Slaughterhouse Steampunk Blues
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Our music is stripped down to the bare bones, inspired by the old blues players. With a black sense of humour, we lean in to the grimy underbelly of Western Steampunk, with influences from Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Sante Sangre, El Topo, the original Night of the Hunter, Cannibal the Musical and The Child Ballads.
Musically The Wattingers are inspired by: Prison 'Hollers' as recorded by Alan Lomax, Howling Wolf, Joan Baez, Martin Carthy, The Birthday Party, Screaming Jay Hawkins, The Bad Seeds, Gallon Drunk, The Butthole Surfers, the Beasts Of Bourbon, Jawbone, Seasick Steve and Tom Waits, to name but a few.
The Wattingers started sometime in 2008 and was formed after I left London to
work in Plymouth. I wanted a really simple set up, and was interested in the idea
of using a harmonica instead of guitar (which is what poor blues musicians who
couldn’t afford guitars did back in the day). I also wanted live bass, this is
probably my favourite instrument and I have played bass in a few bands previously. My brother lives in the Southwest and plays in Catherine and The Owl. He joined me in the first line up of the Wattingers until work commitments led to him
leaving. At
this time we had more gigs in London than down South, so I had a friend in
London, Andy Blythe from The Probing Cranks and currently The Drift, play the
bass for these gigs. Unfortunately the two main venues in London that we played at closed down (The Montague Arms in New Cross, and The Bull and Gate Kentish Town).
Ren (Laurence) who had also played in Catherine and The Owl offered to play
bass and he has been with me since. It was Ren who suggested as a joke that he
should wear a sack hood, as the bass players kept changing, so no-one would notice any future line-up changes.
To keep the whole project practical we have no drummer. I create the backing
tracks and initially record all the music, the first CD ‘Slaughterhouse Blues’ was
recorded in this way. The next CD release will have some tracks with Ren and Andy
Blythe playing bass.
- You describe yourselves as "Slaughterhouse Steampunk Blues". Again for those who don't know, could you explain what this means (and in what way
The Wattingers are a 'Steampunk' band?)
Initially we had no conscious link with Steampunk. I knew of it from years before, having been totally inspired by William Gibson’s books and his vision of
cyberpunk. I read the ‘Difference Engine’, and I also prior to this had made and drawn what would be now described as Steampunk contraptions,
somewhere back in the late 70’s and 80’s