Dean Watson
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Interviews
Forum Description: Original interviews with Prog artists (which are exclusive to Prog Archives)
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=72074
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Topic: Dean Watson
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Subject: Dean Watson
Date Posted: October 09 2010 at 14:29
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Dean Watson is a Toronto, Canada based multi-instrumentalist who was inspired by his mother at a young age while listening to her playing standards on the piano. Since then he has played everything from country to latin but prefers progressive jazz fusion and started his first progressive rock band, AirKraft, in the late 1970's. The rest is more described in this interview with Dean which I did some days ago. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your biography has been covered in your
ProgArchives profile so let's bypass the biography details. Which bands were you influenced by ?
Prior to listening to any progressive
or fusion related music – many, many years ago, I was influenced by
bands like Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Captain Beyond, The
Beatles, Cream and others. Then one day my older brother presented
me with Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard a True Star. That changed
everything! The formats of structure, complexity, not to mention
synthesizers – it was so different and such a welcome change for
me. Up to that point, while I had studied formal piano training, the
music I had really enjoyed listening to and playing was primarily
guitar oriented. AWATS was primarily keyboard oriented and quite
progressive. After the AWATS experience, ( and I’m still a
complete Todd fanatic! ) came Genesis, Gino Vannelli, Gentle Giant,
Yes, and a slew of other progressive acts. When the fusion movement
started I listened to bands like Return to Forever, Jan Hammer, Pat
Martino and others. In thinking about my writing back then, I was
writing material that was either progressive based or fusion based,
but I never really knew how to combine the genres. Then along came
UK’s UK debut. Such a perfect combination of guitar and keyboard,
jazz fusion and progressive styles all mixed together. Absolutely
perfect! I found my niche!
Please tell us more about the band
AirKraft which you were a part of in the 1970s
I had an idea to start my own
progressive band. The idea was to play only original music, and we
firmly stuck to that idea and never played a cover. But we quickly
learned how difficult it was to retain an audience when they had no
reference point to turn to – we had no record, no radio play, and
being all original, the only way you could remember the song was if
you had attended a previous gig – and we didn’t get many. But it
was a lot of fun, a huge learning experience, and hard work. This
venture was short lived due to a lack of gigs, and revenue. We did
create one vinyl 45 single – which we gave out at the odd gig we
would play. I think each of us must still have a number of them
left, all collecting dust in our basements!
You are a member of the band Where's
The Nine. Please tell us more about the album Desensitized to
Insanity from 2008
In late 2007 I contacted Barry Connors
– who had played in AirKraft near the end of its tenure. I didn’t
realize at that time that he was still drumming, as many years had
passed – and when we connected, and I found he still played
regularly. For some fun, we had some initial jams decided to write
some music. Desensitized to Insanity is the result of those writing
sessions. Unfortunately, at the time we started recording, we
weren’t thinking of ever releasing it and due to a lack of proper
recording gear and recording knowledge, the drums were miked rather
crudely – just really, to get the idea down. Then after, when we
listened to the whole thing back we thought the music was pretty good
and decided to try and get it released. We contacted two labels who
were anxious to distribute it. It actually did get up on I-Tunes and
Amazon ( in its current state ) for awhile, I don’t think you can
get it now though. After some initial discussions we were told in
order to do the music justice, it would be best to get the drums
remixed. This turned out to be an enormous task, and in examining
the results of our efforts, we realized that many things could have
been done better, not just remixing. The whole thing was a learning
process for us. With that daunting task ahead of us, and because of
other personal distractions, and also because I had seen Ron Eady’s
artwork, I decided to start writing Unsettled. At this point in time
I am not sure when, or if ever, D2I will get released. Not in its
current format anyway.  Over to your own solo career. Please
give us your long or brief thoughts on your only album Unsettled,
released earlier this year. How would you describe the music ?
I live far north of Toronto Ontario, in
a region called Muskoka, in the little Village of Rosseau. This area
is a tourist destination full of quaint little shops, boutiques, art
galleries etc. One such resident owning a gallery there is Ron Eady.
I had met him through mutual friends and one day decided to visit
his gallery. When I saw his work, the textures, but mostly the dark
emotion in his work, I was immediately intrigued. Shortly after that
I had the idea of approaching Ron about doing a collaborative CD
where my music would be showcased, as well as his art. Being a
progressive music enthusiast himself, he agreed and we selected his
dark mysterious painting – Unsettled - as the basis of the work. I
took a print of it home and used it for inspiration. How the
painting actually played a part in the results of the music I really
cannot say. I do know I kept looking at it when writing, or when
having a writing block, and it was also my screen saver so it was
always with me during the writing sessions. The end result turned
out better than I ever would have imagined. The music is a
combination of progressive rock and jazz rock fusion. It’s a bit
odd to me that I’ve been labeled as a jazz fusion writer in all the
forums, even at Progressive Archives. Personally, I see myself as
50/50 prog/fusion type of writer. But then again, it’s hard to
step outside yourself and look back in, in an attempt to see yourself
as others do. It’s also interesting from using Ron’s painting
for inspiration, that the music really isn’t all that dark in
nature, there’s quite a few happy bits too!
There was a good fusion/rock scene in
Canada some years ago. Maneige and Sloche is two names held in high
regards, just to mention two of many good bands. Do you see yourself
as a part of this Canadian music tradition ?
Apart from the WT9 stuff, I have not
released anything else prior to Unsettled. However I would like to
think that perhaps years from now I might be looked upon as
contributing to it.
How is your writing and creative
processes ?
My writing process is extremely random.
Sometimes I go weeks with no ideas, to coming up with ideas and
scrapping them, to writing entire tunes in one afternoon. Generally
speaking I was on a high through the writing of Unsettled and my
output was greater than it has ever been. The spark for a tune can
come from many different avenues. Sometimes in ways perhaps not
considered traditional. For example, I like to take walks and I find
myself coming up with beats that match the tempo of my footsteps!
When I get that kind of groove going, I find it easy to come up with
melodies and ideas over top. Quite often my ideas start with a beat
of some kind. But like I have said, it is so random, it could be
sitting at my guitar, or at the piano. If I’m having a writing
block, I switch instruments and that quite often helps.
What is the latest updates and the
plans for this and next year ?
Unsettled has been released
independently by myself and is available through my Myspace page, and
at CDBaby, with download capability and physical distribution
available in other avenues like Amazon, I-Tunes, CD-Universe and
other popular outlets. For this year I am wearing my salesman’s
hat and focusing on getting this music to the people. That being
said, I have started work on a second project with Ron Eady –
another painting, this one is called Imposing Elements based on his
painting of the same name, and I expect that to be released sometime
in 2011, hopefully in the first half of the year. I have already
written some music for Imposing Elements and it is progressing well.
I may release some of it on my Myspace page in the near future.
To wrap up this interview, is there
anything you want to add to this interview ?
First off I want to thank you for
giving me the opportunity to do this interview. It means a lot to
me. I would also like to thank anyone who has enjoyed Unsettled –
either though listening to it in its entirety right from my Myspace
page, or supported me by purchasing it. It’s people like you, who
can help me spread the word about this music. And lastly I would
like to give a big nod to Ron Eady who allowed me the use of his
inspirational art for Unsettled. His work is truly remarkable. His
works can be seen on display in Canada, the U.S. and as far away as
China and Japan. You can see his art http://www.roneady.com - Thank you. Thank you to Dean for this interview His PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=5602 - and his homepage is http://www.myspace.com/deanwatson2 -
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Replies:
Posted By: progkidjoel
Date Posted: October 10 2010 at 15:38
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Awesome interview! Absolutely loved Unsettled. Checking out Ron Eady's artwork now, awesome stuff.
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Posted By: JLocke
Date Posted: October 10 2010 at 16:51
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Dean's a real genuine guy. Absolutely loved conversing with him during the timeframe where I was listening to and reviewing his record. Glad to see that his work is getting recognized. Oh, and lovely interview, of course.
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Posted By: Mellotron Storm
Date Posted: October 11 2010 at 10:05
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Dean lives close to where i work and i also live in "cottage country" as everyone calls it around here.An inspiring area to live no doubt about it and i'd like to think "that" also inspired Dean along with Ron's art work. Anyway if you haven't heard "Unsettled" your missing out on what i think should be in the top 5 of 2010. ------------- "The wind is slowly tearing her apart" "Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN |
Posted By: AtomicCrimsonRush
Date Posted: October 13 2010 at 08:42
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Dean has been great to converse with over PM here and he has a genuine interest in the prog industry. His CD is fabulous and a pleasant listen that I thoroughly enjoyed. Great interview. ------------- 
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