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Half of multi-million
selling duo Everything But The Girl and with a career spanning twenty
five years, Ben Watt's route to international DJ status came after
EBTG's superb interpretations of electronica in the mid nineties
(Missing, Walking Wounded, Protection with Massive Attack, Temperamental).
Encouraged
by DJ-producer Howie B to start spinning he cut his teeth in London
in 1995 mixing freestyle sets of jazz, drum n bass and deep house.
Guest sets followed at top London nights such as James Lavelle's
Dusted, Movement, Fabio's Swerve and Howie B's own westside Sunday
parties. US DJ dates followed in 1996-7 for Giant Step in NYC, On
The One at DNA Lounge in San Francisco, Bossa Nova in Santa Monica
as well as numerous after-hours parties during EBTG's world tour
for their acclaimed 'Walking Wounded' album.
In 1998 he
established the seminal London deep house Sunday club and compilation
series, Lazy Dog, with Jay Hannan. Moving away from EBTG's mainstream
eclecticism and effortlessly into club-oriented dance music production,
he turned out an accompanying string of acclaimed dancefloor remixes
including 5-star re-rubs for Sade, Sunshine Anderson, Zero 7, Maxwell,
Meshell Ndegeocello and Sandy Rivera. Lazy Dog folded at the top
after five untouchable years of sell-out shows around the world
(incl the Miami WMC 2002 memorable Nikki Beach performance) and
compilation sales of 100,000.
Unfailing in
his energy and enthusiasm for music, in April 2003 Ben launched
his new independent record label and club night, Buzzin' Fly - a
new benchmark on the club scene with a cluster of revered underground
hits including his own 'Lone Cat' and 'A Stronger Man' (feat Sananda
Maitreya aka Terence Trent D'Arby) and a best-selling mix CD (Buzzin'
Fly Vol 1 - 'A house music classic' BPM / 'A sublime mix' iDJ).
Committed to new talent the label has already unearthed Justin Martin
(Breakthrough DJ nominee at House Music Awards 2004) and Lyon's
groundbreaking Manoo and Francois A. The label won Best Breakthrough
Label at the House Music Awards 2004.
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