Zooming in on Watershed's new album, 'Elephant in the Room'

As Zoom fatigue sets in for many people, the thought of another work meeting held over the app is enough to make them roll their eyes. "Creativity", "collaboration" — those are often the words used to describe a sense of what's been lost without face-to-face interaction with colleagues.

But for the guys from Watershed, Zoom was the only way to communicate while they were putting together their seventh studio album during a large part of last year.

"I live in Cape Town and the rest of the guys are in Joburg. So I was writing the tunes here and we were chatting via Zoom trying to figure out the early sound and the early songs and how we wanted them to evolve," says Craig Hinds, frontman of the band that splashed onto the SA music scene 21 years ago with the single Indigo Girl.

Chatting over Zoom - ironically - he explains that once travel opened up domestically, he started travelling to Joburg as often as he could so the band could lay down vocals on the 12-track album they released last week.

While they were hoping to release the album last year to commemorate 20 years in the music industry and to follow on the heels of their 2018 album, Harbour, the delay has produced an album that reflects the times we're living in.

"The 2020 lockdown gave me a lot of material to write about. For other bands it's had the opposite effect — they haven't been able to write at all. I grabbed the opportunity because I watched events unfolding and the effect that had on relationships, people and their surroundings and the huge differences we've all had to deal with really quickly."

This Covid-induced frenzy is what inspired the title Elephant in the Room. As Hinds says, "It speaks to people not addressing particular things that are going on and letting important things pass us by".

Despite the new topic of conversation, the album remains true to the core Watershed sound fans have come to expect, something the band has prioritised while trying to evolve their sound to focus on live shows in the era of streaming.

The title track, Undone, is a reminder from Hinds that everything will work itself out. "Stepping out of the room the elephant is in, wishing for some peace, wishing for a chilled Sunday ... We need to sort this out and get on with this thing called life." 

• 'Elephant in the Room' is available across all digital platforms as well as the Watershed website.