Ben Watkins is Juno Reactor

A Conversation with the the Electronic Musician and the Matrix Trilogy Film Composer

A child of the punk movement, he has for the past two decades become as synonymous with electronic music as producer/innovator Brian Eno. His incorporation of live performances from some of the world's most accomplished musicians on traditional instruments in his song arrangements has placed him in the rarified pantheon of artists like Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon. His new release Labyrinth is a patchwork puzzle of life, death, hope and dreams. Like Clark Kent to Superman, Ben Watkins lives in the shadow of his alter ego, Juno Reactor.

How did you get involved in music and what is your musical background?

I sort of a came from a classical education. When I was four or five my father exposed to me a lot of classical music. My dad was really into classical music. So I started off just listening to a lot of that when I was young and began lessons learning the piano, violin and classical guitar. Then when I was around 14 I became more interested in rock music. (Laughs)

How did you get started in Electronic music?

I was interested in many different types of music and I tried my hands at a quite lot things it was only when I got involved with electronic music in the early 80's that I felt at home.

I noticed Budgie (of Siouxsie and the Banshees fame) appears on your new release LABYRINTH, how did he end up playing drums on the song "War Dogs"

I've been wanting to do something with him for ages. I had done some remixes for them over the years and I wrote a track ( I'm Here...Another Planet) for them that was used in the film Lost In Space. That track was very much a patchwork thing. I produced the track for their album and so he was already around. The weird thing is that I hadn't really planned on recording a 3/4 track but when he came to the studio it just seemed appropriate. Its great having acoustic drums. I can get kind of bored with electronic drums and just electronic everything. To have more players with real drums can only make the recording that much more exciting.

When one thinks of a Juno Reactor record, one can't help but notice all of the virtuoso musicians you tend to work with, how do you find these wonderful musicians from all over the world?