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Will Wood
American musician, singer-songwriter and comedian From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Will Wood is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and comedian.[1][2] Wood has released four studio albums; Everything Is a Lot (2015), Self-ish (2016), The Normal Album (2020),[3] and "In case I make it," (2022). The first two were released as Will Wood and the Tapeworms, Wood's prior band name. He has additionally released two live albums (The Real Will Wood (Music from the Award-Winning Concert Live Film) [Live] (2020) and IN CASE I DIE (2023)), and a soundtrack (Camp Here & There: Campfire Songs Edition (2021)).
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Style
Wood's piano-led style often changes from one song to the next, drawing influence from folk, pop, jazz, rock and roll, latin music, doo wop, and klezmer. He is also known for his unconventional use of tenor and baritone ukulele. When recording in studio or performing live with his band, the Tapeworms, he has mostly been accompanied by Mike Bottiglieri on guitar, Matt Berger on alto saxophone, Mario Conte on drums, Vater Boris on bass, and Rob Schaefer on trumpet.[4][5] The band is known for high energy live performances.[6]
Wood primarily performs solo, his shows featuring a combination of music, monologue, and stand-up comedy.[7]
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Personal life
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Will has been described as "reclusive, because I told my publicist to"[8][9] and is known to avoid social media. Sources about Will contain conflicting accounts of even basic information about his personal and professional life.[10] He is also known for having fictionalized his life early in his career, and appearing in character in some press appearances or onstage, as well as engaging in experimental live performance art. At this time his acts would sometimes feature simulated mental breakdowns, conflict with audience plants, appearances from fictional characters, and intentionally botched performances.[11] His image in pop culture has been heavily influenced by this, but the artist has expressed that his work and persona will continue to change.[12]
Wood has consistently been open about his past struggles with drug addiction and mental illness. He has also recounted how his substance use led him to forgetting the entirety of the year 2012 in his song "2012". He entered recovery early in his career, later being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.[8][13] Will donates a portion of his merch sales to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, a mental health charity,[14] and has donated portions of ticket sales to events, saying, "I've gotten a lot better. I want to try and do something to help others get there."[15]
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Releases
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Prior to launching his career and throughout his teenage years, Wood played with a number of local bands, including A Verbal Equinox, Strange Thick[16] and Jamface[17] under a series of pseudonyms, as well as The Stereosexuals[18] alongside Jonathon Maisto in 2013. The two worked from 2013-2014 and released three songs. Wood began his solo career under the eponymous band Will Wood and the Tapeworms, and recorded and released two studio albums: Everything is a Lot in 2015 and Self-ish in 2016, along with the live album The Real Will Wood in 2018, which later served as the soundtrack to the mockumentary concert film of the same name.
In 2019, a crowdfunding campaign began for The Normal Album, which offered invitations to record gang vocals for the album in exchange for support, among other benefits. It raised $27,631 and was released in 2020 under his name.[19] Following the release of The Normal Album, Wood began to attract a more significant fanbase, due in part to the unintended "viral" success of the track "I/Me/Myself,"[20] which resulted in significant challenges to the artist, on which Wood later remarked, "There was an entire tour where kids who found me because of a viral clip came expecting a pop-rock act and were yelling stuff at me and each other the entire set, which obviously made doing what I do impossible."[21]
In 2021, Will Wood worked on the soundtrack for the fictional horror/comedy podcast Camp Here And There. A "Campfire Songs Edition" of the soundtrack, with lyrical versions of three of the initially instrumental tracks, was released in 2022.
His 2022 release "In case I make it," was crowdfunded on Indiegogo in October 2021. Wood has described the collection of songs as being his most personal yet, saying: “I've always tried to consistently re-invent myself as an artist, I think. But this time is different, because for lack of a less dramatic phrase… I've reinvented myself as a person. I couldn’t be more different than I was even a year or two ago."[22]
Six singles from "In case I make it," were released prior to the album's full release.[23][24] In September 2021, prior to the crowdfunding of the album, Wood released the single entitled "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll", which would later appear on the album.[22] On June 10, Wood released the single "You Liked This (Okay, Computer!)", a black comedy track about social media platforms with spoken word by Bev Standing. It pastiches the Radiohead track "Fitter Happier" from their 1997 album OK Computer.[25] Other singles included "Tomcat Disposables", "Cicada Days", "Euthanasia", and "White Noise", all of which were accompanied by music videos co-created by Wood. On July 29, the full album was released to positive reviews.[26][27]
On August 19, 2022, Wood was featured on singer-songwriter Shayfer James' single "Ferryman",[28] which would later appear on the latter's third studio album Shipwreck (2023).[29] On September 1, Human Zoo released "Wealth & Hellness" featuring Wood, a single for the former's second studio album of the same name (2022).[30]
On January 13, 2023, Wood released the album IN CASE I DIE:, a live compilation of songs recorded at US tour dates in 2022. According to a guest blog post on V13, after the release, he would begin an "indefinite break or possibly retire from [his] music career."[31]
On August 9, 2024, Wood released a new mix of The Normal Album (2020) with producer Kevin Antreassian, additionally featuring three demos. These consisted of 2018 recordings of "I/Me/Myself", "Laplace's Angel", and "Memento Mori",[32] which were released in the previous month as singles.[33]
On August 15, 2025, Wood released a concert film, titled Slouching Towards Branson, which comprises footage from his Slouching Towards Bethlehem 2024 tour; the film was published to his Patreon page. It consists of 10 songs, as well as roughly an hour of stand-up comedy.[34]
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Discography
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Singles
- Collaborations
- with The Stereosexuals (2014)
- "Bigger Than Yours" [18]
- with A Verbal Equinox
- "And the Ringmaster Is Pleased to Introduce…" (2013) [35]
- with Big Ears Glenn
- "Hey" (2017) (from: January)[36]
- with Human Zoo
- "Aphrodite, Your Electric Sexiness" (2019) (from: A Mindless Meditation)
- "Wealth & Hellness" (2022) (from: Wealth & Hellness)
- "Aphrodite, Your Electric Sexiness (Upgrade)" (2024) (from: A Mindless Meditation (Upgrade))
- with Shayfer James
- "Ferryman" (2022)
- Covers
- "Armchairs (Andrew Bird)" (2019) (from: This is for charity (sic))
- "Prince Ali" (2019) (Under the name "Will Wood and the Land Pirates") (from: D*sn*y is Birth Control)
- "Chocolate Jesus" (2019) (from: Ben Meets A Few Good Records)
- "The Velocity of Love" (2022) (Also released as "Will Wood – The Velocity of Love") (from: Endless Possibility: A Tribute to Jack Terricloth)
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References
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