inthemix | Features | Ben Watt: Grace and stamina is all you need

Buzzin’ Fly Records is five; who would of thought? It seems like only yesterday label head Ben Watt was climbing the stage at the 2004 House Music Awards to collect the ‘Breakthrough Label’ award. Nearly five years on and the imprint is now routinely checked by DJs, producers and music lovers alike as one of the most consistent – and consistently surprising – independent house labels out there.

With a 3CD fifth anniversary compilation titled Five Golden Years In The Wilderness currently winning over a whole new group of fans, one could perhaps understand Watt taking his foot of the gas for a few weeks and thinking about what he’s achieved. Not so, says Watt; it’s a case of business as usual.

“People get a bit teary-eyed when it comes to anniversaries like this,” he says. “But I think it’s a chance to plant a flag in the sand briefly and say, ‘this is the route we’ve taken and on we go’. It’s not meant to be a nostalgic look back through five great years of music. It’s just saying, ‘here you go; this is the story so far’.”

And what a story it’s been. From writing the iconic North Marine Drive in the early 1980s to enjoying worldwide acclaim throughout the 1990s alongside Tracey Thorn as Everything But The Girl, Watt has in the ‘noughties’ firmly cemented his name hs House tastemaker extraordinaire. From his and Jay Hannan’s world-renowned Lazy Dog house events at Neighbourhood in West London to his current role as A&R chief of the Buzzin’ Fly label, Watt is today universally respected as an authority and leading innovator in world house circles.

The Buzzin’ Fly label is among the world’s leading independent imprints. Label artists like Justin Martin, Rodamaal, Manoo & Francois A, Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia, Jimpster and Watt himself have never failed to raise the bar with their adventurous, at times melancholic and dark, but always innovative releases. So you’d expect Ben to go into a long-winded diatribe about the process involved in putting together this fifth anniversary compilation, right? Think again.

“I don’t plan ahead at all,” he says forthrightly. “It’s the bane of my label manager’s life basically. I have no idea where I’ll be in October let alone in three years time. You’d imagine I’ve got six months to a year of music planned ahead and some great process but actually I barely plan more than one release ahead and I try to keep everything as fresh as it can be. [We] try and use the great beauty of being on an independent label where you have such freedom to make quick decisions and get records out fairly quickly.

One of a shrinking group of labels still pressing 12” releases, the evergreen Watt even admits it’s getting tougher to shift units. “I do think it will still exist but I think it’s going to be a bit like Northern Soul buyers who kept buying 7 inch vinyl; it was a niche market,” he says. “I don’t think it’s going to go away. I do think there is going be a hardcore DJ group who will stick with it and for that reason I think we will go on doing it. Obviously the tide is changing. Who knows where we’re going to be in two years time?”

“These days we do send a lot of electronic promos, e-promos, to clubland DJs [and] we’ll send high-quality WAV files to radio, to select radio producers. Everybody else gets a spoilt version which does annoy some journalists and does annoy some retail, but I think most people understand why it’s being done: because we’re in this age of piracy.”

Juggling Buzzin’ Fly’ with sister label Strange Feeling – which showcases a more indie sound – Watt is also kept busy running his own Buzzin’ Fly club night at The End in London, in between touring throughout Europe and looking after his three children with wife Tracey Thorn. Currently in the middle of a four date mini-residency at We Love Space in Ibiza, Watt weighs into the current debate about the White Isle’s future amid recent crackdowns on operating hours and the controversial drug culture of the island.

“It’s clearly in transition,’ he says, referring to Ibiza. “There’s a lot of politics going on behind the scenes. I think the local government there and the big clubs are trying to clamp down on the cheap clubbing culture – day time parties, beach parties – and they’re trying to up the demographic of the island and I think that’s why we’re seeing such heavy-handed tactics with clubs like DC10.”

“I do think that there is a concerted effort to get a richer class of tourist on the island long-term and I think that will change Ibiza going forward. How long it’s going to take I’m not sure, and whether they’ll actually be able to completely implement it and make it happen, only time will tell but that’s definitely the move that’s being made at the moment.”

Watt may not know what’s going to be on his plate in October, but he does let slip that his first original club track for a few years – Guinea Pig – is slated for release on Buzzin’ Fly in September. As for another Australian tour, Watt is hesitant. “I felt the last time I came perhaps I just came one too many times too close together,” he says. “So I think it’s good if I leave it a little bit longer next time before I come back. That’s not to say it’s going to be ages.”

We hope not.

Check out the ITM review for Buzzin’ Fly : Five Golden Years In The Wilderness, and it’s in the stores now through Stomp.