Josh Nelson interviews Will Wood exclusively for SwitchBitch Noise Magazine
Singer-songwriter Will Wood recently finished up his Slouching Through Bethlehem tour. The tour, more accurately a recounting of Will’s slouch through Branson, Missouri, was partly a concert tour but also a comedy tour by similar measures. We previously interviewed Will Wood in advance of his Slouching Through Bethlehem tour and got some pretty great insights. We also got to interview Will after this tour and learned even more information about this artist’s experiences with the events!
Will Wood, on Tour Expectations Versus Reality
SwitchBitch Noise: How do you feel about your first tour after your hiatus? Do you think the tour fulfilled your expectations?
Will Wood: It was a rush, feeling that sense of adventure and exploration that comes from putting your all into something and taking the challenges as learning experiences. I got to simultaneously feel like a beginner again while also getting thousands of people who might’ve expected an avant-pop band to see my quasi-standup show. Frankly, I can’t believe it worked. It should’ve crashed and burned, gotten me canceled, and sent me back to half-empty City Wineries, but it seems a lot of people felt really strongly about the show, so there’s an egotistical, petty little bastard in my brain going “I told you I was good.” I’m exhausted now, and sort of still recovering, but it was so worth it. Great to re-introduce myself. Big thanks to everyone who came out and gave me a chance to do something they didn’t expect. I hope to keep doing that.
I’ve seen some talk on YouTube and Reddit wondering if you’ve seen any of the edits to your music (there are some interspersed with They Might Be Giants, some with Carly Rae Jepsen, and various others). Have you, and how do you feel about inadvertently being part of these offbeat aural amalgamations?
Haha, I can’t say I have. I sort of try to avoid the online fandom, I’m glad they dig the stuff I do but it’s really not my world. Hope they’re having fun.
My photographer and partner. Britt Bender, has remarked to me many times since Slouching Towards Bethlehem that she believes your music and by extension your performances have been changed for the better by your hiatus. Internally, what does that feel like for you?
I’ve definitely seen a lot of post-hiatus growth. Although it wasn’t one for me, I recommend it as a marketing move. Very dramatic. But I think it probably changed how people saw some of my material, and it allowed me some time to rediscover my genuine love for what I do and gain some perspective, so I definitely could feel myself getting more into it and being more inspired to create something I found meaningful. I really cared about the art and craft in a way I didn’t have the energy to before the hiatus.
How did Slouching Towards Bethlehem affect your drive to create more of your art in the future? Did the aftereffects of this latest tour give you any momentum to create more art, be it music, visual media, or anything else?
I’m not sure if it gave me momentum, exactly. I’m tired. But it did give me some confidence to take risks and keep faith that the people who get it, get it, and I do find myself feeling more emotionally attached to the creative process itself. So I’m not exactly energized by it, but I am encouraged.
This past Halloween, you reunited with your old bandmates, the Tapeworms, to surprise fans with a one-off, full-on set that I’m pretty confident nobody expected. How did it feel to work with the Tapeworms again? Was that show indicative of any plans for the future?
It was fun to play with a band again. It’s such a different type of thing from what I usually do, and I’m not sure it’s going to become a regular thing any time soon, but yeah, we’ve got some plans for an East Coast run to celebrate the tenth anniversary of my first album and play a little of everything I’ve done since. I’ll probably do some West Coast shows solo with the more personal side as well. More on that coming soon.
Will, on the Track Names of Remastered Albums
Your remasters of studio albums in the past see you rename songs as commentary, oftentimes remarking (intentionally or otherwise) on how you or your music is perceived by your fans. If there was a song outside of your studio album work that you’ve done and that you hypothetically wanted to remaster, a) what song would it be and b) what would you rename it in the remastering process?
I just renamed them for streaming. Didn’t want to cause any metadata hiccups in the distribution, so I made some silly jokes. I don’t know how much of it was commentary on how the tunes are perceived, I try not to pay too much attention to that sort of thing. I can’t say I have any thoughts about doing it again, I just really wanted to give that album the mix I feel like it should’ve had.
While your current music is essentially devoid of, and untouchable by, genre labels on the whole, if there was ever a genre that you wanted to build an entire studio album around, what genre would it be and why?
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe more traditional American folk, maybe something painfully unlistenable. I feel like I have a tendency to make radical plans and the results always seem to end up somewhere between my wildest version of my vision and whatever’s most fun and fulfilling for me. So who knows, maybe I’ll put a little of both in the next one.
Will Wood on Hatsune Miku
In my previous interview with you, despite my best attempts the fans seemed adamant to read my preamble as proof that you are a fan of Hatsune Miku, the Vocaloid pop sensation. I was merely trying to explain that every generation has someone in music who breaks convention. To that end, I’d like to ask, with that in mind, what is your take on that assessment by your fans? Are you yourself a fan of Hatsune Miku?
I am not haha. To be honest, it feels so strange to me that I even know what that is. I hate to use the same phrasing again, but it’s really not my world.
2025 has just begun, and I know I always ask this at the end of every interview, but what can we hope to see/hear from you this year?
I don’t want to make any promises, but I do think it’s going to be a pretty creative year for me.
A big thanks once again to Will Wood for his continued willingness to allow me to interview him time and time again! It’s always a pleasure and we hope 2025 is as positively productive for him as 2024 was.
You can listen to Will Wood’s remastered edit of The Normal Album, titled The New Normal!, on Spotify!
