Why Lewis Watson's Haircut Is The Difference Between Drinking & Not Drinking On Flights

Lewis Watson is chilling out in UMA's office, running his fingers through some pretty bedraggled-looking blonde locks. "I'm going to chop it off soon," he shrugs. "I mean, we've pushed it pretty hard, this is our fourth time bleaching it and it's started breaking." It's a far cry from the emo fringe the world's teenyboppers fell in love with in 2010 during young Watson's YouTuber heyday. "I chose that hairstyle when I was 14 and late for maths. And, like, six years later I still looked like I was 14 and late for maths - I got fed up with people saying, 'No way, you're 20?' Actually, on one of the flights here I asked for a gin and tonic and the flight attendant laughed at me! And I was like, 'Okay, seriously, can I have that now?' and she's like 'No, love, you have to be 18.' I got my passport out like ‘Look, I’m almost 21'... It was so degrading. I felt like shit all the time so I had to change it, and now I don’t look like a toddler anymore.” 

"The first record was a real Frankenstein of an album. I love it, you'll only ever have one first album..."

Of his online beginnings, Watson acknowledges, "I was so lucky with timing. I never really wanted anybody to listen to my music. It terrified me, the thought of anybody hearing me sing. At the time, YouTube was so new and none of the videos were music videos; it was people wrestling in the garden or 'How To Fold Your Clothes In Four Seconds'." Yeah, but he made one of those, too: How To Make A Grilled Cheese. "That was one of the worst decisions I've ever made," he grimaces. "When people started watching, I wanted to delete my account straight away. It scared me so much, I hated the sound of my own voice and I knew I wasn't very good at the guitar."

After being hounded with requests for originals, Watson finally pieced together enough tracks to self-release an EP - it's got four sad songs on it BTW - in 2012, and after shooting to the top of the iTunes charts he inked a deal with Warner. "They had said straight away in the first meeting, 'This could be a really good partnership here because we'll be picking your brains'... I was 18 years old and I thought, 'Shit, this is it!' It sounded perfect... I was so excited, and honestly it started like that."

But by the time they got around to releasing his debut album the morning in 2014, things turned sour. "I think with the record — because we'd done five EPs — I'd never done an album before, and I think they were very aware of that and they just decided to take the reins... The guy who signed me, my A&R, got fired - or, well, I still don't know whether he got fired, he left the company six months before the album came out. So Matt my manager and I were basically A&Ring it... The first record was a real Frankenstein of an album. I love it, you'll only ever have one first album, but this album [midnight] - it's been a real joy." 

While he's hoping to head back to his roots, with more covers, on his channel HolyLoowis, he's conscious of the fact that, if he was to do it all again from scratch in 2017, he probably wouldn't have the same success. "Personally I don't think that I'd be able to make it in this climate," he states. "Subconsciously at the start I thought, 'I'll just pretend I never did it and hope people don't check up'... I think people just struggle to get taken seriously when they've done that, like, 'You've come from YouTube, they can't be a real artist,' kinda thing."