Interview: Oliver Wood (The Wood Brothers)

“What if Robert Johnson and Charles Mingus had a duo?”

That’s the vision Chris Wood had for a band he hoped to form with his older brother, Oliver, more than two decades ago.

“It was his simple way of saying, ‘You're kind of a blues guy, and I'm kind of a jazz guy,” Oliver says.

The Wood brothers grew up in Boulder, Colo., where they both developed an interest in music at a young age before pursuing different but complementary creative paths. Chris studied jazz bass at the New England Conservatory of Music and moved to New York CIty, where he co-founded the avant-garde fusion trio Medeski, Martin & Wood with John Medeski and Billy Martin in 1992. Oliver followed his passion for Southern roots music by moving to Atlanta, where he developed his chops as a guitarist and songwriter before fronting the blues-rock band King Johnson.

Worlds collided in 2001 when King Johnson opened for Medeski, Martin & Wood at Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem. Oliver sat in with the headliners, rekindling a musical kinship with his brother that quickly sparked conversations about a side project that would merge their musical worlds and draw from their shared love of Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins, and The Meters.

“We grew up listening to the same records and had a lot of the same influences both in the jazz world and the blues and folk world,” Oliver says. “Our father was a great folk singer and guitar player, so we were excited to combine elements we loved.”

A collection of demos written and sung by Oliver landed The Wood Brothers a deal with the iconic Blue Note Records label, which released the band’s debut album, Ways Not to Lose, in 2006. A few years later, they fortified their sound with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix, and have since solidified their status as a must-see live act with a catalog that sets them apart in both caliber and consistency.

Asheville Stages spoke with Oliver Wood a few days before he headed out on a fall tour, which includes a Friday, Oct. 20, show at Salvage Station’s outdoor stage. Among the topics discussed were the band’s backstory and eighth album, Heart is the Hero, which was recorded to 16-track analog tape in a Nashville studio they co-own with engineer Brook Sutton and released earlier this year.

Jay Moye: The Wood Brothers have been at it for 20-plus years, which is hard to believe. When you and Chris got together, did you have a specific idea of what you wanted your music to sound like? And has that evolved?

Oliver Wood: Yes to both. When we started, it was just a duo: Chris on upright bass and me on acoustic or electric guitar. We wanted something spare and original and rootsy, but with a lot of space and dynamics. And we were excited about combining different elements that were new to each other. My brother had been playing for 10 years with Medeski, Martin & Wood, which is more of an improvised, world music/instrumental jazz thing. He had a lot of really cool influences he went really deep into.

While he was doing that, I was living in Atlanta playing blues and roots gigs. Those were my formative musical years. I put a band together called King Johnson; we played for years and made five records. We were more into songwriting and everything from blues to gospel to New Orleans music. We were all big fans of Little Feat, Los Lobos, The Band, and all the Kings and the Johnsons of music. That's where we got our name.

Chris and I had this vision of, “Wow, I like what you're doing! Let's put it together to see what it sounds like and strip away everything else.”

As we grew and evolved, the duo needed a few extra gears to shift into. And that's where Jano comes in. We added him on drums, and he also plays keyboards and is a great singer. His elements came into the recipe and helped us do sonically different things. Sometimes I miss those days of it being just simple and stripped down, but we still have that element to our records and shows when we want to go that way.

JM: And you’re still just a trio, though Jano is a bit of a Swiss Army knife who pulls off a number of things at once.

OW: Yeah, he’s at least three guys in one.

JM: You’ve been on a prolific tear these last few years between Wood Brothers albums and your solo record, Always Smilin’. Has it been an especially fertile stretch for your songwriting?

OW: I’m not sure I’d say that. Everybody had some extra writing time during the [COVID-19] pandemic. That's when I got my solo thing together, when we started writing songs for our last Wood Brothers album [Kingdom in My Mind]. Putting out records can feel like a slow cycle for those of us who are doing it all the time. I wish we had time, energy, and resources to do an album a year. But it’s challenging because my brother now lives in Canada. [Oliver and Rix live in Nashville.] Between touring and being home with families, it's a busy life.

Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins

JM: Speaking of resources, you guys have your own studio there. What benefit does that bring to the recording process?

OW: It’s a huge resource for us. It's nice to have a home base where we can store gear and rehearse. Like most bands, we’ve had to rent studio space in the past, which can be expensive and tough to schedule. This allows us to connect to a place where we can experiment and feel comfortable and are less under the gun to come up with something within a short timeframe. But I will say what we're learning over the years, including this album, is that having a deadline can be a good motivator.

We chose to record Heart is the Hero to 16 tracks of analog tape and not use computers. Although that's often done for sound quality, we did it because we knew the process would push us to be more innovative. Our goal was to never look at a screen. And to have fun. With digital technology, you tend to over-deliberate and nitpick things and feel like you're always trying to make it better — but almost every time, you’re not making it better. You're taking the soul out of it. You're fixing and editing.

A lot of our heroes who made records 30 years ago or more had to be able to play the songs they recorded. They had to be somewhat organized but also open-minded about mistakes and things not always turning out as perfectly as they imagined. My favorite thing about being creative is not knowing how something's going to turn out rather than controlling it and trying to mold it to death.

JM: Did you know you were going to go analog when you were writing these songs, or did the idea come deeper into the process?

OW: As we were preparing to make the record and working on the music, we knew this is how we wanted to do it. And that excited us. Especially if you've been doing this for a long time, as we have, it's fun to have that excited, nervous feeling. It's like playing a concert. You need to be present. It's very easy with digital technology to phone things in or know in the back of your mind that you have a fallback of editing later or singing something a million times to get it right. It's nice to take all that out, which makes you really present when you're playing.

JM: Did it take more or less time to record this this way than it would have digitally? 

OW: Quite a bit less. My brother had to come in, and we had a very finite schedule with little blocks of time to work in. We had to finish it by a certain time, so the deadlines and time limitations required some preparation. When we were on tour, we’d work on practicing and internalizing the songs to a certain degree while keeping some things open for improvisation and changes in direction when we got to the studio.

JM: The Wood Brothers have released a few live records. Were you hoping the analog recording process would create a more authentic document of what you do onstage?

OW: Not necessarily. Honestly, almost all of our records have that element. That's really what we're going for, so it wasn’t a radically different approach. We’ve recorded 95% of our songs live in the studio — and of course gone back and added tambourine or background vocals or whatever — because we've found more and more over the years that’s what makes our music work.

JM: As you’re writing, do you separate Wood Brothers songs from Oliver Wood songs?

OW: Not really. I just really enjoy constantly working on music. The pandemic is what afforded me time to do something for myself. I will say it is nice on the off time from the Wood Brothers, which is our focus and bread and butter, to collaborate outside of the band. After doing this for so many years, having that dynamic with those guys is awesome. It's like home. But it’s really good for my growth to branch out and write music with other people. It lets me experiment and find new inspiration to take back to the Wood Brothers.

JM: They sort of feed each other?

OW: Absolutely. The Wood Brothers, especially since we're not all in the same city, we take breaks. We need breaks. At the same time, each of us to some degree has a need to keep creating, and there's lots of ways to do that. And with the indulgence of our studio, which is very close to my house, I can work on stuff all the time if I want to.

JM: You’re heading out in a few days for a good little stretch. Do you enjoy touring in the fall? It looks like you've got a mix of indoor and outdoor shows on the schedule.

OW: Yeah, it's great to still be playing a few festivals outside but starting to move inside to clubs and theaters. It’s a nice balance.

JM: Your music plays well in big, open spaces, and also is at home in tighter quarters. Does your approach to a setlist vary based on the venue?

OW: Yeah, the size and also the atmosphere. If it's a theater and people are seated and captive, we might get away with some more subtle things. Whereas if it's a festival or a rocking club on a Saturday night, maybe we'll avoid that sort of stuff because we assume people are wanting to dance or party. There's a balance, and that's why it’s nice to have a variety of venues where it's not the same atmosphere every night. 

JM: Your show here at Salvage Station is your biggest headlining performance to date in Asheville. How does that feel?

OW: Asheville gets all kinds of music and people love music there, and that helps a lot. (laughs) We've usually played multiple nights at The Orange Peel, which has been really satisfying. I've always loved playing in the area, in any configuration. Even before The Wood Brothers, I’d go with King Johnson to WNCW to promote shows and spin our music. You all have a community up there that seems to know what's happening and what's good. 

IF YOU GO

Who: The Wood Brothers with Maya de Vitry
When: Friday, Oct. 20, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Salvage Station (Outdoor Stage), 466 Riverside Drive, SalvageStation.com
Tickets: $36 advance/$41 day of show

(Photo by Shervin Lainez)