Galecstasy have never been interested in playing it safe, but Wattzotica pushes their free-form ethos into new territory. The Los Angeles experimental duo join forces with legendary bassist Mike Watt for a fully improvised, cross-generational trio session, expanding Galecstasy’s core of Raquel Bell and drummer/producer Primary Mystical Experience (Jared Marshall). What began simply as an agreement to book a recording session evolved into something larger, as Galecstasy stepped into Watt’s world and Watt stepped into theirs, revealing a shared space where a new project could take shape. With no prewritten material or formal frameworks, the trio worked by reacting to one another in the moment, later shaping extended passages where everything locked together into a cohesive whole. Engineered, edited, and mixed by Marshall, the album captures three musicians meeting in the middle of sound, discovering structure through intuition and trust. In an email exchange, Mike Watt, Raquel Bell, and Jared Marshall discuss how the collaboration came together, the role of improvisation, and why embracing uncertainty remains central to their creative process.
How did this collaboration initially come about, and at what point did it become clear that you would put out an album together?
Mike Watt: I said yes as soon as Jared and Raquel asked me to do it. They were both the fire-starters and the shot-callers. I was and am way into it.
Raquel Bell: After recording my first solo record in Texas, I went on Watt’s radio show, The Watt From Pedro Show. I brought Jared with me because we had just started Galecstasy. Watt let us record the show in his living room in Pedro because we were living out of the tour van and didn’t have internet. It was a life-changing moment for me. I was a huge Minutemen fan. Watt handed me D. Boon’s guitar before the interview. It felt magical. Watt is magical. The making of Wattzotica has been magical. It just happened because we all love life and we were all cut out to push the envelope. It is hard to explain these things. You fall in love. Music is like that. Music has a mind of its own and some of us are crazy enough to jump on the ride.
Jared Marshall: RB has hit on the crux of the logistics. In terms of “knowing” if we would put an album out together, I would say none of us knew that part. We agreed to book a session to record and that opportunity itself was amazing. You never know with these things honestly… it’s all part of striking out on the path for the chance to make something amazing. I will say that after that first session, we played back the raw tracks over our PA and we all were ignited with joy because we knew that we had made something special right then and there.
Did you each feel that you were stepping into unfamiliar territory, and if so, in what ways?
Mike Watt: Yes, unfamiliar cuz I had never played w/them, but that’s reality cuz who’s born w/playing w/anyone actually? I guess in this way this album has the perspective to be a document in that way, amongst others. When I was a young Minuteman I saw records more like being flyers for gigs but see them more as documents as I get less younger.
Raquel Bell: In a way Galecstasy was stepping into Watt World and Watt was stepping into Galecstasy World. But when we arrived at that moment when the worlds crossed, another World revealed itself and that is Wattzotica World. We didn’t know this place existed. All of us had a feeling or we wouldn’t have done it. But you never know if a record is going to turn out any good. We hoped it would be good but we didn’t know. Yeah, it was unfamiliar territory. We didn’t write songs. We didn’t say hey let’s play this track in B, or try this riff on. We all dove off the diving board at the same time and took the risk. I think we were all pretty surprised at where we arrived. Honestly I think this record existed in some way before we recorded it but we had to unlock some level in order to bring it to Earth. Watt drove five hours in traffic just to get to the studio. I had been very sick before we recorded and I had been scratching and clawing my way back to life as the recording date approached. This music just had to get free from the astral and into the material. It has many facets.
Jared Marshall: Absolutely. This is how I prefer to approach making music and life in general. Anytime you are uncomfortable or unsure it is an opportunity to see how you will respond, find out what’s inside of you. It takes courage and the three of us have shown that over and over in our musical endeavors. But I really want to stress that the music is the final product of a life lived a certain way.
The various elements seem to come together very naturally. Were there any challenges or things that didn’t work at the start? Did your sound or process evolve as you worked together?
Mike Watt: Well, I was afraid I might choke but I ’pert-near always feel that way. You’re very kind to say we came together cuz that was my goal. I wanted to do good for Jared and Raquel. I felt I owed them the best I could bring when we did that.
Raquel Bell: I was also afraid I would choke because I had been sick for so long. When we played our first gig together at an old fire house in the desert, that was the first gig I had played in a long time due to illness. I had surgery on my nose to assist my breathing and I couldn’t move my face at all for a long time. I couldn’t believe that my first recording project and live show after recovery was with Mike Watt??!!!!!??? I felt like a sliver of who I had been when we first met. It helped me recover. I listened to the rough mixes about a hundred times driving all over California. I was head bopping through the deserts, the redwoods, the cities. It sounded good everywhere. Everything sounded good from the start. Jared is a magician in the studio. He edited down what we recorded and left in the juicy parts. We didn’t waste any time when we tracked. It was raw and great. It was FUN.
Jared Marshall: In terms of this record it all happened very naturally. We literally just got in the same room, hit record, and started playing. RB and I have been exploring playing music together now for over 7 years and we have had a sort of telepathic communication from moment one. Watt is a true musician and bass player with an iconoclastic style. When those elements all meet together you get a fascinating soup, a new creation. Since this session we have continued to play together (and record!) and yes the sound has evolved again in a natural way. We now know each other’s styles a little better and IMO are pushing the envelope even further.
Could you discuss your creative process? The press release says the music is improvised, but could you elaborate on that? Did you have improvisational sessions and then listen back to shape the songs, or were pieces developed more individually? To what degree did you add additional parts or production after the fact?
Mike Watt: I was only involved in the initial recordings and the way they went was usually Jared would set up a groove. I’d try and jump on so we could get some foundation going for Raquel to dance on. Yes, it was all improvised, nothing scored. We did hours but it seemed like seconds in a way. I got way into it. Jared’s a very good drummerman. Him and Raquel added stuff after but I couldn’t tell you exactly what. It’s like a sausage factory thing in a way, you know: is it lips, is it assholes? (maybe you don’t wanna take the tour?) I don’t know what went into it after our original throwdown but my ears like chowing the final product.
Raquel Bell: I also have to give major respect to Jared for how the recording turned out. Jared and I spent time before the session reviewing Watt’s catalogue of recordings. (Our actual recording date got pushed back because of the pandemic.) Jared and I decided that our trio record should really feature Watt’s bass primarily and his awesome sound. We wanted Watt front and center. The rest was Jared being a studio wizard and creating a recording environment to create the sound we wanted. We used an analogue mixer for the tracking. Watt showed up ready to plug in. We had converted a house on a mountain top near Joshua Tree National Park as our recording studio. We knew we were going to put the bass amp in the bedroom. Watt has the best gear in the world. I’m pretty sure Jared used four channels just for the bass. He knew how he wanted it to sound. The idea was to get everything perfect as we tracked it. So for weeks I was playing Jared’s drums while he tweaked the mics and we tested different mics. This is one of our secrets in the studio. We work hard to get drum sounds that will blow your mind. I was primarily using the System-8 synthesizer for my parts. I had a gazillion pedals. I had notes written all over my gear with ideas. I created a sound palette that I thought would wiggle nicely around the bass and prayed that I would have enough fire to match the power of the WATT!!! I don’t really believe in improvised music even though I have dedicated my whole life to making it. I think that music flows and we bring it through us like a channel. It is scary every single time. That is why it is so great.
Jared Marshall: I have a long history of producing artists, songs, and records so for me my process was not very different than it has been in the past. When we say improvised it means no discussion or frameworks decided beforehand, just reacting to the sounds created by all 3 people in the moment. I then took that raw documentation and combed through to find the extended moments where we had all started to ride the same wave so to speak. As a longtime improviser, these moments are very easy to identify, everything coalesces and stops sounding separate and instead becomes a living organism with a personality of its own greater than its parts. You have to make decisions and trust them and that’s what I did. Once that happened I could hear opportunities for a little more melody or development to tie things together compositionally. That’s where my “additional synthesizers” credit comes in. There’s maybe about 4 tracks where I added some lines on top mostly in the interest of melody or motif. The rest I felt speaks for itself.
Do you see this as a continuing project? What’s in the immediate future? Do you have live shows planned around this album, or videos in the works?
Mike Watt: There’s another album getting ready that was recorded as a quartet w/Lisa Cameron w/us. At the end of this month we’ll record stuff live for a third album so yes to your question.
Raquel Bell: Yes. We are excited for the release shows. Friday February 27th at 2220 Arts + Archives, a favorite venue in Los Angeles. Saturday February 28th at Now Again Records in Highland Park. The videos are in the works. A bunch of wild footage taken during some winter storms with my night vision cameras. I am really excited about the videos. Also the vinyl turned out spectacular thanks to our incredible label, Mystery Circles. I think the first edition sold out. The second edition will be announced soon. I hope people buy the LP because it will help keep Wattzotica cranking out the jams. And a huge shoutout to our fans who have bought the album.
Jared Marshall: Totally! There is a lot more to come and quite a bit already recorded that we are really excited about. We have plans to work on mixing the second record towards the end of February and as Watt mentioned we will be recording our LP release show at 2220 Arts + Archives in hopes of creating the third record! This music makes itself and is a joy to be a part of so here’s cheers to more expansive sounds entering the world.
Purchase Wattzotica at galecstasy.bandcamp.com.
