With the seminal post-punk, alternative bands The Minutemen and fIREHOSE, Mike Watt's frantic, jerky, abrasive misfit music became a key part of the US underground rock scene in the 1980s and inspired the likes of Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Raised in the small suburb of San Pedro, California, USA, Watt and childhood friend D. Boon started thrashing and crashing about with instruments when they were 13, eventually getting their big break when they opened for Black Flag in 1980. The hardcore rockers were so impressed by The Minutemen that they released debut EP 'Paranoid Time' and album 'Punch Line' through their record label SST, and although the trio antagonised and confused the punk crowds with their short, sharp splurges of atonal, experimental noise, their DIY spirit and art house weirdness built a loyal following.

Watt's funky, speeding bass lines were key to albums 'What Makes a Man Start Fires?' and 'Double Nickels On the Dime' and the band created their own world free of musical boundaries, before D. Boon died in a car crash in 1985. Watt went on to form fIREHOSE and refine his sprawling mass of ideas and pent-up energy into a more accessible alternative rock sound before releasing his first solo album 'Ball-Hog Or Tugboat?' in 1994. A stellar cast of artists featured on the record including Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl, Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder, J Mascis, Frank Black, Flea and Adam Horovitz, and Watt toured the US with the Foo Fighters, who were his opening act early in their career. Typically angular and obtuse, he reminisced about his life on the punk rock opera 'Contemplating the Engine Room' in 1997 and based 'The Secondman's Middle Stand' on a near fatal illness he suffered in 2000. A prolific hive of creativity, Watt also played with The Stooges after they reformed in 2003 and has been involved with an endless amount of side projects, collaborations and adventures over the years.

Mike Watt

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