Do we like them?

Do we like Jay Watson?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful or dodgy found, but I also found little documented good, so this is a cautious middle-to-upper score.

Jay Watson is one of those musicians you've probably heard a lot more than you've heard about. He's best known as a member of Tame Impala's live band and of Pond, and he makes his own records under the name GUM. That's a lot of Perth psych-rock in one bloke.

The latest news is musical. In February 2026 he announced GUM's seventh album, Blue Gum Way, with the single Celluloid. It came out in March, and a feature around then had him talking about stepping into the light as GUM.

On the harm check, I searched for his words and acts on LGBTQ+ and trans people, women, climate and politics, and found nothing. No rants, no campaigns, no conspiracy-theory slide. That's a pass on harm, but a quiet one: a lack of evidence isn't a ringing endorsement, and he mostly lets the music talk.

On the good-person side, I found no court cases or accusations against him personally. The big Tame Impala legal stoush I turned up was a 2015 royalties dispute with a label boss, and he wasn't a party to it. His reputation looks like that of a working musician who keeps collaborating with mates.

The honest gap is the good stuff. I couldn't find a documented charity, cause or standing-up-for-others story, so I'm not going to invent one. The score reflects that: no red flags, not much on the record either way, and I couldn't open the long interviews to dig deeper.