Watt
Watt is the 4-string guitar/drum duo of Bill Orcutt and Tim Koffley. There’s a compilation of their ’89-’91 recordings out now on Orcutt’s Bandcamp page.
The recordings on this Watt album date from ’89 to ’91. If you listen to these recordings now yourself, what do you hear? What do think?
Bill Orcutt: I hear the influences straight away, all the music we were listening to in the 1980’s: James Blood Ulmer, Fred Frith’s Massacre, Beefheart, Minutemen, Sonic Youth + the rest of SST, Belew era King Crimson, etc, etc. In terms of what I think? I like it, both as nostalgia and for the music itself. It sounds good, I think. Also can’t help but think about how much time must of been spent writing & rehearsing it. Wish I had that kind of time now to work on music…
Why did you and Tim Koffley decide to start a band?
I was playing drums in the Trash Monkeys and was looking an outlet for my guitar playing. I had written, quite randomly, some music for four string guitar. I knew Tim as the drummer in the Pop Cruds (Mark from Harry Pussy played in that band too) and in Los Perros Guapos. I think I played him my four string guitar songs and he suggested starting a band.
Did you have any ideas in mind of what you wanted to do together?
The initial goal was just to play those songs.
“A love of weird music”
What did the both of you had in common? And what were the differences between you two?
We had in common a love of weird music and were nerdier than most of our peer group. We’re both computer programmers now. However, Tim was much more of a real musician than I’ll ever be. He also liked to challenge himself, something I’ve never understood. I’m much lazier. Anyway after three years together, I wanted to improvise more and be more aggressive and weird. I started playing with Adris.
Are you still in contact with Tim?
Yes, he lives in Seattle. I saw him the last time I was up there.
I know your music, but I never heard of Tim Koffley.
He is on Discogs for the two previous Watt releases. His bands Pop Cruds & Los Perros Guapos are on there as well, though he’s not credited.
Why did you decide to release this album now?
Tim compiled a CD-R for the two of us over a decade ago. Occasionally people would ask about the band and eventually I decided I’d release some of it. I have a tape that’s being made, but when the quarantine began, I thought I’d just put it up on Bandcamp.
Do you have any plans to release this in another format?
Eventually there will be a tape when it’s done.
Why is the band called Watt?
The initial inspiration must have been the track on Daydream Nation where Mike Watt leaves an answering machine message. Just hearing him say his name was hilarious to us. It also seemed like a good band name with lots of good connotations.
There’s a Youtube clip, posted in September 2014, of a Watt as a trio, with Kevin Arrow on saxophone. Why is he not on this record? The recording on that Youtube clip date from around the same time (’89-’91).
Kevin was my housemate at the time and owned a saxophone. There are many hours of unreleased recordings…
– Joeri Bruyninckx
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