In 2014 - after sixteen years and nine albums as songwriter-performer-producer with Tracey Thorn in best-selling duo Everything But The Girl, a further ten at the helm of his award-winning electronic label Buzzin’ Fly, a DJ residency on BBC 6Music, and two prize-nominated books - Ben Watt returned to his roots as a solo singer and songwriter. Hendra, his second album - arriving thirty-one years after his indie chart No. 1 debut - met with wide acclaim at home and abroad for its eloquent lyrics and stripped-back aesthetic and pipped Anna Calvi and Blood Orange to win Best ‘Difficult’ Second Album at AIM Independent Music Awards 2014.
The follow-up is released on Unmade Road through Caroline International in spring 2016.
‘The music I heard in my teens - jazz, folk, art-rock - still cuts the deepest with me,’ he says. ‘I recently spent over ten years exploring electronic music and clubland but have come back to language and that band-in-a-room spontaneity again. The human voice, unaffected words, pushing simple instruments to their limits - that is now what fascinates me.’
