Yesterday, the singer-songwriter also released “Ça va” – a duet featuring Victoires de la Musique-winning French sensation Solann, a french-language song following the billion-streamed “Je te laisserai des mots”.
MORE ABOUT UH OH
The eleven new original songs on Uh Oh find Watson meditating on the idea of life being a series of “uh ohs”: a little phrase uttered in response to everything from childhood accidents to our most overwhelming anxieties. For Watson, it came to mind when faced with the biggest “uh oh” that a singer could endure when he lost his voice. Unsure if or when he would be able to sing again, his new album took a new shape, a collection of collaborations with friends and strangers; artists that he wanted to hear sing. Uh Oh represents a vision that Watson has chased for his entire life, the culmination of 20 years of musical exploration and lived experience that enabled him to translate the films in his mind to the sounds and words swirling in your ears.
Most of the songs on Uh Oh see Watson and his long-time bandmates, collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Mishka Stein, Olivier Fairfield, and co-vocalist Ariel Engle (La Force) joined by a guest singer. The featured vocalists range from the iconic voices he’s idolized for years – Martha Wainwright – to ones he discovered through Instagram scrolling like Solann and local Quebec favorite Klô Pelgag, and include international phenoms MARO, Hohnen Ford, November Ultra, JUNO Award winner Charlotte Cardin, Félix award winner Anachnid, and a friend he met when she worked the counter at this local coffee shop, Charlotte Oleena. “Every singer has these different magical powers on this record, and each song kind of represents that,” Watson says.
Watson has previously shared four songs from Uh Oh; “The Wandering” with Portuguese artist MARO, “Silencio” with French artist November Ultra, “Gordon in the Willows” with fellow Montrealer Charlotte Cardin, and “Peter and the Wolf” which accompanied the album announcement on June 4. “Silencio” was the first preview of this new project, with Watson first revealing the loss of his voice, and among other impressions, finding the power of silence. It was recorded at Studio Rubin Alterio, an old artist’s loft in Paris. “Gordon in the Willows” was written and recorded by Watson and Cardin in a small lakeside village in Quebec, and around the song’s release last winter, they performed it during a surprise appearance on the top of Montreal’s Mont Royal. Inspired by the ghosts of New Orleans, “Peter and the Wolf” was accompanied by a pulse-pounding new video directed by Patrick Watson and SAM WOY and shot in the Quebec countryside.
ABOUT PATRICK WATSON
Patrick Watson composes, performs, and records his albums with his long-time bandmates, collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Mishka Stein, and Olivier Fairfield. The Canadian artist reached gold and platinum status in multiple countries, and his shows sell out around the world. Over the course of his career, Patrick has retained the uncanny ability to coexist in mainstream pop-culture spaces and on the avant-garde fringes. Patrick’s songs have been featured in primetime crowd-pleasers like Grey’s Anatomy and This Is Us, as well as in multiple arthouse films from Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique), Wim Wenders (Perfect Days), Philippe Falardeau (C’est pas moi, je le jure!) and more. He’s an artist who’s as comfortable performing impromptu pop-up shows on the train tracks in a Quebec mining town as he is leading the BBC Orchestra at London’s prestigious Barbican. He’s an in-demand composer with over 15 film scores under his belt. He was awarded the prestigious inaugural Impact Award at the 2024 Canadian Sync Awards. Watson’s viral single "Je te laisserai des mots" became the first French-language song to accumulate 1 billion streams on Spotify, in addition to generating enough plays to qualify for platinum status in over 25 countries worldwide. For example, the track was recently certified 2x platinum in the USA and 1x platinum in the UK.
ABOUT MARTHA WAINWRIGHT
Martha Wainwright is an internationally renowned singer songwriter, with over two decades of industry experience. Critically acclaimed for the rawness and emotional honesty of both her vocals and lyrics, her albums include; Martha Wainwright (2005), I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too (2008), Come Home to Mama (2012); the JUNO Award nominated Songs in the Dark (2015), a collaboration with her half sister Lucy Wainwright Roche; Goodnight City (2016), and her latest album Love Will Be Reborn (2021). She is also an actress and was featured in Martin Scorsese's Aviator and the HBO special, Olive Kitteridge.
Born into music royalty, the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister to the highly acclaimed, genre defying singer Rufus Wainwright, Martha grew up in a world filled with incomparable musical legends Anna McGarrigle, Leonard Cohen, Suzzy Roche, Richard and Linda Thompson, Emmylou Harris, and struggled to find her voice in a milieu in which every drama was refracted through song. Then, in 2005, she released her critically acclaimed debut album, Martha Wainwright, which containing the blistering hit, “Bloody Mother F*cking Asshole,” which the Sunday Times called one of the best songs of the year. That release, and the albums that followed showcased Martha’s searing songwriting style and established her as a powerful voice to be reckoned with.
TOUR DATES
August 28-31 – Wentworth-North, QC – Live at Lost River
October 5 - Las Vegas, NV – RiSE Festival
October 28 - Toulouse, France - Bikini
October 29 - Bordeaux, France - Rocher de Palmer
October 31 - Nantes, France – Stereolux SOLD OUT
November 1 - Rouen, France - Le 106
November 2 - Lausanne, Switzerland -Théâtre De Beaulieu
November 4 - Paris, France - Zenith La Villette
November 5 - Lyon, France - Transbordeur
November 7 - London, United Kingdom - Troxy
November 10 - Nijmegen, Netherlands - Concertgebouw de Vereeniging SOLD OUT
November 11 - Brussels, Belgium – BOZAR SOLD OUT
November 12 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Carre Theatre SOLD OUT
