Singer-songwriter Will Wood is going on tour again. Despite what you may have heard, the Mr. Wood is Dead tour will not be a magic show. That was an April Fool’s gag. However, what the tour will be is an ambitious towing of the line between Wood’s rapport with his longstanding accompanying band, The Tapeworms, and his solo work. We got a chance to interview Will ahead of this tour. Here’s what he had to say!
So, I have the privilege of interviewing you once again, Will! For my first question: How do you think the June and July legs of your “Mr. Wood Is Dead” tour will differ as a whole from your previous concerts with The Tapeworms?
The last time I was playing with a band with any regularity, it was mostly basements and little bars where the stage was just the corner of the room, which was always a sweaty, noisy endeavor. So at these much larger venues with better equipment, we’ll be able to focus our energy more on giving audiences the best possible performance than on surviving without breaking anything. Plus, we’ve all grown a lot as instrumentalists and artists. So while we’re going back to our roots a bit, I think audiences can expect something that expands on them as opposed to just revisiting them. There’s also a much larger discography to pick from, so the show will definitely have a new feel.
This tour sees you working with a variety of other artists as openers, including Shayfer James, Fish In A Birdcage, Moonwalker, and The Ruen Brothers. Is there anyone you want to perform with in the future but haven’t yet had the chance to reach out to?
We were in talks with some of my favorite artists, so there’s really no one who isn’t either a ridiculous longshot or whose booking agent I haven’t already embarrassed myself in front of.
Which of your tracks from the Tapeworms era of your musical career would you say might have the greatest shifts, tonally or otherwise, if you were to perform it with them during your tour?
I think no matter which track it is, it’s going to shift significantly, just because I don’t want to do the same thing over and over. I’ve always considered live performance and recording two totally different art forms, so whether solo or with a band, I’ve always made an effort to keep things unique to the live environment, and we don’t bother trying to mimic the album or previous renditions. It keeps things alive and lets us make creative decisions in the moment. I think that ephemeral, in-person experiences are more valuable than ever these days. So even without the passage of time, it’s always going to sound different than what listeners may be used to, but I like to think we still capture the spirit of the song in a way that audiences will really get a kick out of.
I’ve always said that you can make decent art by giving people what they want, but meaningful art by giving people what they didn’t know they could ask for. So that’s always been a big part of my goal, to try and intuit what that is. Or to just be contrarian, I can be a bastard like that. If I feel an audience is making a demand that doesn’t align with what intrinsically motivates me as an artist I have to try and talk myself down from doing the exact opposite. So here’s hoping my band doesn’t let me do a grindcore version of a ballad or vice versa.
How can we support the colony of stray cats you recently rescued (AKA the “Snooterfriends”)?
Thanks for asking! If you’re looking to support their medical care or adopt, you can go to
https://linksta.cc/@SnooterFriends .
What lessons have you learned from the successes of your Slouching Through Branson tour that you can apply to Mr. Wood Is Dead? Additionally, what lessons came from any of the former tour’s shortcomings, if you found any from it?
With Slouching Towards Branson, I had started to learn a lot about what the more practical elements of the craft require. I was really scared at the start of it that I’d have to “shut up and play the hits” for the rest of my career instead of doing what I’m wired for because of some of the newer fans’ expectations and demands, but other than a few difficult moments I was thrilled to see I really was able to connect. The whole tour was inspiring, encouraging, and educational. I’m excited to be doing those types of shows in theaters. Some of them are really beautiful and I’m interested to see how it affects the audience’s experience.
What are the most fundamental differences between your performances during your Theater show tour legs and those of your Tapeworms shows?
One’s a rock concert with a band, the other is, uh, harder to describe to people who aren’t familiar with my whole thing. I guess it’s sorta like if Bo Burnham were Mike Birbiglia. Only you know, with less talent than either. Emo Tom Lehrer? Tom Waits after a lozenge? Father John Mulaney? Jonathan Coulton after an accidental RC dose? A cubist painting of Tim Minchin with oversized shoes and a haircut. Uh, I don’t know, I guess you’d have to ask my fans.
Your last decade of music is presumably a big part of why this reunion is happening. What would you say your music has gained in the last 10 years? What has it lost? And presuming your music is on a similar trajectory to ten years ago, what do you predict your music will gain or lose in the next decade?
I’m not sure, and I think that’s why I gave it that goofy name. Whatever it has been for the past ten years, that’s over. What happens from there, I hope, is something neither my audience nor I expect.
Another big thank-you to Will Wood for taking the time to allow us to interview him! The Mr. Wood Is Dead tour runs on select dates from May through September 2025 and features a plethora of opening artists. These include Shayfer James, Fish In A Birdcage, Moonwalker, and The Ruen Brothers. Tickets are available now and can be purchased at WillWood.net.
In the meantime, you can find Will’s full solo discography at his Spotify page, embedded below! Additionally, you can find his discography with The Tapeworms below below!
