Patrick Watson, the singer/songwriter, film composer and pianist based in Montreal, Canada – has returned with a new single called “Silencio,” featuring the rising French singer-songwriter November Ultra. The song was inspired by an experience had by Watson – an Award-winning artist that has released several beloved albums of explorative cinematic pop over the past two decades – in which he couldn’t speak or sing for nearly three months. “Silencio” explores some of the impressions that came to him during this time: does he talk too much?; the anxiety that comes with reliving a conversation, learning to be a better listener and the power of silence.
The song is out today, and will be part of a larger album project that Watson has been finishing, inspired by his missing voice, with more details to be announced soon.
“I think you like me better since I lost my voice,” Watson sings, over a mysterious and ethereal orchestration of arpeggiating guitars, softly touched drums, piano and burbling synths. He wrote the song with longtime collaborator, co-writer and bandmate Mishka Stein and November Ultra. Watson and November Ultra first met while taping a radio show at France Inter together in Paris, where they were booked on the same day (they will return to the same radio show – Côté Club – together for the release of “Silencio”). The song was recorded in a painter’s studio in Paris (Studio Alterio of artist Ruben Alterio), overlooking Montmartre. “With an enormous window and so much old Parisian charm and ghosts,” he says. The loft called for a classical guitar, so Stein ran to a nearby music shop and in one of several examples of kismet around this recording, found a beautiful instrument to feature on the recording.
