#190 Jimmy Watts
Jimmy Watts, synical or realist, this artist pushes the boundries of thought in spirit and conspiracy. Rae Leigh and Jimmy go deep into the history of why and where these beliefs and ideas come from and why he loves diving into these ideals. With an incredible Tom Waits vocal style and entertaining energy and history of touring, writing and releasing music in Australia he shares some wisdoms he has picked up along the way.
Watts is a soulful grass-roots rocker and troubadour with a uniquely raw sound and a passion for performing live. A one of a kind gentleman of the road and a journeyman through and through. Fixated on pushing the boundaries of his craft and forever evolving his sound, he has grown to be one of Australia’s most unique and memorable entertainers. Watts is intense and at home on the boards; delivering performances with great furious energy, tremendous heart, and heaps of spontaneity. His guitar playing style is a furious assault on the beaten and bloodied bodies of his acoustics, slides and electrics. Gravely, smoke filled vocals and roaring harmonicas only add insult to their injuries.
Professional Dunce at www.jimmywatts.com Chumscrubber at www.badoctopi.com King at www.thembeans.com
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Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a Songwriter Trysts with Jimmy watts. Hey, doing
Jimmy Watts: I am swell and yourself.
Rae Leigh: I'm good. So I start every podcast by getting you in your own words. Tell us a little bit about who you are and where you come from,
Jimmy Watts: So my name's cheery. I grew up in Toowoomba and that's where I come from, who I am is well, I used to be a touring musician for about 12 years. Playing lots of little pubs and little festivals and all that sort of stuff.
Little festivals, little folk festivals and blues festivals and those sorts of things. I didn't break into the good festivals. I didn't get to the, to the big ones. No, it didn't hit the big time. One day, I feel like now's right now is the time for like a nearly 40 year old white guy to really, my voice hasn't been heard in the music industry. And I feel like it's time.
Rae Leigh: That's like segregating yourself into like a small little book. She's so much more than just a 40 year old. white guy.
Jimmy Watts: Well, no, that's, that's quite a good book. It's a starting point.
Rae Leigh: It's a starting point. I'm just a pretty white female. Then if you put me in a box, but that is, I'm so much more than that.
Jimmy Watts: I mean, you have, you might have depth.
Rae Leigh: and this year.
Jimmy Watts: the same about myself.
Rae Leigh: All right. Well, let's, let's see how deep we can go. Tell me about songwriting and music. How did that start for you Where did it start?
Jimmy Watts: In school, I think in grade eight we had mandatory music. was playing, I got, I don't know why, but I gotta give him the trombone.
And Mr. The brass, I guess he was brass and woodwind teacher. Anyway, he had like, I was terrible. I think I started on trumpet. Actually. My lips were too big. They said you can't hit the high notes? I think so. Cause the mouthpiece is a lot smaller on the trumpet.
Rae Leigh: to get a bigger mouth.
I don't know.
Jimmy Watts: I could just socked I dunno.
Rae Leigh: So
Jimmy Watts: then they gave me a trombone after a couple of weeks.
Cause I like, you'll never be a trumpet player.
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Jimmy Watts: So then I was playing the trombone for a few months. But the music teacher, there was like some like weird sexual assault thing that had happened in one of the high schools in town. Yeah. Yeah. And so he didn't want to do one-on-one sessions in like a closed room, a private room in the music building. Because I guess
Rae Leigh: it opens up scandal.
Jimmy Watts: so he wanted to do a lessons outside during lunchtime.
Rae Leigh: because that's way more practical.
Jimmy Watts: And he also had like, he didn't know what the word wine code meant, or he was like a horrible human being and kept calling kids blankets. So whenever you make a mistake, like that, you wake up.
Rae Leigh: teacher said that to you
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. So after a little bit of like being like chastised and called a Winker, while you're trying to do a music lesson terribly in like the lunch break outside while other
Rae Leigh: Toowoomba, just suffering to find good music teachers, or
Jimmy Watts: I'm sure he was show he was lovely. I'm sure I'm remembering it incorrectly. And I guess I should say allegedly to all of this,
Rae Leigh: should I take out his name? Cause I think you said his name earlier. I just put a beep over it, so
Jimmy Watts: sure. Whatever you got to say
Rae Leigh: okay.
Jimmy Watts: So that was how I started playing music. And then not surprisingly I hung up my trombone boots and then started playing a guitar because that was cool.
Rae Leigh: did, but where did the guitar come from? There was that school as well. Was that outside of school?
Jimmy Watts: I think my friend Ozzy, his name's Ozzie, he was, I think he had a guitar from his dad or something and my dad had a guitar line around it. So we mocked around the first song I wrote was about masturbating. It was. That was probably the best song I've ever written.
Rae Leigh: Okay. The first one about masturbation
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. Well, in terms of like audience feedback, I guess I was really playing to the buyer, you know, 14 year old crowd at that point.
Rae Leigh: Artist is. you're playing your authentic self and a 14 year old boy writing a song about masturbation. That's actually quite vulnerable and powerful in a weird and unique way.
Jimmy Watts: I think you're giving a lot of credit there.
Rae Leigh: That's depth. I'm trying to find depth here.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. You gotta just keep digging. I think that the chorus to that was I love myself. I love me because I'm easy. Which was, I guess, true. Yeah, so I think from there then yeah, from there, I think I started writing slightly less humorous songs for awhile.
Try to use music as a genuine form of self-expression. And I guess 15 years later realized that I think I just got cynical. And then I started writing funny songs about masturbating again. I've been enjoying that for the last couple of
Rae Leigh: Hey, you're talking to someone who's best song so far. Is of comedy song about, boobs. So, I mean, I get it, but I think people like a laugh, you know, it's, it's entertaining purely. entertaining.
Jimmy Watts: I feel like given the state of the world, it's a pleasant reprieve from a sad songs about the state of the world or from about love songs or sappy super, super earnest. Hmm. Yeah, I think really, I'm just a cynical old asshole who
Rae Leigh: Why did you become. like what's happened that you feel made you really. cynical?
Jimmy Watts: And I guess is this the therapy segment?
Rae Leigh: No, I'm just curious. I mean, cause something there's always something that, you know, is a turning point that it impacts us and changes the way we see the world.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. I think I went through a lot of trauma as a kid, a lot of grief. And that's just sort of compounded into my teens and twenties. And it's probably only been yeah. Since my sort of early thirties that yeah. I've started some therapy and really started to probably become more self-aware about, you know, patterns that emerge from those type of, you know, childhood traumas and that sort of stuff.
So it's, I think, yeah. At some point within all that I think it might, yeah, like I grew up in like a weird cult and then they were like a, just a very right wing ne like I said, I grew up in Toma Tomba is like the, in case you don't know what you're
listening to
Rae Leigh: uncle lives in Toowoomba and I've been through there, but my dad's from Jindalee, which is like another few hours further out.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah, Tom is like this weird hub of like Uber religious. Very, not, not like spiritual, like the Northern rivers. It's more just like Christian based. Right-wing very in on and I,
Rae Leigh: My parents were pastas. It's called the Pentecostal church.
Jimmy Watts: yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So they were very similar to the Pentecostal, I think. And I think when I was, so I went to like their primary cult school in grade one, which sort of didn't follow the curriculum of the
Rae Leigh: the regular state.
Jimmy Watts: They just, yeah. We had like little voting booths type desks around the room, around the outside of the room. And followed some workbooks. Did a lot of marching, played a lot of recorder, actually. That was probably my first
Rae Leigh: I don't understand that at all. Why, why people think giving children recorders is smart.
Jimmy Watts: Can you imagine me in those teachers?
Rae Leigh: Could you imagine being the parents
Jimmy Watts: Yeah, sure.
Rae Leigh: I'm going to practice my recorder, Please Dont keep going. the school and the recorders, it was very different and, and cultish.
Jimmy Watts: yeah. And then I think the Colts got like disseminated, like disbanded after grade or while I was in grade one. I'm not sure I'm gonna say show. I think like the federal police arrested the later who was like embezzling a lot of money. Yeah. Like my parents really?
Yeah. They like, they sold a house and gave that all to them. And we went and lived at Bible quote unquote Bible college, which I think was like an old school dormitory for quite a while. Anyway, so. And then they just reformed after they sorta, the leader had left, they just reformed as you know, the same, the same people with a slightly different name. And the last guy was a test of our faith. And so of kept a lot of the things. But I don't remember where I was going with this story,
Rae Leigh: about like, we kind of abbreviated a very common life story of child abuse or neglect or trauma. Then, you know, that impact on teenage-hood. And then now getting into third, more, getting to thirties where you actually felt like you started to get therapy.
Jimmy Watts: Okay, well, I'll just say something insensitive now and you can cut back into it.
Rae Leigh: yeah, no, but you were talking about that journey, for yourself, and it went back to that your cult upbringing and how that influence. you know, where you for you like, did that influence your. connection to music?
Jimmy Watts: Yeah, obviously, that sort of you know, environmental impact on your, on your psyche. No doubt influenced some sort of connection to music. I think it was when yeah, my family had sort of left the Colts and we sorta went welded in shopping for a few years, trying out different, different churches. And it was probably when I was 14, my younger brother passed away of accidental drug overdose, I guess. And, and then I was sorta quite quickly then just, you know, bounce from,
Rae Leigh: when you were 14, how you said your younger brother, how old was he?
Jimmy Watts: He was 13,
Rae Leigh: He was 13.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. You're younger than me.
Rae Leigh: And was it medicinal drugs or?
Jimmy Watts: No, it was just like some mates at school.
Rae Leigh: and
Jimmy Watts: Just an experiment that triggered like a, a heart arrhythmia. And yeah. So I think, yeah. Then I bounced from not being, you know, I guess the whole family kind of bounced a little from where everyone sort of bounced differently, but I've definitely bounced towards atheism for a few years.
And then spent, you know, until I was about 19 to, and a lot of drugs and having a lot of fun or, you know, having a lot of fun on the outside and
being
Rae Leigh: the misery.
Jimmy Watts: yeah. Yeah. But playing, yeah, definitely. You know, playing a lot of guitar at that time. And then I was about 19 and I was kind of at that point where the decision was either like, can keep doing this and really double down on having a lot of fun and probably be dead in a couple of years.
But instead I ended up, you know, yeah. I went in the opposite direction and became like a well yeah. And then I ended up at 19 hooking up with a much older sort of spiritual girl. Yeah. Well, I ended up in like a incredibly weird relationship for like 12 years.
Rae Leigh: So you're not in that relationship anymore.
Jimmy Watts: no, no But in that time I didn't drink.
Rae Leigh: them. Some
Jimmy Watts: I didn't do any drugs was very, you know, like, hippy, spiritual.
Rae Leigh: Is this where the, the African drums came in.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. Lots of cultural appropriation. Just very, you know, a very conceited way of trying to deal with trauma and grief by, I guess, you know, from my experience going from like, yeah. Right-wing religion, Christianity, that was like the, the opposite spectrum to that. I was like, oh, this is kind of different.
Rae Leigh: like your witchcraft and spirituality and
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. All the nonsense. Yeah. All the crystals, all the bullshit.
Rae Leigh: Whenever you've explored, like this is cool.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. Like I'm a technically a Reiki master.
Rae Leigh: I actually I know what Reiki is and I did massage therapy in another life, but I kind of, I've never had it and I don't really understand it. Can you explain in like in like, two seconds?
Jimmy Watts: I had to like the manipulation of quote unquote energies using various symbolism from the orient. So it's extra mystical. And it's, it's, it's a
Rae Leigh: Whereas like, I, like, I like touch, right? so that's why I'm like, why would I pay someone to lay on a table and then not touch me, I'm like, touch me, want to be touched? So remedial massage is my thing, but anyway,
Jimmy Watts: Needless to say, I haven't Veda at practicing Riki Master.
Rae Leigh: This is golden.
Jimmy Watts: It's just very hard to like, even just look back at how, like insanely embarrassing,
Rae Leigh: I have a thing that is like a placebo effect, even like religion or regular, whatever. It's like for Some people they just need something to believe in and they need something to make them feel like they're doing something about whatever it is I need to do about it, and if that's all they can do.
And it makes them feel good for it. You know, it looks like the crystals and stuff.
Jimmy Watts: Might make you feel better for a little
Rae Leigh: I'll try it.
Jimmy Watts: yeah, no, it's definitely like, yeah, you're in just well, you know, I was in just like a state of survival mode and, and yeah, whatever, whatever bullshit was going to make staying alive seem seem worth, it was the,
Rae Leigh: did you struggle a lot with mental health and like, Do you have those moments where you just, you lose.
Jimmy Watts: that harp of
Rae Leigh: what's the point?
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. So, yeah, I guess my family has a lot of mental health issues within it. And yeah, growing up like mum was bipolar, he's bipolar. And then, yeah, obviously after after my brother died that sort of exacerbated a lot of her mental health issues and I guess she's of that generation where it's You know, it's not a, an openly discussed about thing.
It's a big taboo, shameful topic that you don't try and address or manage you just try and sweep it under the carpet, which obviously just makes it all worse.
Rae Leigh: you have Like, cause my parents being pastors they were like, they had to be the best Christians right. Of the church. and it was like, if you're unhappy you don't have enough all, like there was kinda like this mentality of like, if you have depression or you're not dealing with something very well, mentally then you're a sinner.
And so therefore, therefore you wouldn't tell anyone.
And I was like, that's like, yeah, that's bullshit. Like stuff happens and we need to talk about it. That's what, that's why. I was actually the one thing I think Kathy's got right. Is having confessionals a place where people can go and just let it out and not be judged by what they're saying and just have a space to let,
Jimmy Watts: I'm not sure I would put that as a Catholics.
Right.
Rae Leigh: No, no, that's the one part, the one, the one small thing got right was allowing people to have confession.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. I mean, I feel like that was often used then by the, the, the preacher, the priced as a, as a means to manipulate. Cause that then know your deepest, darkest secrets especially with yeah, but, but yeah, obviously,
Rae Leigh: in theory, we should be able to share without judgment.
Jimmy Watts: I, I, I agree with that sentiment.
Rae Leigh: in theory, I believe we should be able to share with each other without judgment, It's not the truth. it doesn't happen and it's bullshit.
And that's why we only therapists who we pay to sign a piece of paper saying they won't tell anyone, but yeah. Okay. way off topic,
what were we talking about? We were talking about music and your songwriting and then your journey. And you, you got into this relationship with the last about 12 years was crystals and stuff. And now you're not in that relationship. What happened after this relationship. How did you get out of that relationship? What was the,
Jimmy Watts: so. I think on a, yeah, I was done after a couple of years with that.
But then, yeah, she was much older than me. There was a lot of I guess that dynamic of, you know, someone who's in their forties dating someone, who's a teenager. Who's had like a very traumatic upbringing. There's a lot of like, you know, power dynamic there that isn't isn't ideal. And and then she became very ill and I ended up sort of taking more of a carrot role in that relationship for, for at least the last half of it.
And that was quite a how do you say it was just quite a toxic, abusive.
Rae Leigh: type of
Jimmy Watts: Scenario. And yeah, I think I was probably 30, 31 before I was able to it took me like two years to create an exit strategy and got out of that and, yeah. Thank you. I'm so brave. No. And then, yeah, she's actually since passed away about 18 months ago.
Yeah. Yeah, actually that was quite a strange six. Yeah. Like learning from learning about her passing away to then realizing that it had actually been like she several months and none of her friends or family had thought to contact me. And then And then yeah, just like it was, it was a good six months of sort of re living a lot of that.
A lot of the strange, odd things that had happened in that relationship. Yeah. Cause yeah,
Rae Leigh: and you were doing music throughout that relationship or did it get put to the side because of everything that was going on?
Jimmy Watts: no, that was the main time that I was touring was through that was, it was my escape and my means of, yeah, it was very happy to be spending six to nine months
Rae Leigh: you, when you were touring, you were away from that relationship,
Jimmy Watts: For some of it. Yeah, it was it was a good escape. Yeah, it is. It's quite, it's quite good. I don't think I've got the energy
Rae Leigh: tell my husband. I think that
Jimmy Watts: I think he knows.
Rae Leigh: he maybe knows
Jimmy Watts: he's probably got a pretty good it.
Rae Leigh: he's In Townsville. He can talk, he works in Townsville every month. So just taking time with the kids.
Jimmy Watts: That's his version of touring.
Rae Leigh: it is, it is. Yeah.
Jimmy Watts: Although I assume he doesn't get it like a round of applause every five minutes at his jobs.
Rae Leigh: No, I bet. I think they do like him a lot Like I think he gets lots of pets on the back more than you get when you're parenting and probably more than I should give him a pat on the back.
Cause He's a very good dad.
Jimmy Watts: Oh, was more, yeah,
Rae Leigh: but yeah.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah.
That's one thing about music that I like or about performing.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. I think when I was like six or seven, we had like a, we like some weird Christian record. There was like a live concert and that was a heap of like applause in this, like in this live recording. Yeah. And like, I liked the applause element more than any other element of the songs on
Rae Leigh: Oh really?
Jimmy Watts: Well, like
Rae Leigh: I do that.
a lot in those crash. like I had a few of those grants and it's always like, you hear the Cheering. and.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. There's big, big applause. I think. Yeah. I really enjoyed that pot, but maybe that was just because the music was, I shit. if we had better music when I was growing up, maybe I'd be like,
Rae Leigh: see, I wasn't even allowed to listen to secular music growing up, like I would in Secret And then I would rewrite the words to my favorite songs on the radio. and then I'd sing nice. Like, I've done this a few times, but do you know, like my milkshakes brings all the boys to the head. Jesus brings all the pieces to the load and their life is better than, you. I was
Jimmy Watts: oh, that's atrocious.
Rae Leigh: Oh, like, green day. Oh, I have a lot of like terribly Christianized. songs. I think that was a part of my trainees as songwriters, that I was rewriting songs all the time, because I wasn't allowed to, but I love. how they made me feel. I loved the melodies.
and It was my excuse
Jimmy Watts: I want to, I want to hear an album there, of, of your rewritten pop songs to be to Christian lyrics.
Rae Leigh: well that one that was like welcome to my life.
who did that one. Wow. It's like, it, it was like a punk Rocky song, but I changed it It's like to feel, love, to feel safe, to have Jesus as your mate, to be on the edge of town, the world about the man that saved you. Do you want to know what it's like?
Hey, Welcome to your life. Yeah, I've got lots of them in there. I don't know if it would do any good to the world.
though. And I'd have to, like, I don't even know a copyright how that would work.
Jimmy Watts: I think if it's, I think technically it would be parody,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I don't know. How does parody work?
Jimmy Watts: parody, you got a clean slate,
Rae Leigh: Oh, really?
Jimmy Watts: a moral or an ethical obligation to, to get some
Rae Leigh: I do
Jimmy Watts: don't think you have a legal obligation.
Rae Leigh: I like weirdo. Yankovich He's one of my favorites and his parodies are fricking hilarious and I actually enjoy his parodies better than some of the original stuff.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah, he has that he follows that moral code of asking, but from a legal standpoint, you don't date. Because I feel like
Rae Leigh: good reason to reach
Jimmy Watts: might not get, I feel
like.
Rae Leigh: green day, I'm just going to do a parody or some.
What do you think? Is that all right.
Jimmy Watts: Changing some of your lyrics to Jay's us.
Although one of them is now spends all his money on what is it like alien exploration, like looking for extra terrestrial life, which is cool. I think to, to know that the guy who like spending all his time screaming about being an American idiot and then anyway.
Rae Leigh: yeah. Anyway. All right. so you two were to get away.
The relationship ended. She passed away You had some reflection time
Jimmy Watts: eat
Rae Leigh: at the moment, like with the band. And after that, like you stopped touring.
Have you had a big break? What's been the transition. You're still in music now.
Jimmy Watts: So after that relationship, I was still touring for quite a while. And then yeah, one tour I had I was thinking a lot of solitary and then at, at one point had like 30 date string and just ended up having like this rollercoaster of the best gig of my life. And then the next night being like the absolute worst king of my life.
And then the next night, the best gig, then the worst gig. And it was just,
Rae Leigh: actually a big difference in the way that geek was going or was it more an emotional role
Jimmy Watts: oh, no, it was, it was more like my internal my brain just wasn't functioning very well. So I was having either a great time on stage or a horrible time. And, and yeah. To decided I was going to have a break and I started therapy and I haven't really toured since but I've done a lot of therapy since
Rae Leigh: how's the therapy gone. Would you recommend it?
Jimmy Watts: yeah, yeah.
It took me a while to find a therapist I clicked with. And then,
Rae Leigh: point.
Jimmy Watts: and then it took me a while to probably even feel safe enough to get any benefit out of therapy. But yeah, like it's been five or six years now. And yeah, I don't know. It wasn't something.
Rae Leigh: that though.
Jimmy Watts: I think when I started, I was like, awesome. I got a therapy now I'm going to be going to be fixed, you know, in a couple of weeks.
Rae Leigh: Oh yeah. Six years later.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. I think that expectation was probably just, you know, MIS misinformed idea of what, what it was. I think also when I was, I guess, yeah, when I was 14 after my brother died the only therapy that I went to after that, or grief counseling was when
Rae Leigh: with
Jimmy Watts: I was like, it was an abusive situation where the therapists, you know, like cross a lot of lines that they shouldn't have been.
And so I think from then on, I was like, well, therapy is bullshit because, because of my one experience
Rae Leigh: That's so common people like, oh, I went to therapy once and it was crap.
Jimmy Watts: yeah, it was not for me.
Rae Leigh: like you said, you have to shop around, you've got to find someone that you feel comfortable with.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah.
And cause I, I guess when I started like that and it stuck was I w I found like a critical performance psychologist who, cause I was like, I just did this tour. I'm performing on stage. And it's like doing my head in, I can't get into the zone, I'll go to a performance psychologist. And they were like, oh no, we do as sports people.
Like,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. That's I'd never heard of one for music,
Jimmy Watts: like, yeah, I guess technically we can give it a car. I was like, no, I want to talk about my childhood grief. Like, nah, you just need to focus on winning the race buddy. So yeah. Yeah. I had to shove her out a bit.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. yeah, no, that's important to find the right person that fits for you and makes you feel safe and that's the most important thing is having a safe space to not feel judged.
be able to say whatever is on your mind. And then be able to discuss that without feeling like you can say something.
and then you're going to be crucified,
Jimmy Watts: Yeah, definitely. And that, that relationship takes a while to build and yeah. But yeah, so, eight out of 10 stars can recommend therapy. And
Rae Leigh: 10 years, I feel like I need like an AA badge or something for therapy.
Jimmy Watts: around the clock,
Rae Leigh: I'm in the club.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. I'm on the antidepressant at the moment. They definitely yeah, definitely just give me that little extra brain chemistry adjustment that helps me. Get the energy to wash the dishes,
Rae Leigh: Yeah. I don't think we all need to, you have to work out what works for you. And yeah, that's that's okay. Like, whatever helps you get out of bed. in the morning.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. I wish I could say songwriting. Sorry. Back to bring it
back.
Rae Leigh: it back. to someone.
Jimmy Watts: I wish I could say songwriting helps me get out of bed in the morning, but I think it has become a chore more. Yeah,
Rae Leigh: much with people?
Jimmy Watts: no, no. I don't like people. No. Yeah. I've wanted to actually I think the only car riding I used to do is when I was 17, I think I moved to Melbourne.
And yeah, I met a friend and we would write a few songs together in Bosc quite a bit. And then, but yeah, no, I haven't really done anything since, since then.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, let's do a correct.
Tell me about through everything that you've done and your experiences as a songwriter and being in a band and being in the music industry, what would you say the best.
advice is that you've ever been given
Jimmy Watts: That I've ever been given,
Rae Leigh: that's really helped you see things differently, or maybe it'd be more productive or whatever
No one's ever given you advice.
Jimmy Watts: I like most people tell you to quit, which is really good advice. It's horrible industry.
Rae Leigh: the cynical part of,
Jimmy Watts: Performing being an artist is like to be able to do it, especially in Australia, in the music industry, like, like logistically you have to come from like this place of immense privilege to be able to like put in a couple of years of like developing and to be able to like financially afford, you know, the absolute slog.
Being an artist is in Australia. And I guess like when I started like playing gigs in pubs when I was like in basking, like when I was 17 was out of a, a place of my capacity was like, there's no way I could sit at a job for eight hours a day at a desk. Like I, you know, I was a mess of
Rae Leigh: ever.
Jimmy Watts: yeah. Like zero executive function. I, you know, I'm not like wasn't capable of working a normal job, but I could play a little bit of guitar and make a little bit of money doing that. And that was like just it was just out of like a necessity. More than it was out of you know, a desire to really explore some, you know, well thought out artistic vision that I had.
It was just like, oh, I can make 300 bucks down at the pub on Saturday. I can't work a job. That's what I'll have to do to be able to pay rent. So th that's kind of like how I, you
Rae Leigh: enjoy it as well.
Jimmy Watts: obviously yeah,
Rae Leigh: pub gig Can become a chore if you've been doing it for ever.
Jimmy Watts: Hmm. Ah, yeah. I wouldn't say I enjoy pub gigs. I enjoy playing music stuff,
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Jimmy Watts: but yeah, I think yeah, I didn't get into it as like a, that I wanted to, you know, that I had, you know, some like.
Rae Leigh: great
Jimmy Watts: Artistic vision that I needed to get out of. It just needed to pay a rent. And this was like, like an idiot. I got into music for the money, so which, yeah, weirdly it didn't really work out.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. Okay. If you were to meet a kid that was in a similar position, of, I just, you know, I cannot see myself in a paper-pushing job.
I love music and I want to make money from music. I want to have a career in music. What sort of advice would you be giving them?
Jimmy Watts: I think nowadays with the internet, like when I was 17, there was no internet or, it was dial up in Napster. There wasn't the city, you know, social media style.
But yeah, I think nowadays, like you can just find your niche in niche. I never know how to pronounce that and double down on it and, create your community that way. Which yeah, if I was a young person, I think that's what I would try and focus on. But I think also like you do get a lot out of performing live and I definitely learnt a lot touring playing shitty pubs to butterflies.
You sort of, I guess, yeah, to answer your question about what was the best advice it wasn't like direct advice, but it was an interview I read with Ash mold who, before he, you know, sort of really took off, he did he toured around the pub scene for a decade or so. And yeah, he said something about how in Australia, like obviously we have all these disadvantages as a music industry and, you know, being able to tour because it's such big distances.
There's not many people that live here, but you know, one advantage that you do have as a performer is if you do hit that pub scene and learn how to win over three barflies and turn them into fans and give them a great show and be able to do that consistently, you know, over, over the years, like you learn so much stagecraft so much so much about just engaging people that, you know, his experience was like, by the time you get to Europe and the UK to do some, to do some shows, you get over there where people, you know, the other musos around you, haven't had to win over DASA and.
At the fucking tassels hotel on a Sunday afternoon. And they sort of get on stages thinking that they're the rock stars. And like over here, they'd get slaughtered at an open mic. So like, by the time you sort of go internationally with your pub, rock, your Ozzy pub rock experience, then you have all this yeah.
This extra, extra skills that you've learnt.
Rae Leigh: Entertainment valley.
Jimmy Watts: yeah. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Which is like a whole nother craft that like, I don't feel like people realize is a thing.
Jimmy Watts: Well, I think like, yeah, like my songwriting is shit, but I think my performance like, and I think like it came about, well, I think I should
Rae Leigh: I've worked on it like seriously just by talking to people from all over the world and songwriting and reading books and doing
Jimmy Watts: it
Rae Leigh: now, I look at my songs from like,
my AP from a year ago and I'm like, oh my God. Like, you know
Jimmy Watts: I think if you look at any of your work from a few years ago, and you're not horrifically embarrassed and think that it's terrible and something's wrong.
Rae Leigh: Embarrassed. I just say I see my own growth in ways that I could've done things better or, you know,
Jimmy Watts: That's probably healthier than assigning a sense of shame to it.
Rae Leigh: no, there's no shame around it. I accept that. You know, you got to love yourself where you're at in life. You know, you don't shame a one-year-old for not being able to walk yet or not walking very well or running. because they're just,
Jimmy Watts: just walk around childcare and is pointing and laughing.
Yeah.
Rae Leigh: well, It wouldn't be very nice thing to do You know, it's about having self-compassion.
Jimmy Watts: Sure. So therapy's been going really well for me.
Yeah, so I think, I think I tried to make up for my terrible songwriting with, you know, by
Rae Leigh: Entertainment.
Jimmy Watts: on the performance aspect. Yeah. Probably just, would've been a lot easier to write better songs instead of having to put so much energy on stain Telia, TK.
Oh, that's your hat?
Rae Leigh: Right. With professional songwriter,
Jimmy Watts: Ah, the old
okay. Now I know my competition
Rae Leigh: And right. If you could collaborate or crew, right. With anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why
Jimmy Watts: I could collaborate? Cause I haven't done much like collaborative songwriting. I guess I don't, I don't really have a dream list, but in terms of like band members I think Pino, Palladino the bass player he's like a session bass player whose I guess must be in his sixties.
He just kind of looks like he's white, fall asleep on stage, but he's just solid as a rock. You sort of see him like playing for the who and fall like John Mayer and all these anyway
Rae Leigh: all right. So you just need a few grand and you could hire him for a
Jimmy Watts: for like half an hour. And yeah, I'd be happy,
Rae Leigh: Even if you just hired him. If you know, half an hour, a few thousand dollars, get him to play a line on one of your songs and then you can put him in the press release and you'd be like,
Jimmy Watts: oh, I think I just like, yeah, just play a bass, all live off it out. And I just watch him like almost gently fall asleep while they bangs out incredible risks.
And maybe I think Carter Beauford, the drummer for Dave Matthews fan. He plays like a bunch of that, like offbeat crazy stuff. I really enjoy that.
Rae Leigh: as influences because you have like a really cool, unique voice. Do you have like an inspiration or someone that you, go, like, you feel like you sound like, or you just love their vibe?
and You feel like it's influenced the way that
you perform and sing? Or is it just like you roll Jimmy Watts?
Jimmy Watts: nah, definitely like always enjoyed Tom White's is, you know, gravelly. Smoke-filled insanity. And I think when I was a smoker that sort of came quite easily and yeah, haven't smoked for a couple of years now and I have noticed well, yeah, I can't, I can't definitely kind of get as deep or as Nat. Yeah.
I'd have to attempt to try and get a bit gravelly. It feels a bit more forced than it was, but yeah, it was, I've never considered myself a singer, so it just mumble and shout and,
Rae Leigh: is like you have, you have incredible character and your voice that I think a lot of people as artists and singers struggled to find, do you know what I mean?
Like it's, I mean, Tom whites is definitely a good, like, I can see the inspiration there. but like At the same time, you don't sound like him.
Jimmy Watts: I'm trying to, so that hurts
Rae Leigh: oh, really?
Jimmy Watts: checky.
Rae Leigh: Well, you can't sound like, I mean, so, okay. For a long time, I didn't think I could sing That's one of the reasons. I had a lot of insecurity around my voice, because I was like, I don't sound like anyone on radio. You know, I don't have a typical pop, powerful ballad, voice trained, classically, whatever. Like, it's just, It's just this soft
Jimmy Watts: worshiped
Rae Leigh: in church kind of voice. And so I just didn't sing in public for very long time.
And then one day my dad told me that I have the voice that God gave me. And that's exactly what I need.
And don't that. I dunno, A part of me just went. Yeah, this is just my voice. And I can't do anything about it. I can't get like a voice box transplant? I've just got to,
Jimmy Watts: you probably can
Rae Leigh: have. Well,
Jimmy Watts: They just probably
Rae Leigh: I like my voice. It's different and actually realizing
Jimmy Watts: It's very
Rae Leigh: Thank you. But realizing now that it's like, actually It's like, you know, when you just, I wish I was Beyonce. I don't actually wish I was Beyonce. I'm quite happy to just be me and that I think, there's probably something that just comes with age, but
Jimmy Watts: yeah. I think there's definitely psychological elements of finding a voice that where, you know, you can find some level of authenticity within yourself, I think.
Yeah. Oh, always was just trying to sound like a grumbly old bluesman singing in like an American accent. And you know, that was, you know, not a well thought out thing that I was like, oh, this is how I want to represent myself. That was just you know, just what happened. But I think, yeah, in the last.
Couple of years, I've noticed some of the songs I've been writing a like more Australian accent. I'm not trying to emulate
Rae Leigh: Does it feel more authentic?
Jimmy Watts: it does, like, but I can still, you know, like, cause nothing's originally, oh, it's just copying things that you're influenced by. So like, yeah. Yeah. So I was still like, even though I'm singing more in my own voice, am I an accent?
I still like, and you know, seeing the, you know, I sound like, you know, well from the Smith street band sounds and so there's still lies, you know, imposter syndrome, thoughts associated with it, but it does, you know, I guess it's probably more just forced upon me because I'm not smoking and I can't grumble anymore as much as I used to.
So now I'm just going to sound like an Orca. Yeah, but I forgot what we were talking
Rae Leigh: That's all right. We'll just talking about your influences and how how it all works. And because you're talking about people that you'd love to have in your band and people that inspire you, Tom waits. Oh my gosh, amazing. So this is the part where I'm going to put all your links and stuff like that.
So people can go find you and your music and YouTube and stuff.
Jimmy Watts: Oh, it's plug time.
Rae Leigh: it's plug time. It's poke
Jimmy Watts: I've got so much more trauma to talk about, right?
Rae Leigh: I'll have To come back.
for another session. Next one will be $160 per hour.
Jimmy Watts: I'll get a Medicare rebate.
Rae Leigh: I don't know if I can claim that I'm not a qualified therapist. I'm qualified via experience.
Jimmy Watts: I'd love to say that on your Medicare, like you can go to an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, a therapist, or a podcast.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, my mom? She's a nurse, but she's been a nurse for 50 years. And she used to say that once you turn, she'd been doing nursing for 40 years, she was like, I might as well be a bloody doctor because she's been doing it for that long. She feels like she knows as much as the doctor. She clearly doesn't. Don't tell her I told you that, but I feel like that's kind of, once you've done 10 years of therapy and you've, you've dubbed into such deep parts of yourself, you kind of feel like you're almost qualified to be a therapist because you've been through so much but I am not qualified to be. I just can be a better friend now.
Jimmy Watts: I think, I think that's like anything I always end up like, just trying to monetize things that I enjoy, like, like music and, you know, playing a few songs and then going like, yeah, I should probably be getting paid for this. Like I've listened to a lot of music. I'm qualified to, to, to make a living off this now, but yeah,
Rae Leigh: That's, that is a part of value though, as well, like self value and like your only as a musician yearning, worth as much as someone's willing to pay you or, or you're only as good as your last gig.
which is what's something that the Wolf brothers said. And it's like, yeah, but like one of my gigs, I did 800 people and I got paid really well, but then two weeks later I'm being paid 350 bucks.
to what I mean, it was like, It's also what you have to say yes and no to, and there's only so much you can say. No, to.
Jimmy Watts: I think there's a lot of showbiz quotes like that, that I take issue with kind of like, some old school, very old school, ways of thinking that yeah, it's nice to see younger people in the industry nowadays, not blindly believing those things and forging their own paths.
Rae Leigh: You couldn't make the decision on what you can do and what? you can't do.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah. And like just happens that I'm a very slow learner. And instead of taking advice, I like to get well, I'll see for myself after experiencing this the hard way several times. And then, so, yeah, sorry. So we're plugging.
Rae Leigh: Well, I was going to say, let's say there will be in the description of this podcast and on the web. there will be all information about you and people can go find you but what are they going to be looking for? tell us? What's coming out what shows you've got coming up.
Jimmy Watts: Sorry. You want to go
Rae Leigh: Why should people contact you?
Jimmy Watts: Jimmy watts.com where I I guess I didn't really even get into this too much, so I'll try and abbreviate it. So the last few years my show has become more of a bluesy musical comedy slash something. All right. It's, it's my terrible attempt at SAS hire.
Because I just found like, like I said, I've become very cynical, performing, earnestly writing, honestly, just hasn't,
Rae Leigh: hasn't
Jimmy Watts: been on the cards recently. And I watched a show called doomsday preppers, which you might've seen which there's a couple of years old now, but it sort of followed all these people who are preparing for the, an apocalypse of some sort.
And they all had different. Some of them were preparing for, you know, the medical pandemic. Some of them were preparing for nuclear war. Some of them, you know, they all had different things that were preparing for, but they were all, they were all prepping. And a lot of them, I have, one of them had like a house full of, you know, food, tinned, food and rice.
And he was never more than like a meter away from a gun within his house. He had all these hidden panels in the wall and they're all doing like. I thought it was amazing, hilarious. And it's quite easy to take the piss out of that sort of stuff, but I think,
Rae Leigh: imagine living like that, they seriously.
Jimmy Watts: yeah. And then, you know, for all of, for like, you know, the last few years of COVID for there to be some level of, of things that they were preparing for to come to fruition would have been extremely validating, I
Rae Leigh: Oh, they would've loved it. It'd be like, ha told you. So
Jimmy Watts: So yeah, like
Rae Leigh: me I was crazy
Jimmy Watts: at the start at 22 in February, 2020, I was filmed to be sure of this sort of as this character, this sort of doomsday, prepper character. And the whole idea is that it's kind of taking the piss out of the mega right-wing gun, toting doomsday, prepper and. Taking his very, you know, right-wing extreme views and sort of showing how they compare to, which is also, you know, somewhat my experience growing up in the right wing Colt and comparing them to my other experience in my twenties of like the extreme left of being a crazy hippie hippy-dippy person.
And like both of these extremes really circle back to each other. And they're so similar in their like anti-authoritarian beliefs that distrust of government, this distrust of science, this you know, just doubling down on, on beliefs that have no basis in reality. They're both just sort of left feeling, insanely disenfranchised and Anyway.
So I just found that really interesting, how that was so many similarities between those two extremes. And so, yeah, I've been trying to write this, or I've been writing this show about, about that crossover. It's, you know, it's quite easy to write because there's just an endless
Rae Leigh: Def
Jimmy Watts: insanity.
Rae Leigh: yet
Jimmy Watts: And
Rae Leigh: much inspiration to draw.
Jimmy Watts: oh, yeah, yeah. And so a lot of, you know, a lot of this character that sort of perform as is is focused around like stockpiling beans and pornography to live in this, you know, doomsday bunker.
Rae Leigh: Pauling pornography.
Jimmy Watts: Well, I mean, when the, in an, in an age of no internet, you kind of go back to analog.
Rae Leigh: That's hilarious. Okay.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah, so that's, that's what I've been writing, that's the Shire. So I'm trialing this show And it has a lot of video elements, which sort of came about really, because I was just performing with a drama and I do a lot of like weird tunings, which takes time in between songs. So I started putting like some like funny little, one minute, two minute videos to, to play while I'm sort of changing your guitar or retuning.
But they sort of like tie the show together a lot. A lot of the storytelling's in that cause a lot of my storytelling while I'm mumbling and shouting and singing is hard to follow. So anyway, it's kind of, it's a very fun weird piss take sort of, yeah, I call it apocalyptic blues rock. So July the first is in.
Rae Leigh: financial year,
Jimmy Watts: Yup. Yup.
Rae Leigh: that's a Friday,
Jimmy Watts: right off a Friday night at a gimpy or near gimpy in wolves at head shed. And I guess if you're, if you live in that region and, you know, Gary has this paddock with a massive shed that he's built a stage in, and he has these insanely big parties where while you should play it head shed yeah, it's amazing. And like all these locals come and just in his paddock he puts, I does like all these baked potatoes, you get a bake Spud and the concert and you stand around the fire and dancing is
Rae Leigh: So,
Jimmy Watts: So that's on July 1st. I think that's maybe 30 bucks and that's with the urban chiefs from tomorrow.
So we're coming up who are sort of blues rock psych sort of duo.
Rae Leigh: Who've been
Jimmy Watts: Similarly turning around for, for years and years. And then we're both heading to Toowoomba on July 2nd at a bodega bar. And so that's for a mini festival day. That's got five bands, I think chiefs my band pop stand-in who's a well-known blues rocker in the Australian scene and halfway homeboy, and I'm probably missing some others, but it was quite a few acts should be a really good day.
That's run by camo, camo, Egan who's well-known in the Australian blues rock scene as a character, an all around legend. So, so yeah, those are the two dates where we're sort of just trialing this show. I've got
Rae Leigh: I love
Jimmy Watts: kind of getting over it. It's been a long time. So yeah. So we're trialing those two shows and then later in the year October, November we will be doing some proper theater shows around the place. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: so
Jimmy Watts: I think both of those shows will be a lot of fun. Got a band this time with Todd orchard on drums, who's a well-known sort of session player sort of always playing in five or six bands at a time and flicker tree on cello electric cello, which will be cool. I'm so used to my old bass player, Mike is to play like a baritone guitar that's space and spent, yeah, he, he can't do these shows, so got some crazy cello sounds, which will be awesome.
Rae Leigh: discussed that you can get someone in.
Jimmy Watts: Yeah,
Rae Leigh: Awesome.
Jimmy Watts: so yeah, that's, that's all my plugs.
Rae Leigh: All right. Sweet. No, I appreciate it. Well, hopefully if you can get any of those gigs go to the gigs. Thank you very much for jumping on. Is there anything else you would like to say? before we finish up?
Jimmy Watts: You can go to Jimmy watts.com, J a w N Y w a T s.com. You can join my doomsday cult there, which is the mailing list.
Rae Leigh: Knowing how to run a coat with me,
Jimmy Watts: Yeah, I've got quite a bit of match for sale
Rae Leigh: put all those links in the description and on the website so people can get to it. And just one click away, Awesome.
Jimmy Watts: one click away from my, yeah, they've got a great shirt for sale, which it says only has veins, don't have pains, which is a reference to my apocalyptic. Banca full of pains and porn. almost I named my cat veins.
Rae Leigh: Is it like baked beans? Yeah. I love babies. All right. brilliant. Thank you very much.
