Yesterday, WATSON, also known as Watson Turnipseed, shared the lead single “Dear Margot” ahead of his debut LP set to release on Feb. 14, 2023, along with an accompanying music video.

“Dear Margot” was recorded in Los Angeles over the summer of 2022 in Los Angeles and sees Turnipseed on vocals with Nate Rocco on guitar, Chris Cool on bass, and Tanner Cooper, also known as TACO, on percussion. After the initial recordings, Turnipseed returned to New Orleans to finish and polish the single with producer Paulie Schoen at Trombone Shorty’s  Buckjump Studio, where he also added trumpet from Jelani Bauman.

“I wrote ‘Dear Margot’ in June while I was in Africa,” Turnipseed shared with Relix. “My best friend sent me a picture of him in the hospital holding his newborn baby, Margot. I thought to myself, ‘What would I tell this baby Margot about the world and what it’s like?’ I sat on the porch in Zanzibar and listened to waves roll in and wrote the hook right there. Time is undefeated, no, we’ll never beat it, but for you, I want to try.” 

The accompanying music video–which serves as the first visual taste for the eight-track project on the horizon–was shot at Breton Island in the Breton Sound in the Gulf of Mexico by Wood Simmons. With the use of a seaplane and actors Aurelien Barnes and Evie Williams, Simmons captured the core of WATSON’s first offering by mirroring the sense of comfort, vulnerability and connection that comes through a direct link with nature.

It’s notable that bringing in February, WATSON plans to resume touring extensively with stops on the West Coast, East Coast and the South of the United States.

Enjoy WATSON’s “Dear Margot” below.