Wajatta — the musical duo of Reggie Watts and John Tejada — return with their second album, Don’t Let Get You Down, due out on the groundbreaking Brainfeeder label on February 28, 2020. Coming from different worlds, but sharing a passion for the rich history of electronic music, beat-boxer/comedian/musician Watts and electronic music artist/DJ/producer Tejada brings out the best in each other’s formidable skill sets. Where the duo’s debut album, Casual High Technology, hinted at the broad stylistic possibilities inherent in the marriage of Watts’ elastic, soul-stirring vocals and Tejada’s layered, melodically inventive productions, Don’t Let Get You Down makes good on that promise.

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Wajatta in November 2019
Extended Biography

When beat-boxer/comedian/musician Reggie Watts and electronic music artist/DJ/producer John Tejada first joined forces as Wajatta, the results were hailed as “a surprising and winning new collaboration” (NPR) and “in league with Frankie Knuckles and Jamie Principle’s classic house” (Los Angeles Times). Coming from different worlds, but sharing a passion for the rich history of electronic dance music, Watts and Tejada bring out the best in each other’s formidable skill sets. It’s a cosmic collision of funk-infused techno and soul-steeped vocal acrobatics, equaling and at times surpassing the brilliance of their solo work.

Wajatta (a mashup of the artists’ last names, pronounced wa-HA-ta) began in the most fitting of places: an underground warehouse party in 2016, where John was playing a late-night DJ set and Reggie, a long-time fan of John’s propulsive techno productions, was in the audience. From there a friendship blossomed, formed over strong coffee, similar backgrounds (John was born in Austria and raised in Los Angeles; Reggie moved at a young age from Germany to Montana and later Seattle) and similar interests: ‘80s sci-fi films, old-school hip-hop.

When they began making music together, the chemistry was immediate. In their very first session at John’s home studio in Los Angeles, they completed three tracks. “It was pretty instantaneous,” Reggie agrees. “What he played me was really fun and sparked a lot of possibilities in my head.”

Their initial collaborations resulted in the acclaimed 2018 debut album, Casual High Technology, that seamlessly married Reggie’s mix of beat-boxing, scat-singing and multi-octave, R&B-inspired crooning with John’s nimble, harmonically rich forays into house, techno, hip-hop and beyond. Since that release, the two friends have squeezed more recording sessions into their demanding schedules, continuing to find new inspiration in one another’s talents. 

The best of those sessions are now part of a second full-length, Don’t Let Get You Down, due for release on Brainfeeder on February 28, 2020. As thrilling as Casual High Technology was, Don’t Let Get You Down is a major leap forward, a reflection of the way John and Reggie’s partnership has grown deeper and more intuitive.

They build most tracks from scratch, bouncing ideas off one another from initial spark to finished product. It’s all done in person: “We never just share files,” John notes. They also try to keep their sessions as spontaneous as possible, in a neverending quest to, as Reggie puts it, “capture the freshness.” As a result, Don’t Let Get You Down’s 11 tracks crackle with the energy of fresh ideas captured at the moment of inspiration. It’s electronic music made organically, from two masters at the top of their respective games.

That organic approach extends to their live shows, at which Tejada rebuilds the duo’s tracks on his samplers and synths, while the multi-octave Watts conjures vocal symphonies out of little more than a loop station and a delay pedal. Besides a number of concerts in Los Angeles, they’ve performed a handful of shows around the U.S. — San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Taos — as well as high-profile events and festivals such as Movement in Detroit, MUTEK in Montreal, CRSSD Festival in San Diego, two Dirtybird shows (BBQ in 2018 and Campout in 2019), and a live studio session for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic.

On Don’t Let Get You Down’s final track, “All I Need Is You,” listeners can get a taste of one of Wajatta’s most unique concerts. The fully improvised song was part of a spontaneously created 90-minute performance for Club Something at The Sweat Spot, an L.A. dance studio run by choreographer Ryan Heffington (Sia, Spike Jonze, FKA Twigs). It’s a six-minute snapshot of the improvisational brilliance that lies at the heart of everything Wajatta does — an approach summed up in Reggie’s off-the-cuff one-liner near the track’s end: “We’re making everything here for you from scratch — just to ensure maximum freshness.”

Watts can currently be seen nightly as the bandleader for CBS’s The Late Late Show With James Corden. He first burst into the American audience’s lives as the co-host of IFC’s groundbreaking variety series Comedy Bang! Bang! Over his 15-year career as a solo performer, he’s honed a unique style that blurs the lines between music and comedy, as is evident in his 9-minute TED Talk in 2012, as well as multiple comedy specials for both Comedy Central and Netflix, and at the invitation of Jack White, the record Reggie Watts Live at Third Man Records. Everything he does is 100% improvised — most notably, the multi-layered music tracks he builds on the fly, looping his beat-boxed rhythms and soulful vocals into spontaneous musical inventions that are funky, hypnotic and often hilarious. See updates at https://www.instagram.com/reggiewatts.

In Wajatta, Reggie infuses those same techniques into John’s sinuous sounds, creating a refreshingly playful take on electronic music — one in which it’s often hard to separate the machines from the human voice. “There’s a lot of stuff happening that you may not realize is Reggie,” John explains. Though he’s a big fan of Reggie’s uncanny beat-boxing skills, John prefers to disguise those effects among the pulses and patters of his analog synths and vintage drum machines. “It’s cool for it to be like, ‘I didn’t know that was his voice.’”

John, for his part, has been at the vanguard of West Coast techno since 1994, releasing a succession of acclaimed albums, singles and EPs for such prestigious labels as Kompakt, Poker Flat, Cocoon, Plug Research and his own long-running imprint, Palette Recordings. Among his best-known tracks are the moody, mesmeric “Farther and Fainter” (from his 2011 Kompakt full-length Parabolas) and the 2005 underground banger, “Sweat (On the Walls)” — now a staple of Wajatta’s high-energy live shows, where Reggie delivers witty, freestyle riffs on the track’s original spoken-word vocals. See updates at https://www.instagram.com/johntejadaofficial.

With influences ranging from Detroit techno to Chicago house, Marvin Gaye to Mantronix, Wajatta’s sound is both familiar and wholly original — and, like all great dance music, ultimately life-affirming, as Reggie vocalizes, sometimes without words, the joyful energy of his and John’s funky, shape-shifting productions. “That’s the great thing about working with John,” Reggie says with an infectious grin. “He’s so steeped in the history of this music. I just pick up on that and run with it.”

Arts organization Create:Fixate (C:F) presents Branching Out on Saturday, November 7, 2015. C:F will also be branching out into a new location, holding this installment of the highly anticipated ongoing event series at Werkartz, a new multidisciplinary arts complex in LA’s Chinatown. For over a decade, C:F has established its unique signature blend of presenting vibrant visual art and music in an immersive cultural experience. These one-night-only events feature top emerging talent from around the globe, with an emphasis on the local talent of Los Angeles. Find Your Grind Foundation is a major supporter of the event. The excitement begins at 4:00pm with a three-hour gallery preview. The main event starts at 7:00pm and closes at 1:30am. Read the rest of this entry »

Give a Beat is proud to announce A Positive Spin: Remixed, the new non-profit organization’s global launch event in Downtown Los Angeles, on Saturday, October 24, 2015. The inspirational event starts with a daytime electronic music production/DJing workshop for youth from 3:00pm to 6:00pm at Impact HUB LA. Scratch DJ Academy will provide gear and instructors for the workshop. The main event will follow, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, featuring performances by Pleasuremaker (aka Joey McGuire) of Afrolicious with the legendary Sandra Izsadore (the Queen Mother of Afrobeat) and Gabriel ‘Gato’ Ferrer on percussion. Alex Simpson, the Associate Director of California Innocence Project, and exonerated football player Brian Banks will also make moving presentations. Moving to nearby Pattern Bar, A Positive Spin: Remixed will culminate with an after-party from 9:00pm to 2:00am, featuring DJ Garth, Wiseacre,Tamara, Sascha Lahti, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

Give a Beat is proud to announce A Positive Spin: Remixed, the new California-based 501c3 non-profit organization’s global launch event in Downtown Los Angeles, on Saturday, October 24, 2015. The inspirational event starts with a daytime electronic music production/DJing workshop for youth from 3:00pm to 6:00pm at Impact HUB LA. Scratch DJ Academy will provide gear and instructors for the workshop. The main event will follow, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, featuring performances by Joey McGuire of Afrolicious with the legendary Sandra Izsadore and Gato on percussion. Alex Simpson, the Associate Director of California Innocence Project, and exonerated football player Brian Banks will also make presentations. Moving to nearby Pattern Bar, A Positive Spin: Remixed will culminate with an after-party from 9:00pm to 2:00am, featuring DJ Garth, Wiseacre, and more.

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Pasadena Arts Council (PAC) is proud to announce AxS Festival 2014 | Curiosity, in diverse venues throughout the greater Pasadena area from Friday, September 19, 2014, through Sunday, October 5, 2014. AxS [ak-sis], produced by Pasadena Arts Council in partnership with numerous Pasadena arts and science institutions, is a two-week+ citywide festival spanning three weekends that explores the nexus of artistic and scientific inquiry, promoting experimentation and cross-fertilization between these disciplines. Programming is saturated with innovative visual art, theatre, dance, music, photography, history, science, literature, film, and architecture. The 2014 theme, Curiosity, was inspired by the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)-built Mars Rover, “Curiosity,” which is currently exploring the Martian surface some 50 million miles above us. The goal for the festival is to create audience experiences that bridge the boundary between art and science. Many events are free.  Read the rest of this entry »

On September 1st, Berlin-based label Slices of Life will release a new John Tejada 3-song EP on vinyl only. This new EP will be distributed by Forced Exposure in the U.S. and Kompakt worldwide. The 12″ EP, entitled Times Like This, contains three tracks:
• A:…”Times Like This” [6:14]
• B1:..”A Slice From The Past” [4:59]
• B2:..”From A Slice To A Draw” [5:46]

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Grand Performances announces its 28th annual season with a line-up full of fan favorites, new musical obsessions, and events at the gorgeous California Plaza under the spectacular Downtown Los Angeles skyline. Starting Friday, June 13, 2014 and running through Saturday, September 13, 2014, the Grand Performances 2014 Summer Concert Series brings artists and audiences together for an array of music, dance, film, and spoken word featuring performers from around the globe and the streets of Los Angeles. Every show is free; no advanced reservations are required.  Read the rest of this entry »

In conjunction with Detroit’s Movement Electronic Music Festival, Give a Beat and Notes for Notes® launch Music for Music, a fundraising campaign featuring an online auction and a SubPac sponsored story sharing contest. Music for Music showcases the transformative power of music and taps into the love and energy booming within the EDM community to raise funds for the construction of a Notes for Notes’ after-school music studio at a Detroit Boys & Girls Club location. The campaign runs from Wednesday, May 14, 2014 through Thursday, June 5, 2014.

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Conspiracy Lab Recordings announces the release of Arrival, a 4-song EP by Los Angeles electronic music artist Pyrotec, aka Caesar Garcia, on Tuesday, June 3, 2014. Arrival is a concept EP that takes listeners on an upbeat interplanetary journey. Sonically, the EP is a fun mix of electronic dance music and old school hip-hop styling, featuring performances by J Bird, Gabe leGrand, EVeryman, Earl Iodine, and Damaris Siramad. Arrival will be available digitally through iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, Rdio, Xbox Music, Rhapsody, eMusic, iHeartRadio, Shazam, and many other outlets. The album will also be available in CD format via Amazon. Read the rest of this entry »