Lewis Watson

The One-time Teenage Troubadour Has Cast-off the Commercial Cuffs, Channeling His Liberation From a Major Label Into Second Album Midnight

- Matt Parker

For many songwriters, Lewis Watson has lived the dream. Inspired by his hero Dallas Green, he picked up a guitar, posted some videos to YouTube and quickly gained a following. After the independent release of his 2012 debut EP, It’s Got Four Sad Songs On It BTW, he was scooped up by a major label and whisked through a whirl of touring, production and writing sessions, which culminated in 2014’s debut album The Morning. However, all was not as well...

“I was signed from my first EP, which I released independently [aged 19] and it had four of the first six songs I had ever written,” explains Lewis, now 24. “I was a baby in the industry. I said ‘yes’ to a lot of things and I should have started saying ‘no’ earlier. But I had this great opportunity and I didn’t want to ruin it. We had conflict over the direction that I wanted to go. I didn’t want to be this bubblegum pop artist. I wanted to be a guitar-wielding musician.”