New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Fischer-Z are a British group and main creative project of singer, guitarist and poet John Watts. In 1982 Watts temporarily dissolved Fischer-Z and John started a solo career under his own name. His 42-year career as Fischer-Z includes 22 albums, thousands of concerts worldwide and album sales in excess of two million.
Peter Gabriel, Steve Cropper and Dexy's Midnight Runners' Brass Section have all contributed to Fischer-Z recordings. They have performed to 167,000 in East Berlin alongside
James Brown, toured with the likes of The
Police and Dire Straits, appeared on the bill of Bob Marley's final European festival tour and have toured in the USA, Canada and throughout Europe. In recent years John Watts has developed a reputation as a multimedia artist, poet and playwright, amassing an impressive and eclectic range of creative work characterised by verve, warmth and humanity.
In the summer of 2022, John Watts headed to a secluded studio in the south of France armed with a collection of songs informed by his recent success as a solo performer. Accompanied by some old friends and new, the aim was to get back to basics and showcase the raw elements that had made to solo performances such a success. John's voice and his unique style of guitar playing. With that in mind the acoustic guitar became the driving force behind the project, becoming the anchor that allowed John freedom to explore a wide variety of themes and musical styles without losing any sense of cohesion.
Exploring themes such as Love, Power and People, the project examines how each of these themes can act as both a positive and negative force with the power to either support and elevate, or to suppress and suffocate.
With these distinct themes, it felt only natural to release the project over the course of three EP's under the blanket of 'Tryptich' with each EP exploring it's own individual theme.
EP 1. LOVE
EP.2 POWER
EP.3 PEOPLE
The first release will be the single 'The Hamburg Beat' from the EP1. LOVE. Released digitally on the 15th of September, the single will be accompanied by a music video shot in black and white and entirely on location, the film is a visual homage to the city of Hamburg, as it follows a lone protagonist (John) journeying across the city.
"It's a song from the heart, about the fear of an impending break up. Relationships are fragile and transient, they need to be cherished or they don't grow or flourish, but a big river goes on forever"