Talking to legendary punk bassist Mike Watt is a unique experience. With a combination of middle-aged wisdom and the excitability of a teenager, he punctuates his road stories and sage observations with belly laughs and mile-a-minute rants on nothing in particular. “Back in the '60s a lot of people thought of the bass as a kind of toy, almost like a kazoo,” Watt told BP. “We had to fight and earn the bass some respect. On the other hand, there's something cool about people not really knowing what we do: we're left free to define ourselves.”
Watt grew out of Southern California's late-'70s punk-rock scene to co-found the Minutemen. The seminal post-punk band pounded out an extraordinary number of terse, frantic tunes with heavy political themes laced with elements of jazz, and funk. “Back then, you never knew what the next band was going to sound like. Almost anything went, and it wasn’t about haircuts or guitar styles. I miss a lot of the chaos of the old days.”
