ADAM WATTS : Murder Yesterday
Southern California-based singer-songwriter Adam Watts is an award-winning solo artist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer and writer of hit songs for other acts.  Watts’ new solo album Murder Yesterday, which he also produced, was released in September 2010.  Featuring a warm, organic, piano-centric sound—with live strings from the Section Quartet on eight of 11 tracks—the album marks a return to introspective songwriting for Watts.  
Its release follows an extended period of collaborative writing for outside projects, and fronting the four-piece alt-rock group Fallborn (which disbanded in 2010).  Making the record was a departure that Watts says allowed him to reach deeper than he had in a while, adding, “Though it was a roller coaster ride creatively and emotionally, I feel fresh and reconnected now.”
Literate, emotionally charged, and cinematic in scope, Murder Yesterday finds Watts holding a mirror to his thoughts and his faith, making sense of them through songs full of insight and immediacy.  Musically, he cites film composer Thomas Newman as a major influence on the album’s sound.  Thematically, as suggested by the title track, he says, “It was part of a letting go on many levels, trying to clean the slate mentally, and drop the weight of the past.  It was weird, when I picked up my guitar, there was baggage there, as if ghosts of past songs were haunting it.  Moving more toward piano took me into possibility, and out of my comfort zone a bit.  It felt like a creative rebirth.”
Watts was inspired to make Murder Yesterday after composing a song for fantasy author Cornelia Funke’s latest book, Reckless (he performed on her book tour nationwide).  Opening the album, “Reckless” picks up on themes in the novel that Watts readily identified with—“a good kind of recklessness that can drive you to be fearless for the sake of someone you care about.”  
From there, Watts compiled an album of songs connected in spirit and sound, striking a balance between dark and uplifting, personal reckoning and universal truth.  Only one other track was prompted by outside material—“Queen Misery” was inspired by Renee Yohe’s (To Write Love On Her Arms) recovery from self-mutilation and addiction.  Focused on the fine line between being there for someone and enabling them, the song is also the one that turned Watts toward the piano as his main instrument for Murder Yesterday.
    Other highlights include “When Everything Else Is Gone,” which Watts says, “cuts the widest and sort of encapsulates the album as a whole—for me, that song represents a recommitment to trying to live a life, creatively and otherwise, that is an authentic expression of my faith.”  “The Hard Way” is the track he feels cuts the deepest—“We’re all victims of ourselves in one way or another.  This song is about that, but also, and more importantly, it’s about grace.”  “All I Want” is touching and resonant love song written while the album was being mixed—“I had an urge to include something written about as recently as humanly possible…so it would truly be a snapshot of right NOW.”
    Murder Yesterday follows up 2006’s Sleeping Fire, which drew comparisons to Soundgarden, Radiohead, and Coldplay, and prompted Christianity Today to award it a five-star rating and write, “For those who appreciate smart songcraft, skilled musicianship, and creative wordings of faith, Adam Watts impresses on all counts.”  His debut album, The Noise Inside, won him a Best New Artist award from the magazine. On Murder Yesterday, Watts’ songs are, as ever, defined by a spiritual center and an exploration of faith.
    In his work with other artists—most notably via an ongoing collaboration with Andy Dodd—Watts has contributed to sales of more than 45 million albums for acts including Jesse McCartney, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato, Jeremy Camp, the Jonas Brothers, and Switchfoot.
Watts first began his musical journey with a drum kit at age ten.  He studied with renowned players including Dave Weckl, Chad Wackerman and Joey Heredia, and began a career as a professional drummer right out of high school.  Looking back, he recalls, “I liked everything about the drums—the way they looked, setting them up, the way they made me feel.  It was the same thing with songwriting, later.  I realized that instead of hitting things, I wanted to say things.”
    With Murder Yesterday, Adam Watts continues an artistic evolution marked by intense personal expression, emotional directness, and adventurous musicianship.