Early career Watt was born in
Portsmouth, Virginia. and when he was young, Watt's family moved to
San Pedro, California, where he became good friends with
D. Boon. and
Blue Öyster Cult, while Boon's exposure to rock music was limited to
Creedence Clearwater Revival, another Watt favorite. Hurley, who had been in the short-lived
new wave group Hey Taxi! at the time Minutemen first formed, rejoined Watt and Boon. Watt had surgeries on both knees in the early 1980s which limited touring in 1981.
Firehose After Boon's death, Watt was profoundly
depressed; he and Hurley initially intended to quit music altogether.
Sonic Youth invited Watt to hang out with them in
New York City in 1986; they recorded a cover of
Madonna's "Burnin' Up" (with additional guitars by Greg Ginn) on the first
Ciccone Youth EP, and Watt played bass for two songs on the Sonic Youth album
Evol. Watt cites this period as critical in inspiring his post-Minutemen career saying, "The first thing I did was Thurston asked me to play bass on
Evol. That was a big highlight, man. Like, 'What, you want me to play without D. Boon?'" Subsequently,
Ed Crawford, a Minutemen fan who drove to
San Pedro from
Ohio, persuaded the Watt/Hurley
rhythm section to continue playing music. Watt also recorded a bass line to send to the
Pennsylvania space-folk band The Clubber Lang Gang for their record
Now Here This, on the track "For the Broken People". Starting in mid-2011, Watt began playing bass for a psychedelic/progressive rock band called
Anywhere with the
Mars Volta's
Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Christian Eric Beaulieu of
Triclops! In 2015 Mike Watt joined the
Waywords and Meansigns project, a collaborative project setting James Joyce's
Finnegans Wake to music.
Illness, recovery and The Stooges in
Minehead in 2010. In January 2000, Watt fell ill with an infection of his
perineum, forcing him into emergency surgery and nine weeks of bedrest in his San Pedro apartment. Initially unable to play his bass, he rebuilt his strength with intense practice as well as live club gigs where he performed sets of Stooges covers with Hellride in
California and with
J Mascis and
Dinosaur Jr. drummer
Murph in
New York City under the name Hellride East. In 2000, Mascis asked Watt to participate in a world tour behind Mascis' first post-Dinosaur Jr. release,
J Mascis and the Fog's
More Light. At several of the shows,
Ron Asheton formerly of The Stooges joined Mascis and Watt onstage, wherein the group would play entire sets of Stooges songs. Watt and Mascis later joined Asheton and his brother, Stooges drummer
Scott Asheton, for a one-time-only performance at a Belgian festival under the name
Asheton, Asheton, Mascis & Watt. In 2001, Watt was one of several bassists invited to participate in the sessions for
Gov't Mule's
The Deep End, partly on the recommendation of
Primus'
Les Claypool. Watt and Gov't Mule recorded a cover version of
Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Effigy" for the album. The sessions were immortalized in the documentary feature film
Rising Low. In 2002, Watt, along with
Pete Yorn and members of
The Hives, backed
Iggy Pop for a short set of Stooges songs at that year's
Shortlist Music Prize ceremony, after which Watt was asked to play bass in the reunited Stooges lineup in 2003. The reunited Stooges played their first show in almost 20 years at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in May 2003.
''The Secondman's Middle Stand'' Watt's third solo album ''
The Secondman's Middle Stand'', inspired by both his 2000 illness and one of his favorite books,
Dante's
The Divine Comedy, was released in 2004; one reviewer writes that the album is a "harrowing, funny, and genuinely moving stuff from a true American original". For the first time since the Minutemen, Watt recorded the album with an "all-Pedro band",
Mike Watt and the Secondmen, consisting of organist Pete Mazich and drummer Jerry Trebotic, along with former
that dog. vocalist
Petra Haden. While promoting and touring behind ''The Secondman's Middle Stand'', Watt announced plans for future recordings, stating that he intended to record as frequently as he did in the Minutemen days for as long as he could. Watt would part amicably with Columbia/
Sony BMG in 2005, after 14 years as both a solo artist and as one-third of Firehose.
Unknown Instructors In 2005, another side project featuring Watt came to light with the announced September 20 release of
The Way Things Work, an album of
improvised music under the group name,
Unknown Instructors with George Hurley,
Saccharine Trust's Joe Baiza and
Jack Brewer, and
poet/
saxophonist Dan McGuire. A month after the album's release, the Unknown Instructors recorded a second album, ''
The Master's Voice, with Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas and artist Raymond Pettibon joining the core quartet of Watt, Hurley, McGuire and Baiza. A third album with the same lineup, Funland'', was released in 2009 and features a semi-cover version (the original lyrics over new music) of
Captain Beefheart's "Frownland" (from the
Trout Mask Replica album). Basic tracks have already been laid down for the fourth Unknown Instructors album at Secondmen organist
Pete Mazich's Casa Hanzo studio in San Pedro. Watt would further his interest in improvised music by forming a trio, Los Pumpkinheads, with former
Beastie Boys keyboardist
Money Mark and Caroline Bermudez. On December 14, 2005, the McNally-Smith College of Music in
Saint Paul, Minnesota announced the formation of the Mike Watt Bass Guitar Scholarship, which is to be awarded annually to a bass major starting in the Fall of 2006. In March 2006, Watt took part in the performance at
Disney Hall,
Los Angeles, of
Glenn Branca's "Hallucination City" Symphony #13.
The Weirdness In October 2006, Watt joined the rest of The Stooges at recording engineer
Steve Albini's
Electrical Audio Studio in
Chicago, Illinois to record
The Weirdness, the first Stooges studio album since 1973's
Raw Power. The album was released on March 6, 2007, and much of Watt's 2007 was devoted to Stooges duties, including the band's first full-length U.S. tour since the band's reformation. Watt also worked on two other projects during this time period: Funanori, a musical collaboration with Kaori Tsuchida, guitarist of
The Go! Team, on
shamisen and other instruments, and Pelicanman (named after the closing track on ''The Secondman's Middle Stand'') with Petra Haden. The first three songs recorded by Watt and Tsuchida as Funanori were released on a split EP with
Tokyo band LITE in the summer of 2007 by Transduction Records. Watt also contributed a cover of
Blue Öyster Cult's "Burning For You", recorded with Haden, Nels Cline, Money Mark Nishita, and
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer
Chad Smith, to the all-star compilation album
Guilt by Association, released in August by the independent label
Engine Room Recordings. On June 9, 2007, Watt was the live narrator for the
silent movie Brand Upon the Brain! at the
Egyptian Theatre in
Hollywood, California.
Big Walnuts Yonder Big Walnuts Yonder is an American
supergroup formed in 2008 consisting of bassist/vocalist Watt, guitarist
Nels Cline from
Wilco, drummer
Greg Saunier from
Deerhoof, and guitarist/vocalist Nick Reinhart from
Tera Melos. They released their debut album in March 2017 through
Sargent House.
Clenchedwrench label, Floored by Four, and Firehose reunion Watt reunited with the final Black Gang lineup of Nels Cline and Bob Lee to record a new album, tentatively titled
My Shibun No Hi, in 2008. No release date has yet been set for the album. Continuing his exploration of both improvised music and the Japanese independent music scene, Watt, along with Nels Cline and producer Kramer, formed Brother's Sister's Daughter with mi-gu members Shimizu "Shimmy" Hirotaka and Yuko Araki to do a two-week tour of the country in late 2008 and record an album afterward. The album was mixed down by Hirotake but has not lined up a label or release date yet. Since then, two more albums by the band have been recorded but have yet Watt and Cline teamed up in New York to form
Floored by Four with ex-Cibo Matto keyboardist
Yuka Honda and
Lounge Lizards drummer Dougie Bowne. The group debuted at Central Park Summerstage on August 1, and recorded their first self-titled album right afterward. The album was released in late September 2010 on
Sean Lennon's Chimera Music label. Honda would later rejoin Watt and Cline for a second Brother's Sister's Daughter tour and album session in Japan (Cline and Honda became romantically involved – and subsequently engaged to be married – during the course of these projects Firehose's reunion was formally announced as part of the lineup of the 2012
Coachella Festival. The band underwent a short tour in April centered around both Coachella dates.
Il Sogno del Marinaio In late November 2009, Watt traveled to Italy to tour and record at the invitation of Italian guitarist Stefano Pilia. The project band, Il Sogno Del Marinaio,(the name is
Italian for ''The Sailor's Dream
) did a short six-date tour, after which recording for an album (later entitled La Busta Gialla'') took place. The band is an
experimental music trio consisting of Watt on vocals and bass guitar, Stefano Pilla on guitar and vocals, and
Andrea Belfi on drums and vocals.
Hyphenated-Man Watt recorded his first post-Columbia solo album,
Hyphenated-man, in two sessions 13 months apart, with The Missingmen at Studio G, the New York studio of former
Pere Ubu bassist
Tony Maimone.
Hypnenated-man consists of 30 short songs inspired by the paintings of
Hieronymus Bosch.
CUZ In 2006, Watt met Sam Dook of
The Go! Team at
Big Day Out. The two continued emailing and decided to form a band. They recorded some sessions in 2008 while Watt was touring Europe and finished the album over email. The album, entitled
Tamatebako, was released in 2014 under the band name
CUZ A tour in 2015 followed.
The Hand to Man Band In 2010,
Thollem McDonas,
John Dieterich, Tim Barnes, and Watt formed an experimental improvisational supergroup. Their debut album,
You Are Always On Our Minds, was released in 2012.
The Island Watt and S. Howe of the band Schooner formed an
experimental music project called The Island and released
Listening to the Warning in 2011 and
Lamia in 2018.
Hidden Rifles In 2014, Their debut album,
Across The Neighborhoods, was released in October 2017.
Afternoon Freak Along with keyboardist Matt Mottel and percussionist Danny Frankel, Watt formed the trio Afternoon Freak and released the album
The Blind Strut in 2018. The album was recorded in one day on January 14, 2017, at
BIG EGO studios. A 7-inch consisting of a Bucky Pope original entitled "Nuts" and a cover of
Sun Ra's "
Tiny Pyramids" was released on Record Store Day 2018 by
Org Music.
Jumpstarted Plowhards In 2019, Watt joined
Todd Congelliere to form Jumpstarted Plowhards. Their debut album,
Round One, was recorded for release on October 4, 2019, with
Recess Records. The band plans to record five LPs before playing live.
Fitted Initially formed as a one-off group for
Wire's Drill festival in Los Angeles, Watt,
Graham Lewis (
Wire),
Matthew Simms (Wire), and
Bob Lee (
The Black Gang) formed Fitted and decided to stay together and record. The debut album,
First Fits, was released in November 2019.
mssv Watt played bass with guitarist
Mike Baggetta and drummer
Jim Keltner for Baggetta's
Wall of Flowers album in March 2019. Watt joined Baggetta for a ten date March tour with Stephen Hodges substituting for Keltner. A studio album entitled
Main Steam Stop Valve followed in 2020.
Three-Layer Cake In 2021, Watt with percussionist
Mike Pride and guitarist Brandon Seabrook formed Three-Layer Cake and released an album,
Stove Top, on
RareNoiseRecords.
Flipper Mike Watt was recruited by Flipper's Ted Falconi and Stephen DePace to play bass for a 2019 summer European tour with
David Yow (
The Jesus Lizard,
Scratch Acid) substituting for the retired Bruce Loose and the otherwise engaged then-current Flipper bassist, Rachel Theole. The shows were billed as
Flipper with Yow and Watt. In 2022, Flipper announced that they would tour again, with Watt returning on both bass and lead vocals. A European tour was announced, but cancelled due to
COVID-19 concerns. The band then quickly booked an autumn US tour with the same lineup.
Guest appearances In November 2006, Watt revealed to
Pitchfork Media that he recorded for an album by singer
Kelly Clarkson, a studio assignment that he took at the invitation of his "old friend", producer/engineer
David Kahne. Clarkson's
My December album was released in 2007. Watt and drummer
Stephen Hodges joined violinist
Chris Murphy for "Blues for Bukowski" on his Murphy's album
Luminous. Hodges had previously worked with Watt on
Contemplating the Engine Room. Watt played bass on two tracks for the
Black Flag tribute album
Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie: Reinterpreting Black Flag alongside
Dez Cadena and
Keith Morris. In 2018,
Black Moth Super Rainbow released a
7-inch for
Record Store Day with Watt and
Flea covering "
Drippy Eye". Watt had earlier appeared on the song "Black Yogurt" on Black Moth Super Rainbow's
Drippers EP in 2008. The same year Watt appeared on Macedonia's Bernays Propaganda song "Ništo Nema da ne Razdeli" for the
Songs From Under the Floorboard, Vol. 1 compilation album put out by
DJ Dave Cantrell. The album is a charitable compilation with proceeds going to
Planned Parenthood. In October 2018, Watt joined
Abby Travis,
Keith Morris,
Flea,
Jennifer Finch,
Chip Kinman and others for a spoken word engagement at the
Roxy Theatre entitled ''War Stories: Tales of 70's & 80's Punk Mayhem Told By The Perpetrators Themselves''. In 2019, Watt appeared with Macedonian jazz guitarist
Toni Kitanovski on the track "Nisto nema da ne' razdeli" for
Bernays Propaganda's 2019 release,
Vtora mladost, treta svetska vojna (
2nd Youth, 3rd World War) In 2025, Watt joined post-punk band, Break to Broken for a guest appearance playing bass on the track "No Care". The track was part of a 3 song 7" record called "No Care + 2" released via UK label, Engineer Records on July 15th 2025. Watt has said he generally charges no fee to play on somebody's album saying "All payment is not in the coin...Anytime you play, you're investing in the next time you play."
Literary endeavors In 2003, Watt's first book,
Spiels Of A Minuteman, was released by the
Quebec book publisher
L'Oie De Cravan. The book, printed in both
English and
French, contains all of Watt's song
lyrics from the Minutemen era as well as the tour journal he wrote during the Minutemen's only
European tour with
Black Flag, essays by former SST co-owner
Joe Carducci, Sonic Youth's
Thurston Moore, and
Blue Öyster Cult lyricist and longtime Watt hero
Richard Meltzer, and illustrations by
Raymond Pettibon that had been used in all of the Minutemen's album artwork. Watt published his second book in 2012. Entitled
Mike Watt: On and Off Bass, the book is a photo memoir featuring photos taken by Watt coupled with excerpts from Watt's Stooges tour diaries mixed with
free verse poems. In 2016, Watt contributed a chapter to
John Doe's memoir
Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk.
James Joyce Watt has long been a fan of
James Joyce having first discovered
Ulysses while playing with Minutemen on a European tour with
Black Flag. He credits reading Joyce with helping him process the loss of D. Boon Watt has said that Joyce's
stream-of-consciousness style directly influenced
Double Nickels on the Dime Watt attended the 2004 Bloomsday celebration in
Dublin and claimed that it was the first time he went to a town without having to perform a gig. released by
Fire Records In 2017, Watt participated in an international project setting Joyce's
Finnegans Wake to music entitled
Waywords and Meansigns It was released on May 4, 2017, to coincide with the 76th anniversary of the book's first publication.
The Watt from Pedro Show When he is not on tour, Watt hosts a regular
internet radio show,
The Watt from Pedro Show, a continuation of a program Watt had first done on a
low-power FM station in the late 1990s. The program debuted on May 19, 2001, and became so popular with Watt's fans that the website's host, Sightworks, temporarily forced the show offline on weekdays until a sponsor or other solution could be found. On January 10, 2006,
The Watt from Pedro Show became available as a
podcast.
Porno for Pyros Watt reconnected with Porno for Pyros in 2023 for a tour that was postponed while they finished a new single "Little Me", and is currently on that rescheduled tour; 2024’s Horns, Thorns En Halos Farewell Tour, in support of that single and the back catalog. ==Equipment==