Will Wood (musician)

Wood's piano-led style often changes from one song to the next, drawing influence from folk, pop, jazz, rock and roll, latin music, and klezmer. When recording in studio or performing live with a band, he is accompanied by "The Tapeworms," which since 2017 includes Mike Bottiglieri on guitar, Matt Berger on alto saxophone, Mario Conte on drums, and Vater Boris on bass.[6] The band is known for high energy live performances.[7] He primarily performs solo, his shows featuring a combination of music, monologue, and standup comedy. [8]

Wood has released three studio albums: Everything Is A Lot, in 2015; Self-Ish (stylized as SELF-iSH), in 2016, and The Normal Album in 2020,[9] with an upcoming album with the working title In Case I Make It in the works. He has also composed music for the podcast Camp Here and There.

Wood has been described as "reclusive,"[10] and does not use personal social media. He is known to reveal little about his personal life, and early in his career would occasionally fictionalize his life in press appearances or onstage.[11] Articles and sources about Wood contain conflicting accounts of even basic information about his personal and professional life,[12][13] even without Wood contributing to any possible fictionalization.[14]

However, Wood has consistently been open about his past struggles with addiction and mental illness, having entered recovery early in his career and later being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.[15] Wood donates portions of his income to various mental health charities, including the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, saying, "I’ve gotten a lot better. I want to try and do something to help others get there."[16]

Wood began releasing music under the moniker "Will Wood and the Tapeworms" in 2015. Under this name he released two studio albums: Everything is a lot in 2015 and Self-ish in 2016, and the live album The Real Will Wood in 2018, which later served as soundtrack to a mockumentary concert film of that same name in 2020.

In 2019 he started a crowdfunding campaign for The Normal Album which raised $27,631 and was released in 2020 under his own name.[17]

In September 2021, Wood released a piano-ballad style single titled "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll." In an interview about the single, Wood explained "I'm not saying this song is just me saying 'publicity is killing me' because of course not. I'm saying it's hard to become a better, healthier person when you're struggling to stay a person at all... 'Will Wood' was wreaking a lot of havoc on real me, and I needed to do some serious re-tooling or real me would end up murdered by that walking coping mechanism."[18]

His next studio album, slated to be titled 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 in an interview, "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."[19]

On April 29th 2022, Wood released the single "Tomcat Disposables," a ballad from the POV of a mouse living in his kitchen that he felt guilt for needing to trap due to the risk of disease.[20]

Studio albums

• Everything is a Lot (as Will Wood and the Tapeworms) (2015)
• Self-ish (as Will Wood and the Tapeworms) (2016)
• The Normal Album (2020)
• In Case I Make It, (July 2022)

Soundtrack albums

• The Real Will Wood (Music from the Award-Winning Concert Film) (as Will Wood and the Tapeworms) (2020)
• Camp Here & There (Original Series Soundtrack) (2021)
• Camp Here & There Soundtrack: Campfire Songs Edition (2022)

Singles

• "Alma Mater" (2020)
• "Love, Me Normally" (2020)
• "Laplace's Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)" (2020)
• "...Well, Better Than the Alternative" (2020)
• "Mr. Fregoli and the Diathesis-Stress Supermodel, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Con (An Untitled Track)" (as Will Wood and the Tapeworms) (2020)
• "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll" (2021)
• "Your Body, My Temple" (2022)
• "Tomcat Disposables" (2022)