The Normal Album

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I’ve had people chant my name. I’ve heard cheers so loud it blows out my eardrums more than the onstage monitors do. I’ve made a living doing something meaningful to me. I’ve had kids come up to me and tell me I’ve saved their lives. I’ve had people tell me I’ve inspired, comforted, or given them an example to follow on their journey through their gender and sexual identity, their mental health issues, and their recovery.

We are thrilled to have Wood join us again today for a very special guest blog in which he discusses in detail and at length the In Case I Die album, and his decision to step away from his day job. Included in this blog is the exclusive premiere of Wood’s brand new live video for “Against the Kitchen Floor.” The clip was recorded this past August at a show in Charlotte, North Carolina. We’ll deeply miss Wood’s output and hope this hiatus isn’t permanent. Can telling people ‘I’m a real person’ and trying to explain how difficult it’s been over the past couple years, especially since going viral, actually make any difference though? I’ve tried talking about my hiatus as much as possible before actually taking it, because I feel like this is something artists all over go through, and the effects of predatory algorithms and the pandemic worsened it all, and I think it’s something that should be talked about more. So ‘singer-songwriter Will Wood’ becomes both effigy and voodoo doll. I end up on a strange pedestal, and the mythologizing inspires a bizarre and unwarranted fervor that leads otherwise decent people to claw away desperately at any boundaries I try to set. But because from a distance, it sometimes looks like what the legacy of the music industry tells us is high status and endless pleasure and power the reaction tends to be ‘boo-hoo.’ When we initially set up presale for a record we try to reserve copies in case things get lost/damaged in the mail. This was no exception, so we have just now posted the remaining copies of some of these color options. Big Fat Bitchie’s Blueberry Pie, Christmas Tree, and Recreational Jell-0 Emporium a.k.a. “Mr. Boy is on the Roof Again” (Feat. Pasta by Sneakers McSqueakers) {From the Motion Picture “B.F.B.’s B-Sides: Bagel Batches, Marsh-Mallows, & Barsh- Mallows”The unreality of Will Wood as a construction of the art-audience-artist interaction often creates a one-sided relationship with a constellation of depictions and creations, which people connect the dots on with whatever story grabs them. As a result, they feel both close enough to know me intimately and emotionally, and distant enough to never have a real-world effect on a real-world person. I know, I know, stay with me here. So far I’ve spent this whole thing giving you reasons to feel like connecting with, caring about, or being interested in someone you don’t know personally is a futile and sometimes dangerous thing and nothing more. I’ve invoked instances of disastrously selfish and harmful behavior and cultivated a sense that I am awash in a sea of horror and identity diffusion, isolated, and misunderstood and abused at large. Which I won’t even say is entirely wrong. And now I want you to take a complete left turn and ask you to ignore all of it so that I can argue in favour of something I’ve already effectively spoken out against and most discourse is already in agreement on the evils of? I must be high. It’s an interesting time in the life and career of Will Wood. We gladly call Wood a friend of this publication, having featured him several times before, an individual who has worked tirelessly at his craft, never ceasing to impress with his highly commendable creative output. The singer and songwriter will release his new album, and what may prove to be his last, titled In Case I Die, this coming Friday, January 13th. For this record, he assembled 20 songs, each performed live last year during U.S. tours that promoted his last studio record, In Case I Make It. These live dates were an opportunity for Wood to assemble both his best new and old material and redefine them in a live setting.

But I fear a lot of this will translate to some as yet another tired and oversimplified declaration of ‘parasocial relationships are bad.’ It’s to the point where some are so sure that they are never a positive thing, that they refuse to like any ‘public person’ (whatever that is in 2022) and just end up in a negative parasocial relationship with all of them without realizing it. No doubt the consequences of parasociality can be harmful; I’ve spent half this meandering, ranting, incoherent dissertation giving evidence of that. It can hurt the subject and the experiencer alike, when certain actions or perspectives are taken. But I’d like to argue they can very much be a good thing.International customers: If you buy one of the bundles of LPs we will send you an invoice for the rest of the postage. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. This wasn’t very coherent, I know. It was disjointed and messy and far too long, and I’m not sure I even knew what I was talking about. I hope it made sense and that you understand me here. I know some of you won’t. Just don’t come and kill me over any accidental subtext you think was my intention and not your interpretation, ok?

So when you’re holding on to everything but you feel you cannot, let it go, cause everything is a lot. Bienvenidos a la villa de arañas españas, where the sentimental value of the city around you is deleted obsolete and still completely will stun you, I’m tripping like a klutz and I’m rolling like thunder. Yes, sometimes the story is wildly inaccurate. But people see my supposed status as a member of the LGBTQ+ community as a form of comforting representation. While some people’s definition of relevant terms would include me in that group, I personally don’t think I should be taking up space in the ‘Queercore’ playlist on Spotify. But would it make some troubled youths feel more comfortable in their own skin if I, someone they look up to, were something that they identify with, in a world that doesn’t always accept them? Isn’t that good?

I’d wager a good portion of the time someone claims they enjoy the work of a ‘problematic’ creator by ‘separating the artwork from the artist,’ they’re not being entirely honest. Sometimes people relate to artists they don’t want to, other times they just don’t want your judgment. Other times people relate on a level that isn’t direct, or don’t want to try and separate the two elements for other reasons.