correspondent) in "Apocalypse Now." I talk like that from time to time when I get all riled up.

C: If you were an "Ultimate Fighter" what would be your fighting style?

W: I'm unfamiliar w/that. I guess my style would be classified as "thunder broom wrestling" or something like that. I like to let my bass do the fighting.

C: What was your initial reaction when you first met Henry Rollins?

W: I liked him much. He seemed intense about music and that impressed me much. He has a very strong work ethic.

C: Cereal or Pancakes?

W: Cereal but pancakes taste plenty good too!

C: Of all of your 1000 bands/musical projects/colaborations, which is your favorite? Least favorite?

W: I loved The Minutemen the most cuz of D. Boon. Some situations I was in that I dreaded were some thrown-together jam things where no one was listening to each other.

C: Are you still doing The Madonnabes?

W: Well, the dancers graduated college and so we don't play around anymore. What are The Madonnabes w/out dancers?

C: When can we expect your next record and who will it be with?

W: I'm recording it after the next tour (which is April 1 - May 29, 2003) and it should be out in in September or October on Columbia Records.

C: Have you ever held a monkey?

W: No I haven't but I would very much like to.

C: How many miles do you think you've traveled?

W: I'm going to do my 50th tour and each one averages around 15,000 miles. you can do the math on that one.

(The answer is around 750,000.)

C: Do you have any weird fan or tour stories? Tell us one.

W: I wrote a piece describing some. For more recent ones, I've been doing tour diaries so you can check the hoot page (http://hootpage.com) for those.

C: Are your beards seasonal?

W: I usually don't shave on tours. I mostly never have a beard when not on tour. Sometimes though, I like to have fun and play w/my face using the hair there.

C: Where are you right now in your life?

W: I'm in the middle maybe (hence my next record's title). I'm 45 years old. Most of those years have been as a punk rocker.

C: What are your closing words of wisdom for our No-Fi readers?

W: Don't be afraid to be an individual, search for your inner voice. Treat other folks humanely and try to be a student for life, always ready to learn more. Don't have an inflated sense of importance of yourself in the respect that you're better than others, remember that humility is a virtue - however, don't be intimidated into not challenging the status quo. Don't believe a wall is there w/out pushing against it. Explore and journey to places for yourself, so it can have true personal meaning. Read as much as you can. Make art one of your higher callings. Never let love die in your heart. Love the earth and try do the same w/all the folks who populate it. Check hate which tries to overwhelm. Somehow transform violence into positive, creative forces. Fight lynch mob mentality. Dare to dream. Make life interesting!
You can find out all about what Mike Watt is doing, what reocrds are coming out, and when he's coming to your town by checking out the official Mike Watt website called The Hootpage. There is also a Yahoo Group dedicated to him which you can find at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mikewatt and talk to other Mike Watt fans about what his beard will look like this year. Special thanks to Watt for his patience!

(oh, and that 17th question?... we'll have to save that one for our next Watt interview a couple years from now.)

THE END!


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