Here
I am, on the 1st of July, off to the Electric Circus in Edinburgh to
interview up and coming musician – Lewis Watson. On arrival I was allowed into
the venue, and when Lewis arrived, I had the privilege of watching him
soundcheck. I’ve been following him and his music for a while, so was excited
to spend some time with him. The talented 19-year-old was one of the most charming
guys I have ever met and the conversation flowed.
Having
only picked up the guitar 3 years ago, I wondered how long Lewis had been
performing professionally. "Well, I did my first gig last May, it was an
open mic at a college in Oxford and I covered a Charlie Simpson song. Charlie
saw it and invited me to his gig in London, which was crazy because nothing
like that had ever happened before," he tells me with a big smile on his
face. "He mentioned doing a little festival thing in September with him,
so asked me if I'd ever performed but I hadn’t, for anybody, not even my Mum
and Dad. He told me to rack up some gig experience and then come September we
could probably do a gig together. Charlie's one of my heroes so that was crazy!
I then did open mics three times a week because I wanted to be as good as possible,
but the gig didn't actually happen in the end. He's really lovely and I'm a big
fan of his music so to have him say that really made me think 'screw the nerves
and just do it, if you want to'. I thank Charlie Simpson for me being here today!"
I ask how he’s found
trying to promote himself through the internet. "I joined YouTube three years ago; I think that was the perfect time
because people weren't using it a lot. Every other video wasn't somebody
covering a song; it was harder to come across someone you enjoyed listening to.
I always said that YouTube was good because you get the honest truth, which
isn't the case now because people go on there to hate for the sake of hating.
It's a shame, if I were to have started now, I don't think I would've carried
on. YouTube is hard work because you have to stay active and you have to cover
the right songs," he explains. "I'm really lucky because I talk to
other musicians, there's a little group of YouTube buddies, and it’s pretty
cool actually. Other medias such as tumblr, I made that at the same time, again
it was the perfect time because everybody was using it and enjoying it, now
people don’t use it as much. I think I just hit the social media boom. It only
takes one person with 1,000 friends to share it, to then have 30 more shares.
The internet is fantastic and I'm so happy it exists."
With
such a beautiful voice and lyrics people really connect with, I wondered if he
had always wanted to be a singer/songwriter. "I think everybody wants to
be a singer, so it's almost like a far out ambition of mine but I never really
thought it could happen until last year when things started to pick up. I
thought 'hang on, if I really apply myself here and give 100% this could maybe
just happen'. The fact it has happened has blown my mind, I'm a bad sleeper
anyway but I lie in bed and I'm just so overwhelmed by everything. It's
annoying though because I don't really get much sleep anymore!" he laughs.
These days it’s unusual to hear of an artist who really appreciates everything
he has and doesn’t take it all for granted, I admire him for that.
"I'm extremely
lucky because I have a very supportive family," he smiles. "My sister
did my website and my dad used to be my manager. My mum, my step-mum and my
brother have all just been so supportive, I'm really lucky for that. I didn't
know what I wanted to do when I left school so I don't think they had a clue
either but they’ve been great ever since I decided I wanted to do this. I am
really lucky with my family, I love them to bits, make sure you put that
in," I promise I will.
With
a lot coming up, I wanted to know what he was looking forward to most, "My
sold out UK tour, definitely! The fact it's sold out, in the first place, is
completely crazy, it's mad. I'm really excited to do it because I've supported
loads of people at their gigs so for people to have bought tickets to come and
see me is a bit wacky. It'll be the first time that it's my show, so it’s going
to be great to make decisions and pick support acts.”
"I'm
doing a free show in July in Oxford and that's going to be filmed and recorded
and hopefully that'll be made into a live EP. Come October time I'm looking to
maybe release another EP and then next year an album."
I ask about the
furthest away fan that he’s aware of, "My third and fourth most liked
cities on Facebook are Melbourne and Sydney, which is crazy because that's the
other side of the world. I also had somebody message me telling me they were
from the Blue Mountains in Australia which has a really small population, so
for them to have found me is mental." At the moment there’s “Get Lewis toAustralia” challenges which his fans have to complete, via social medias, in
order to get him there. If he could
play a venue anywhere in the world, it would be Australia.
And in 5-10 years? “I
hope to still be doing music and I hope that I'm still enjoying it as much as I
am now, and that I'll be touring the
world, instead of just four dates in
England and Scotland!"
I love Lewis’ new
music video for his song Windows, he tells me how it was made, “I went to
Electric Lights Studios and they were brilliant, I just did about 20 takes of
the song in different positions and they printed each frame, cut it out, and
then filmed the video again. I'm really happy with it.” The video had only been
online for two days when I met Lewis and it already had 15,000 hits, it now has
over 21,000!
"The
biggest influence on my music career is definitely Ed Sheeran. He did a great
thing and opened the door to so many people to let them think they could do it,
just them and their guitar. He put in the hard work for four years doing gigs
every night, sleeping on sofas, just because he wanted people to hear his
music. I think that's so admirable, whoever you are, you don't even have to like
him but you should admire that kind of work ethic. He has now toured everywhere
and he's still doing it, he's got a number 1 on the American iTunes, which is
mad. Ed is a complete eye opener for me. I thought music was going down that
slope where it was so throw away it would be number 1, and then next week it
would be number 40 because everyone's got a new disposable song. I think Ed
really broke that because he's been number 1 with ‘+’ so many times and the
songs were all written by him.”
Lewis tells me about
the first gig he ever attended as a fan, “It was Linkin Park, November 23rd
2003, Lost Prophets were supporting them at Wembley. I was 11 and I had the
time of my life,” he remembers. “I just listened to their new album today, I
was really happy with it because I feel like they've gone back to their roots.”
“I just tried to do
well at school,” he shrugs, as I ask what he was like as a child. “I didn't see
a need in being badly behaved and doing stuff that you shouldn't. I was really
boring, thinking about it, I should've made the most out of my childhood.
Although, I guess I'm still an adolescent, kind of…” He’ll be 20 in October, will we give him
that?
Mr Watson isn’t short
of “fangirls” and they’re not afraid to go to extremes, I ask him the weirdest
thing that’s ever happened to him with a fan. He says, “I recently got a letter
hand-delivered through my door. That was quite weird for me because I just woke
up and there was a letter, with no stamp just put through the door, I mean that
person knows where I live. It wasn’t signed, just had a mobile number? I think
that's the bit that got me because I don't know who they are but they know
where I live.”
Lewis’ answer to being anyone in the world for
one day…“Kanye West because he's the coolest man on Earth, or Ryan Gosling
because he's just gorgeous and women would fall at my feet." After seeing some
of his glamorous fans swooning over him later at the gig, I don’t think Lewis
will be short of girls falling at his feet. The fact he writes beautiful music,
sings and plays guitar is just a bonus really.
People love it when
@levvis_ tweets them back, he tells me how important it is for an artist to
make time for their fans. “I, and I'm sure a lot of other people, wouldn't be
in the position where they could just play music and earn a living out of it if
it wasn't for the people that enjoyed the music. I think it’s key for people to
tweet people back, although it's very hard sometimes. This month, for me is
manic, I don't really have a day off so it's very hard to tweet everybody.
You’d be surprised how many tweets come in, it’s a fantastic feeling but it's
very hard to think 'oh well that question's been asked four times by four
different people, I don't know how to see to that'. It does grind on you
because people get upset if you don't reply to them. It's not that I don't want
to reply to you, I just really can't if I want to be sane,” he laughs.
In the past he’s done
an #asklewis where he tries to answer every question he can. It trended
worldwide last time, “I was just on the train and usually I forget
my headphones, I had plenty of battery on my phone so I did it.”
“I remember people's
twitters and if they come to a gig I say "oh, you're blah blah blah on
twitter!" and it freaks them out a bit. Recently I went to a Lucy Rose gig
and she knew who I was just because she'd heard my music before. That was wacky
because I've listened to her for years and I love her music.”
When I ask Lewis what embarrassing songs we may find on his
iPod, he puts it on shuffle and after about 10 tracks reveals he wouldn’t have
skipped any of them. He tells me he likes lots of different genres, and can
easily go from Slipknot to Kanye West. Although, I was lucky enough to hear a
couple of his original demos!
Check out my Either Or with Lewis below!
You can purchase Lewis' EP 'It's Got Four Sad Songs on it btw' on iTunes now.
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