Dean Watson has been involved in Ottawa’s music community since the early 1990s. He began playing in such legendary clubs as The Pit, The Downstairs Club, The Whipping Post and Zaphod’s, with the alternative folk rock outfit Big Fish Eat Little Fish.
During this period Watson began producing professionally in his hometown of Ottawa. Along with Seismic, early records included Ana Miura, Lindsay Ferguson, Sarah Hallman, Marc Charron and many other local artists who have since established themselves within the community.
While attending Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts program in 2000, he established the independent label Coqi Records and oversaw the release of many records by artists from all over Canada; Hamilton’s Wax Mannequin, Victoria’s Corwin Fox, London’s Balls Falls, Montreal’s East Coast Disaster Complex and his own Ottawa based band Seismic, among others.
After numerous tours, Watson left BFELF in 1996 and began experimenting with four track cassette recorders, soon helping friends create cheap demos. This turned into a life long passion for recording technologies and music production.
In 2004, upon returning from a three month Australian showcase tour for Coqi (funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs), Watson turned his focus to producing and engineering exclusively.
In 2005, Watson founded The Gallery Recording Studio in Ottawa’s Glebe community. Through hard and dedicated work, The Gallery Recording Studio has earned a solid reputation in Ottawa. Since its inception, he has worked on over 300 records for artists covering all genres.
As a multi-instrumentalist, Watson supports many of the artists with whom he works. He is a dedicated producer who invests a lot of energy into each record and will continue to be an active member of the Ottawa music community for many more years to come.
some recent work: