Patrick Watson was born in Lancaster, California on October 8th, 1979, but was raised in Hudson, Quebec. He studied music at Vanier College in Montreal.

His first published project was a solo album called Waterproof9, released in 2001, which was written to accompany the publishing Brigette Henry’s photobook Waterproof, with each song sharing the name of a photo in the book.

He released his first album, Just Another Ordinary Day, with his band, which is also called Patrick Watson, in 2003. In 2006 he released his second album, Close to Paradise, which received critical acclaim in Canada, and won the 2007 Polaris Music Prize.

In 2007, he collaborated with The Cinematic Orchestra on their single To Build a Home. To Build a Home became immensely popular in both Canada and abroad, and it’s success was noted to be because of Watson’s vocals on the song. To Build a Home was released on The Cinematic Orchestra’s 2007 album Ma Fleur, along with another Watson collaboration, That Home.

In 2009, Patrick Watson released his band’s third album, Wooden Arms, which made it to the finals for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. Their fourth album, 2012’s Adventures In Your Own Backyard, rocketed Watson to mainstream appeal, and he began touring outside of Canada, including a concert at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, where they were named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 25 “can’t miss” acts of the festival.

Watson and his band released their fifth album, Love Songs for Robots, in 2015. Four years later, Watson released his sixth album, Wave, in October 2019.

Watson’s band includes of himself, Joe Grass, percussionist Robbie Kuster, and bassist Mishka Stein. The band was originally formed with Watson, Kuster, Stein, and guitarist Simon Angell.

Watson resides in Montreal with his wife and two children.