Ben Watt

Born in Marylebone, London, and raised in Barnes, Ben Watt developed in the early 1980s a spare songwriting style situated between folk, acoustic pop and jazz inflections. He began as a solo artist on the Cherry Red label with the single “Cant” in 1981, followed by the EP Summer into Winter in 1982, recorded with Robert Wyatt, before releasing North Marine Drive in 1983. Shortly afterwards Watt put that solo trajectory on hold to form the duo Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn; the duo’s career accompanied a gradual shift from refined, hushed pop toward more electronic forms, incorporating house and electronica in the 1990s. After the group stepped back in 2000, Ben Watt embedded himself in the London club scene as a DJ, producer and label head, notably with the Lazy Dog nights and later Buzzin’ Fly, launched in 2003, while his own productions moved toward elegant, minimalist deep house. His return to the song format took shape with Hendra in 2014, followed by Fever Dream in 2016 and Storm Damage in 2020 — records in which Watt returned to a more guitar-led, tense and introspective register, working among others with Bernard Butler. In 2023 he also reunited with Tracey Thorn for Fuse, Everything But The Girl’s first studio album since 1999.