Watts, Khalid partner for ‘Feels’

Single released via Keep Cool/RCA Records

On-the-rise singer songwriter Watts partners with global superstar Khalid to release “Feels,” available now via Keep Cool/RCA Records. The journey to this release has been a wild ride for Watts, an up and coming new artist who first released his version of this song independently a few years ago. After stumbling upon it while searching for new music, Khalid reached out in admiration and a dream collab was born.

“I had written and recorded ‘Feels’ back in 2018 and it had been bubbling a bit, added to a few playlists, and one day I got a DM from Khalid telling me how much he loved the song,” Watts shares. “I was totally shocked, Khalid has been an artist that I have always admired, and to find out he was a fan of mine was incredible. I tried not to get my hopes up to much, but all of the stars aligned and here we are – releasing this new version of the song together. It’s been pretty wild and I am so proud of how it turned out.”

“I am always searching online for new music and I stumbled upon Watts’ song ‘Feels’ and was instantly drawn to it,” adds Khalid. “Just a beautiful song that I really felt an instant connection with. I hit Watts up to tell him how much I loved ‘Feels,’ and we started talking about music and what we were currently listening to and how we were holding up in the pandemic. Over a few weeks we built a really special friendship that evolved into us collaborating on this new version, which I love so much and is so special to me. I’ve always been someone who loves the art of a collaboration – it’s such an amazing way to expand your creativity and open yourself up to new sounds and ideas.”

An idea to collaborate grew out of those early DMs and lead to the release of this new version of “Feels.” It’s a full circle moment for Watts who wrote the song in 2018 when he was in a low place, uninspired by work and his social circle and unsure of if he as on the right path.

“Though I wrote this song a few years ago, I think now is the perfect time to share this new version with the world, there’s a line in the second verse that says ‘We’re all different people, but we’re together now. I know we’re equal, so let’s try to work it out’,” Watts shares. “It’s now, more than ever, that we all need to practice unity and work towards operating with a better system as a whole.”

Nashville based, Milwaukee-bred singer-songwriter Watts was responsibly building a career in investment real estate, having relegated music to “hobby” status after years of setting unrealistic expectations for himself and falling short. Focused on building a career while trying to make music that brought him joy, he released a handful of singles and landed on a few Spotify playlists, building a bit of an online following.

Growing up in Milwaukee, Watts grew up playing piano, soccer, basketball and was an avid skateboarder. The skateboard culture and community he found growing up heavily influenced his life and his music. In college Watts played in a band for fun but it never grew beyond local gigs. Drawing inspiration from artists like Khalid, the 1975 and Lany, Watts has been reinvigorated and is actively working on new music while looking forward to hitting the road again in the near future.

Khalid, who was named one of Time’s Most Influential People of 2019, has taken the world by storm since his first single, the 5x platinum “Location,” released right before his high school graduation, exploded onto the scene leading to a major label deal with Right Hand Music Group/RCA Records followed by the release of his debut album, the double platinum certified, American Teen.

His sophomore album Free Spirit, released to critical acclaim in 2019, was declared a New York Times “Critic’s Pick” and was called “superb” by the Associated Press. The album, which has been certified platinum by the RIAA, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and features the GRAMMY nominated multi-format No. 1 single “Talk”. Free Spirit has garnered over five billion worldwide streams.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com