Such is his prolificacy that we sometimes wonder if producer Andrew Watt ever leaves the studio. This year alone he’s helmed and co-written albums for Elton John and Brandi Carlile and Lady Gaga, while also finding the time to work with Ed Sheeran on a song (Camera) from his recent album, Play.
Watt has now been talking to People about these and other projects, one of them being Hackney Diamonds, the 2023 record that he produced for the Rolling Stones.
Discussing how he got that prestigious gig, Watt says that the seeds were down when he met Mick Jagger virtually during the pandemic. After a few initial conversations, though, things went quiet, with other producers also thought to be in the mix, and it took an intervention by a Beatle for him to deal the deal.
“I got a call from [Jagger] a couple of months after that, and he was like, ‘Ronnie [Wood] just had dinner with Paul McCartney, and Paul recommended that you be our producer, so what do you think?" Watt recalls. “And I was like, ‘What?’ This is some crazy dream as a kid with a guitar to have those names talking about you. Paul actually got me the gig, and the rest was history. So, it's been an honour to work with those guys and become friends with them.”
Watt certainly played a prominent role in the creation of Hackney Diamonds, but his relationship with Lady Gaga on Mayhem, her acclaimed 2025 album, sounds like it was even closer. He co-wrote and co-produced every song, and says that it quickly became apparent that this was going to be a return to Gaga’s dance-pop roots.
The songwriting sessions, though, were pretty traditional: “I would be on guitar and she'd be on piano and just write songs,” says Watt, adding that the pair would “take a song that was going to be a dance song and do it like that and make sure it worked as a song that could be played just on a guitar and a piano.”
Watt says that Mayhem was “the most exciting album I've ever been a part of,” but it was no walk on the park. “We worked at it for longer than any album I've ever worked on consistently – a year straight without stopping,” he adds.
One of the tracks on the album - Die with a Smile, a duet with Bruno Mars - was actually released in 2024 and, unlike some other ‘duets’, actually came about as a result of the two stars being in a room together.
“We were in the middle of Mayhem and when the idea came for the two of them to collaborate we drove from Malibu – Michael, Gaga, and I – to Bruno Mars' studio,” says Watt. “We were in the studio that night making that song [until] 5am.”
Mars, it turns out, was keen to get involved in the production of Gaga’s vocal, giving Watt the chance to sit back and witness them working together.
“Just sitting there and watching her and Bruno interact, it was like Quincy [Jones]-Michael [Jackson] shit,” he says. “Watching that interaction was so special.”
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