‘Uh Oh’, He Did It Again: Patrick Watson’s Musical Rebirth
Renowned singer-songwriter, composer, and pianist Patrick Watson has announced his new album Uh Oh, set for release on September 26 via Secret City Records. To mark the occasion, he is also unveiling a brand-new single and video: “Peter and the Wolf.” The track serves as an exciting and cinematic preview of what’s to come. This fall, Patrick Watson will play two shows in the Netherlands, one of which—at Carré in Amsterdam—is already sold out.
The new album Uh Oh consists of 11 original tracks and reflects on life as a series of “uh oh” moments—from minor mishaps to profound existential fears. For Watson, it all began with a nightmare for any singer: he lost his voice and didn’t know if he would ever be able to sing again. What followed was a journey in search of new forms of expression. Uh Oh became a collaborative album, featuring voices from around the world—from icons like Martha Wainwright to rising talents such as Solann, MARO, November Ultra, and Charlotte Cardin.
“Every singer has these different magical powers on this record, and each song kind of represents that,” Watson explains. Together with his longtime bandmates—Mishka Stein, Olivier Fairfield, and co-vocalist Ariel Engle (La Force)—he crafted a series of intimate, organic songs that draw listeners into a world of melancholy, wonder, and stillness.
The album was recorded in various cities including Montreal, New Orleans, L.A., Mexico City, and Paris, using a minimalist approach: just two microphones, often in one or two takes. To perfect the sound, Watson even studied Cardi B’s “Up” for two months.
Also released today is the new single “Peter and the Wolf”—a dark, dreamy song inspired by the forests of Quebec and the nighttime streets of New Orleans. The accompanying video, directed by Watson and Sam Woy, was shot in the Quebec countryside. Speaking about the track, Watson says:
“This is something I never could’ve written when I was younger... I wrote the music thinking about that—not really a wolf, but that pitch-blackness.”
The song captures the tension of a nighttime walk, where the line between reality and imagination blurs:
“I was staring at the same ghost in a lot of ways—it felt like I was in a dream as it was coming towards me. And I thought, ‘I'm going to write this song as if the car is the wolf and I'm Peter.’”
The second half of the song transports listeners to a mystical swamp world in the American South:
“It was this beautiful emerald green everywhere we looked... I decided to make the swamp a mermaid... it will just swallow you like it swallows everything that flows into it.”
Previously released tracks “Silencio” (with November Ultra) and “Gordon in the Willows” (with Charlotte Cardin) already hinted at the introspective atmosphere of the new album, where silence, vulnerability, and soul connection take center stage.
Patrick Watson broke through with his self-titled band and rose to international acclaim. His music—balancing between pop, classical, electronic, and experimental—has been featured in TV series like Grey’s Anatomy and This Is Us, as well as films by directors including Denis Villeneuve and Wim Wenders. His single “Je te laisserai des mots” became the first French-language track to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify. Watson is a Polaris Music Prize winner, has composed over 15 film scores, and recently received the Impact Award at the 2024 Canadian Sync Awards.
With Uh Oh, Patrick Watson once again proves why he remains one of the most original and poetic voices in contemporary music.
