Independent Record Label | Est. 2009
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Showing posts with label JPW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JPW. Show all posts

Saturday, April 1, 2023

The Jason Woodbury Interview

[Repost from Primitive Man Soundz; by Dakota Brown, August 22, 2023]

Jason P. Woodbury is a writer, deejay, and record man based in the Sonoran Desert. He's the creative director of Hello Merch, an independent merch, pop culture, record label, and apparel brand, where he oversees the A/V wing, WASTOIDS. Woodbury edits Justin Gage’s Aquarium Drunkard, where he also contributes, as well as hosting and producing the weekly Transmissions talk show podcast. His monthly program Range and Basin on dublab airs every third Sunday of the month as part of the Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard broadcast. Previously, Jason has worked as a clerk, cargo driver, events producer, and director of marketing for Zia Records, limited-edition vinyl projects, including You Gotta Have Soul: Raw Sonoran R&B and Funk (1957-1971). He's written for Pitchfork, Comic Book Resources, Flood Magazine, Relix, and other outlets. His interviews have been featured on NPR online and he’s been quoted by Rolling Stone and Vice. 

He has worked in various capacities with Third Man Records, Light in the Attic, Warner Records, Polyvinyl, In the Red Records, ORGMusic, Craft Recordings, The Playboy Jazz Festival, Jealous Butcher, and the Pickathon Music Festival, and has written liner notes for a number of projects, including the deluxe edition of Terry Callier's The New Folk Sound, the 2019 edition of Jim Sullivan's 1972 Playboy album, and The Microcosm: Visionary Music of Continental Europe, 1970-1986. Woodbury’s explorations and essays about folklore and nature have been featured in zines by artist Brad Dwyer and Ken Layne’s radio show/podcast/publication Desert Oracle. Woodbury has previously served as music editor for the long running alt-weekly Phoenix New Times, contributed to The Arizona Republic/AZCentral, and hosted the Audio Ranch radio program with Arizona music historian John Dixon.

Are you originally from Phoenix, AZ? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music, more specifically the guitar? What was it that initially fascinated you? Was music relevant around your household growing up?

I grew up splitting my time between Coolidge, a rural cotton town located halfway between Phoenix and Tucson, and Chandler, a suburb on the east side of the Phoenix metro area sprawl. My childhood was centered around reading, going to church, watching movies, reading comics, and listening to music on the radio. When I got into high school, I started playing guitar and bass in earnest—inspired in part by my dad, who played bass, and my uncle Nathan, who was a guitarist divided his time between my family’s tool shop and running a local TV studio/production space. Music was definitely relevant in all the households I grew up in; my dad’s brothers instilled in me a love of The Traveling Wilburys and mid-century pop; my uncle Nathan hipped me to stuff like Tangerine Dream; my dad was into Boston and ELO, both of which made a huge mark. My step-mother introduced me to R&B and ‘90s soul, and she instilled in me a love of Chicano lowrider oldies, MTV new wave hits, and the soundtrack from That Thing You Do. Her brothers’ taught me “La Bamba,” and somehow that unlocked the door to jangly stuff like The Smiths. My mom’s parents would dance to Sinatra, The Texas Tornados and ZZ Top in their sun room. My mom had the most eccentric taste of all—she liked country music by The Judds and Reba, but she also introduced me to stuff like Alanis Morisette, No Doubt, and through her then boyfriend Brett, alternative culture in general. What fascinated me most about music was how simple chord shapes and progressions could be a vehicle for big, massive emotional moments—the idea that it doesn’t take much to say a lot. Artists like Tom Petty and The Ramones really cemented that notion in my head. On top of that, I started leading the congregation in singing at church, so I learned quickly how to get over being afraid of singing in front of people. So when I started playing rock music with buddies, singing came pretty naturally. 

Do you have any siblings? What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? When and where did you see your first concert and what kind of impact did that leave on you? Who were some of your earliest influences?

I have a raft of siblings: my brother Brad, from my dad and mother’s marriage; Alex and Olivia are my brother and sister from my dad’s second marriage, I have another brother, Dillan, on my mom’s side, and a couple step siblings, Brendan and Louren, on my dad’s side. We spent a lot of time making our own fun, being absolute desert rats: driving backroads, fooling around at each other’s houses, swimming in canals—perilous activity, in no way do I “recommend it.” My family would go see movies in Casa Grande. When I’d spend time in the bigger city with my mom, I’d get to go to record stores and comic shops, which became life lines to pop culture. My first show is embarrassing: Creed with Collective Soul and a band called, and I was kinda confused about this for religious reasons, “Full Devil Jacket.” Collective Soul utterly smoked Creed. After that, I started to get into pop-punk, emo, and indie music, and immediately those shows became my standard for live music. I would come home from shows late at night and sit in the closet and make endless recordings of song ideas on my tape machine, just my unplugged electric guitar, bashing out little three chord things. As far as earliest influences, I think the Prince soundtrack for the 1989 Batman movie has got to be up there. U2, The Cars, and ELO certainly. When I started writing my own songs, I definitely was thinking Green Day; that matured into wanting to be part of the Get Up Kids, then getting into stuff like Wilco, Sonic Youth, Sleater Kinney, that sort of stuff, and classic songwriting from people like Neil Young, Springsteen, Dylan, the VU, Bowie, Lou Reed, etc. When I began working in a record store at 21, bam, it was anything goes musically. I couldn’t, and still can’t, get enough. 

Did you participate in any other groups growing up prior to your more recent outfits, Kitimoto and JPW? Tell me about these bands and how they came to be. I understand that JPW just released a new album on Fort Lowell Records. Can you tell me about this release? What do you find yourself expressing as well as exploring the most through your music? As someone that is always writing and talking about music, I’m curious to know where you stand, as an individual, with your very own craft!

I started playing in bands in high school, yeah. We had a succession of terrible and mostly forgettable names. One incarnation was called “Placing Distance.” Generally speaking, I think all band names are kinda terrible. When I moved to Tempe at 21, I started a power pop/indie trio called Hands on Fire. I played guitar and was the primary songwriter. We played a lot around town in Phoenix—opening for Fleet Foxes, The Black Angels, and oddly enough, Blue Cheer. I also played in a folk-punk band called Porches and we toured a little bit together as well. My work in Porches led to joining the indie-pop outfit Cardiac Party, which was inspired in part by ‘90s alt-pop like That Dog, but also more out there stuff like Animal Collective, Dan Deacon, and Deerhoof. When the main songwriter in that band, Ryan McDowell, moved to Los Angeles, I kept playing with guitarist Jon Douglas and drummer Cavan Noone. We went by a number of names off and on for years—me on bass sometimes, or occasionally just two guitars and a drummer. Zane Gillum—who I play with in JPW and Kitimoto—had moved away, but moved back to town. He joined up with us on bass and that group became Kitimoto. In Kitimoto, we focus on Jon’s songs. We first interacted playing shows together in the mid-2000s. He has a long running project called A Technicolor Yawn, which rules. I’d always wanted to play his tunes, and with Kitimoto you’ve got these four dudes who’ve been playing together for years—the feel is just really good and natural. We recorded our album Vintage Smell with producer Austin Owen at Rancho Linda Vista, an intentional community in Oracle, Arizona, where Andy Warhol once shot an X-rated western film. JPW is the catch all for my musical projects. The first record, Something Happening/Always Happening, was produced by a friend and hero of mine, Michael Krassner, from Boxhead Ensemble. Lately, I’ve been performing with my buddy Zach Toporek’s project Dad Weed; we do combined sets, some songs from his record, some from mine, and a bunch we’ve written together for a record that will be out…soon, we think? We’re just wrapping it up. 

How did you initially meet Justin and become such a consistent and constant force over at Aquarium Drunkard in the last ten years, or so? What have you learned as well as enjoyed the most while working over there? When did you start doing the “Transmissions” show and who have been some of your favorites guests to speak with over the years?

In 2012/13, I was writing and editing the music section of the local alt-weekly Phoenix New Times. Justin Gage noticed some of the pieces I’d written and asked if I’d want to contribute to AD. And the answer was a hearty yes—AD was and remains my favorite blog. I started pitching in, writing reviews, interviews, song blurbs, the year-end stuff. In 2016, we relaunched the Transmissions podcast as an interview program. In 2020, we took it weekly and it’s been a great way to connect with artists and listeners and explore topics I’m drawn to: creative process, spirituality, transcendence, the flexible nature of time. I still shake my head when I think about how lucky we’ve been to get some of the guests we have. I loved talking with Dorothy Moskowitz of The United States of America recently. Justin and I once interviewed Daniel Lanois at his place in Silverlake—that’s a highlight. I loved speaking with Jim Jarmusch, his work is deeply inspiring to me. I was nervous, but he was delightful and game to chat. My talk with Beverly Glenn-Copeland was very moving and consciousness expanding. As was the chat I had with the late Joanna Brouk, a new age artist who really blew my mind. I’ve had occult historian Mitch Horowitz on a few times, I always love hanging with him. 

Our readers don’t know this about us, but we’re avid Adam Sandler fans. Please enlighten them by giving your top three films and why!

I have to go with my gut instinct here: 

Uncut Gems 

Billy Madison

The Wedding Singer 

Sandler is so fascinating; he’s made incredible movies and some absolute stinkers too. I had a hard time leaving Punch-Drunk Love off my list, but I went with Uncut Gems as an example of Sandler pushing very hard, showcasing the coiled intensity that fuels even his funniest, most lighthearted stuff. In terms of classic Sandler comedies, I went with Billy Madison. It’s a ridiculous movie conceptually, but it made such an impression on me as a kid. My aunt and uncle took my siblings and I to see it as kids while my dad and stepmom were on a trip together. They ended up yanking us kids out the theater upon realizing it wasn’t a kids movie. When my dad returned, he was like, “We watched the most hilarious movie while were out, it’s called Billy Madison.” It became a back to school tradition to watch that one annually. Lastly, I’m going with The Wedding Singer, because it really showcases Sandler’s sweet side. He and Drew Barrymore’s chemistry in that movie is magnetic. I love a rom-com and that one just excels. My wife Becky and I watch it a couple of times a year. 

What have you been up to more recently? Anything new and excited on the horizon for Spring/Summer of 2023? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

As I noted earlier, Zach and I are putting the finishing touches on a record we really dig, hopefully we can share more about that soon. We’ve got some incredible projects going at Transmissions, and I do a show called Click Vortex on the audio/video network WASTOIDS with my collaborator Sam Means (of The Format and Hello Merch). We’re actually doing a live gig this weekend, March 26, at the Crescent Ballroom with Cris and Elmo Kirkwood of The Meat Puppets



Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Boogixote Scout Report #1 | Blowin Wax

[Repost from Boogixote; by Garrett Bethmann, March 22, 2023]

JPW: Halfway to Eloy (Live at the Dirty Drummer)
Puts some sweat on your brow and a buzz in your body as you glide through some ephemeral fever dream of fast friends on lonely desert roads, listening to a radio station playing the best music you’ll never hear again. It’s a sweet little live release single culled from Jason Woodbury’s debut release Something Happening/ Always Happening on Wilmington’s Fort Lowell Records. 

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

OUT NOW: JPW "Halfway to Eloy (Live at The Dirty Drummer)" [Digital Single]

“Halfway to Eloy” was the second single released from JPW's debut album Something Happening / Always Happening last year. "Halfway to Eloy (Live at The Dirty Drummer)" Digital Single is a *live recording* of that song from the Record Release Party, which was held at The Dirty Drummer in Phoenix, Arizona on September 10, 2022.


Sunday, February 19, 2023

JPW

[Repost from Ecléctico; by Armando Bellmas, February 17, 2023]

Today on Ecléctico you're listening to "Something Happening" by JPW, a musical project led by songwriter, musician, and singer Jason P. Woodbury from Phoenix, Arizona. Released in 2022, today's song is the lead track from the project's debut album. Let the album roll after the tune and you'll find yourself driving through the American west, light and dark dancing above the landscape, your pace fast then slow as you race towards a place that is still a song away from where you want to be.

"Jason Woodbury is a galactic citizen, dialing in from the Sonoran Desert on planet Earth," writes Ben Seretan on the album's digital liner notes. "[The album is] a collection of songs you might hear on the radio after a cosmic camping trip, familiar but far off. Songs for stepping out of the spaceship to crack a goddamn cold one on a blurry summer day, taking a moment to enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass."

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

JPW 'Something Happening / Always Happening'

[Repost from Arizona Central; by Ed Masley, January 12, 2023]

The album is an atmospheric gem whose highlights range from otherworldly instrumental "Something Happening" to hazy ballads of the sort it would be easy to imagine Roy Orbison recording in his later years (without actually sounding like an Orbison recording).

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Best of 2022 *Updated*

Here are the Fort Lowell Records releases that have been featured on various 'Best of 2022' or 'End of Year' lists for 2022:

Citified Lie Like a Painter [LP]  |  LISTEN NOW

Desario Signal and Noise [LP]  |  BUY VINYL RECORD + LISTEN NOW

JPW Something Happening / Always Happening [Debut LP]  |  BUY VINYL RECORD + LISTEN NOW

KITIMOTO Vintage Smell [Debut LP]  |  BUY VINYL RECORD + LISTEN NOW
Lauds II [Digital EP]  |  LISTEN NOW
Kim Ware and the Good Graces Ready [Digital LP]  |  LISTEN NOW

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Aquarium Drunkard :: 2022 Year in Review


JPW—Something Happening / Always Happening: Aquarium Drunkard’s own Jason P. Woodbury ventures into the heart of cosmic Americana with a high, tender voice and songs as serene as the Arizona desert. Jolts of organ, gently plucked guitars, and the sputters of the Rhythm Ace drum machine lend a timeless quality to his band’s shimmering, mirage-like arrangements. Slow down and get lost in the haze.


Tuesday, November 22, 2022

JPW, now on Yellow Vinyl!

Phoenix, Arizona's own Jason P. Woodbury performs music under the moniker JPW.  His debut album Something Happening / Always Happening sold out of its first pressing before it was ever released to the public.  So, we placed an order for a second pressing of this masterpiece, but this time on YELLOW VINYL, and they are here ready to ship out, just in time for the holidays!


"It’s a collection of songs you might hear on the radio after a cosmic camping trip, familiar but far off. Songs for stepping out of the spaceship to crack a cold one on a blurry summer day, taking a moment to enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass." ~ Aquarium Drunkard

"Plays like a desert broadcast from the past where remnants of space-age pop mingle with an undeniably easy (and breezy) feeling you might've found out Topanga in 1972." ~ MTV News

"A cosmic rock roadtrip." ~ PopMatters

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Highly Recommended w/ JPW

[Repost from HI54; by Jeremy Sroka, November 3, 2022]

* Providing the A's to the 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Q's today is JPW — a creator out of the Sonoran Desert who recently dropped the excellent Something Happening / Always Happening on Fort Lowell Records, the first pressing of which has already sold out, but you can now get in on the 2nd-pressing on yellow vinyl (and you can catch the track ‘Wealth of the Canyon’ on the HI54 Mix CD ‘420 ALL DAY’) // JPW photo by Sam Means

#1 - WHAT IS THE ONE ALBUM (OR EP OR SONG) THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE THE VERY NEXT MUSICAL THING THAT EVERYONE PRESSES PLAY ON THE NEXT TIME THEY FIND THEMSELVES THINKING “WHAT SHOULD I LISTEN TO NOW”?
As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I was chuffed when psychedelic instrumentalist Frank Maston included a Trek song, “Beyond Antares,” in his recent Aquarium Drunkard Lagniappe Session.

Written by Wilbur Hatch and featuring lyrics written by Trek’s “other Gene,” showrunner Gene Coon—whose progressive beliefs majorly influenced the franchise—Maston takes the “23rd century love song” in a library music direction, evoking the synthed out sound of vintage Italian films. Here’s hoping he does a whole album of Trek tunes, I’d be way into it.

#2 - WHAT IS THE ONE MOVIE OR TV SHOW THAT YOU THINK SHOULD BE NEXT IN EVERYBODY’S NETFLIX QUEUE (OK, DOESN’T HAVE TO BE NETFLIX, WE’RE ALL INTERNET ADULTS HERE AND KNOW HOW TO FIND ANYTHING ONLINE, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER)?
Gone way before its time after only two fantastic seasons, Lodge 49 was a great show about the persistence of magic and meaning set against a backdrop of Southern California mundanity.
Part hermetic/alchemical rabbit hole, part The Big Lebowski, part Office Space, it’s ultimately a show about the power of community and the sacred nature of connectedness. It’s deeply funny but also touching, grounded in blue collar realites but given over to magical realism, and the cast is fantastic. Its golden hour vibe and surf and psych-pop soundtrack was a major influence on Something Happening/Always Happening.  
#3. I (AND BY “I” I MEAN “THE PERSON THAT IS READING THIS”) AM GOING TO THE LOCAL BOOK STORE (OK, MAYBE THE LOCAL LIBRARY FIRST) TO FIND THE VERY NEXT BOOK THAT I WILL BE PUTTING SOME EXTREMELY VALUABLE ‘ME-TIME' ASIDE FOR. WHICH BOOK WOULD YOU GET, IF YOU WERE ME (AND, I SUPPOSE, YOU HADN’T ALREADY READ WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO SUGGEST)?
A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin. This collection of short stories is tough and terse, which makes the sporadic bursts of tenderness that much more moving. Berlin’s sentences are usually short. She leaves plenty unsaid, which allows more space to wander into these semi-autobiographical tales from the deserts of Mexico, the southwestern US, and Chile.
She’s got one story included in here, “My Jockey,” about tending to a wounded jockey in an emergency room, that only takes one and a half pages to paint the most vivid, human scene. 
#4 - WHAT IS THE ONE WEBSITE (OR JUST ANY OLD INTERNET THING: APP, GIF, SERVICE, WHATEVER) THAT YOU WOULD GET REALLY DOWN IN THE DUMPS ABOUT IF IT WERE TO SUDDENLY GO AWAY?
I probably laugh at something @DRIL posts on Twitter once a day. I guess you can find out who @DRIL actually is if you look, but I’ve never had any interest in knowing the IRL person behind the account. I prefer to only engage with the disembodied prophetic and puerile digital cypher who appears in my feed.
Rather than screenshot a favorite, here’s a picture of my copy of Dril Official “Mr. Ten Years” Anniversary Collection, which is both 1) the only physical book collection of tweets that has ever needed to exist and 2) going to come in handy if the servers really do melt away someday.
#5 - AND FINALLY… PLEASE GIVE ONE COMPLETELY UNAIDED RECOMMENDATION THAT YOU THINK EVERYONE SHOULD START DOING / USING / WATCHING / EATING / THINKING / QUITTING / ETC-ING TO MAKE THEIR LIVES A LITTLE BIT MORE BETTER AND/OR BEARABLE.
I’ve been playing around with that weird state right before I wake up in the morning, when I start stirring and coming out of deep sleep. I’ll focus on feelings of universal wholeness or “imagine” the sensation of a enveloping cosmic love. These moments feel gentle and comforting in general, just kind of nice zones to float through and exist in, but a few have taken on an ecstatic quality. It makes for a nice way to begin a day.  
Of course, there are lots of mornings where I hit snooze two or three times too, which can be very nice too.
OK folks, there you have it. Things that JPW thinks you should consider incorporating into your day/life. Before you log off and go get ready to wake up different in the mornings, make sure to follow JPW on the Instagram / Twitter and then also give ‘Wealth of the Canyon’ a listen below…

…and if you like what you’re hearing, go do some further jpw-flavoured audio exploring over on the Bandcamp / Spotify.

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Bandcamping :: Autumn 2022

[Repost from Aquarium Drunkard; by Tyler Wilcox, November 3, 2022]

JPWSomething Happening / Always Happening

Not only is Jason P. Woodbury a great writer/editor /podcaster/dude (you know his work on this very website as well as plenty of other spots), it seems that he’s also a great musician/songwriter. Go figure! Jason’s debut under the JPW moniker is a start-to-finish beauty, like Cass McCombs and JJ Cale meeting up in the Sonoran Desert at sunset for some hazy, sunbaked jams. Drum machines tick, guitars glisten, vocals drift, time stops. Very happening!

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

After many years in the music industry, Jason P. Woodbury puts out 2 albums of his own

[Repost from KJZZ; by Lauren Gilger, October 27, 2022]

Jason P. Woodbury has spent years working on all sides of the music industry in Arizona. Today, he’s the creative director at Hello Merch and host of the Transmissions podcast for online music magazine Aquarium Drunkard.

But in all that time, he’s never released an album of his own. Well, this year, he’s released two: a solo record and one with his band, Kitimoto.

The solo project is called JPW, the album, “Something Happening/Always Happening.” It has echoes of everything from Western guitars to shoegaze indie rock.

And in a conversation with The Show, he said as the pandemic raged on, the songs poured out of him.


Wednesday, October 19, 2022

JPW - Wealth of the Canyon (Live from The Dirty Drummer)

JPW performing "Wealth of the Canyon" from the debut album 'Something Happening / Always Happening' at The Dirty Drummer in Phoenix, Arizona from the Album Release Concert held on Saturday, September 10, 2022. Video by Becky Bartkowski.

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Singles

[Repost from Independent Clauses; by Stephen Carradini, September 7, 2022]

Wealth of the Canyon” – JPW. This track sounds like an effortless, casual, wonderfully tossed-off take on Laurel Canyon-style West Coast folk/country. It take significant work to make it sound so easy, and so JPW’s work is your benefit, listener.

Friday, September 30, 2022

The Friday Five


JPW, “Something Happening / Always Happening” / Jason Woodbury ranks quite high among my favorite thinkers and conversationalists on music. In his writing and podcasting, the technical serves the spiritual and vice-versa. Great critics and essayists don’t always make great musicians, but Jason shows off his all-around skillset with two releases this year—his work as guitarist for Kitimoto sounding through “Vintage Smell” and, now, his solo effort.

There are many descriptors to float toward “Something Happening”: Psychedelic rock, a sort of jammy, trippy vein of folk. To me, it’s interior soul music. The gentleness and attention inside Jason made manifest in melody and rhythm.

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

We are kinda' really freakin' excited about this

JPW's debut album Something Happening / Always Happening sold out prior to the release date (September 9, 2022); pretty much, we've only got two copies of the original pressing left in stock.

So, we've decided to repress JPW Something Happening / Always Happening... but this time we are making it available on a beautiful vibrant yellow vinyl wax (to match the sticker on the cover, of course).

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR YELLOW JPW VINYL

Records should be available in about two months, and we will ship them out to customers as soon as they are delivered to us.  This second pressing is limited to only (100) copies, so don't sleep on this  place your order today to reserve your copy!

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

JPW – 'Something Happening / Always Happening'

[Repost from Ears to Feed; by Jesse Locke, September 15, 2022]

Dance the Mutation - September 2022

As the host of Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions podcast, I’ve become so accustomed to hearing Jason Woodbury’s high, tender voice in my ears that his singing sounds instantly familiar. Something Happening / Always Happening ventures into the heart of cosmic Americana with a sound as serene as the Arizona deserts that Woodbury calls home. The sputters of the Rhythm Ace drum machine are a key element, adding a timeless quality to the band’s shimmering, mirage-like arrangements. “Always Happening” closes the album with a vast 10-minute sprawl, becoming more vaporous as its ambient synths radiate a feeling of awestruck reverence – the same quality Woodbury brings to his interviews.

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Something Happening/Always Happening: In Conversation with Jason P. Woodbury

[Repost from Meow Meow Pow Pow; by Douglas Menagh, August 26, 2022]

“All my favorite stuff is sad and funny and cool and weird,” says Jason P. Woodbury. “That’s what I love in art. I don’t want it to be just one thing, and that’s not what I want to hear right now.” 

Woodbury is no newcomer when it comes to writing about music. As the music editor for Aquarium Drunkard, the Arizona native is a veteran of interviewing both musicians and comedians alike. I spoke with Woodbury on the phone and what soon became clear in our chat was the writer who elicited humor from idiosyncratic voices of standups comedians and musicians in his writing. When it came to our interview, however, it was Woodbury who was answering questions, this time as a musician about his own forthcoming debut album Something Happening/Always Happening

“I've played music pretty much my entire life,” says Woodbury. “Ever since I was a teenager I played guitar in my spare time or whatever, mostly just goofing around, but at various points I actually did have other bands.“ 

While Something Happening/Always Happening is Woodbury’s first solo release, it is not, however, his first time with music itself. Woodbury is also part of the band Kitimoto , whose album Vintage Smell is out on Fort Lowell, the same label set to release Something Happening/Always Happening. 

“What was funny was this album was born out of me stepping into the role of a guy whose job is just add cool parts and make exciting little sounds and accompany his songs,” says Woodbury. “I found myself charged by this idea that I had spent so much of my youth trying to play music, whatever that means, in a really kind of self-conscious manner.” 

Something Happening/ Always Happening synthesizes Woodbury’s different modes of self expression. It is an acoustic rock record with folk elements and sometimes island vibes reminiscent of both his interview subjects and album reviews of similar albums of the genre. It is also reflective of Woodbury’s interest in science fiction in that Something Happening/Always Happening presents music evocative of the 60s and 70s with a twist. Woodbury also creates the feeling of those past sounds emerging in the present.

“I’m playing with a lot of traditional kind of sounds and nostalgic sounds,” says Woodbury. “I wanted it to have a sense of that sort of idealized nostalgia but really playful about it. Some of the musical touches get to nod to that, and that was a part of it that was really fun for me.” 

Though a native of Arizona, Woodbury insists that his album is not a desert record. “I didn’t want it to be the desert music with a capital DM because that’s kind of an aesthetic, and it’s definitely an appreciated one on my part,” says Woodbury. “The sound of the desert for me is Lee Hazelwood and Al Casey and Duane Eddy. So, it was like, I’ll lean into that too. I did want it to have a mid, Space Age kind of element to it, kind of as the Space Age is fading into folk rock. That’s definitely a sweet spot for me melodically and in my record collection. That was an important thing.” 
 
Everyone brings their history with them in what they do, and even though Woodbury tapps into his experience as a writer, he also fully leaned into making music as a musician. 

“I realized I had been pretty self-conscious in my approach to music and was very self-critical about a lot of stuff,” says Woodbury. “I was nervous about being cool or whatever! And the side benefit of the pandemic was it kind of just robbed me of the fear of being not cool enough to do something in a weird way. That's what this record really was born out of, that spirit.” 

Woodbury adds, “Part of what makes for good art as I understand making it is not taking yourself too seriously.” 

What follows is a discussion about each song from Something Happening/Always Happening. Woodbury’s debut solo album arrives in September. 
  • Something Happening” 
I couldn’t help but think of [“Something Happening’] as a writer in addition to a musician. it's funny when the tricks [pour] over from thing to thing in a certain way. End where you started is always a good trick as a writer and it's a way to give a feeling of a complete, certain narrative. I didn't want the album to be extremely prescriptive where it tells you exactly what to think. “Something Happening” is kind of upbeat and it’s very free sounding. It's a really bright, melodic moment and that doesn't really repeat on the record. I was nervous about even including it, but at the same time, it just felt like that it was a recognition of the song that birthed that spirit. That song was birthed in 15 minutes or whatever, maybe less time than that. When that happened, I thought this was a cool thing. That doesn't normally work that way for me. 
  • Wealth of the Canyon” 
Most of the lyrics on the record I wouldn't say aren't particularly autobiographical necessarily. They all are in whatever senses, you know what I mean, but “Wealth of the Canyon” is an autobiographical song. There's an eagle sample in it! It's goofy. That's a very silly choice but it's also a really deliberate choice, because I wanted this record to be fun to listen to in addition to whatever else it was. 

I thought a lot about sound design, and I'm a big fan of Arthur Russell and a big fan of him as a composer and a big fan of him as a thinker. I read this great book by Matt Marble where he was talking about Arthur Russell basically incorporating his mediation practices into his music. That’s one part of it. It’s a meditative record, but I also wanted there to be eagle caws and occasionally a breakbeat, you know what I mean? Just because that’s the world we live in. 

I love paying attention to the way a place sounds and I wanted there to be some of that on the record. I got to embrace story telling without even having to even ascribe words to it. I could scene-set just by asking Zach [Toporek] to play a farfisa organ or Michael Krassner, who produced the record and is sort of the Obi Wan, to go off on guitar or whatever. A song like “Wealth of the Canyon,” which was built on a sample of Krassner and Danny Frankel and Stephen Hodges, one of my favorite drummers, we treated it as sample. I stripped it down and I arranged it with my buddy Zach. We added drums and [some] organ and added guitars, kind of like this whole thing. So yeah, it was another freeing moment where it was working with someone else, a real collaborator like that. 

I’m based in the Sonoran Desert area. Phoenix is a part of it. The Phoenix-Metro area is like a defiant suburban sprawl against the Sonoran desert, which is not my favorite part about living here. “Wealth of The Canyon” absolutely is inspired by trips out into the desert, but specifically to a place called Sycamore Canyon. 

[Sycamore Canyon] is this canyon where I've had all sorts of profound experiences from slicing my hand open on accident to just experiencing a mystical awakening, that feeling of true one-ness with the universe. I wanted that to be in the song, but I also wanted it to be funny because I also drink a lot of beer there with friends. That to me is the feeling of that song. We often separate those high and low experiences, but they’re all part of it. I’m really so proud of that song. It’s one of my favorites. It’s one where I just sing on it. I didn’t write the chords or whatever. I got to feel like Mick Jagger! 

When people talk about desert movies, of course they’re thinking about Paris, Texas or Until The End of the World, these Wim Wenders movies. I absolutely love that stuff. That’s a huge influence on me. I won’t deny it is. I also think of Bevis and Butthead Do America or whatever. That’s also a style I like. I think I wanted it to have a sense of that sort of idealized nostalgia but really playful about it. Some of the musical touches get to nod to that, and that was a part of it that was really fun for me and made me feel like it wasn’t because I didn’t want to be the guy who wasn’t taking itself too seriously. 
  • Cruel in Time”  
“Cruel in Time,” the next song on the record, it tumbled out of its own. It was like a bunch of halfway finished songs that I had and it tumbled out. It was right after we got done finishing the Kitimoto  record. When the songs come like that, for me at least, when they come so easily and seem to present themself, it was just like, you’ll figure out a way for this to have a narrative as it comes together, and that’s definitely what happened. Then we hand it over to collaborators like the people we work with, [like] Laraine [Kaizer-Viazovtsev] who plays strings on it. 

Part of the whole thing of not taking yourself seriously is allowing yourself to open up to people too and playing with them, because playing music with people is just such a great thing. The bass player on two songs, Zane Gillum, I’ve been playing with this dude for more than 20 years. We play together on Kitimoto . We literally learned how to play the guitar together in Coolidge, Arizona. It just felt so good. I was just like, “I’m not gonna beat myself up. I’m not gonna be so serious about this.” That was crucial, and I also wanted to make sure it sounded like me. For good or bad, this is me. 
  • The Road That Knows No Law”  
We were definitely thinking of a [producer] Daniel Lanois thing in a lot of ways, whose influence I’m not embarrassed of. I grew up listening to his stuff, be it U2, Emmylou Harris, Willy Nelson. I did want to play with some of the tones on that song. It’s a real collage-y one too. I grabbed a Spain Rodridguez comic book and pulled some words off the cover. I think it was something like, “Raw action on route… the road that knows no law.” 

I just started thinking about the I-17, which is a freeway here. It’s not hard for that song to be post-apocalyptic. I found myself sort of imagining this weird kind of world and that was the sound of it and I was really excited. 

I was thinking of the outlaw. Judee Sill is one of my favorite songwriters, and I love the way she talks about the outlaw, the person who is outside of the line. Obviously, we have been thinking so much with concepts of the law as a society as we’re taking fascistic turns often in terms of these ideas of the law. I wanted to play with that archetype and the sort of desert Southwest Apocalypse, Terminator 2 style. Krassner played such cool guitar on it. I really like that one. It’s a weird one. 
  • Guesswork at Sundown”  
“Guesswork at Sundown’ is you’re setting up camp and daylight is dwindling. It’s a joke! It’s a joke about death a little bit too. The idea of fake it til you make it or whatever. The ultimate making it is when you’re done. There’s a little bit of goofiness to it. 

That was a meditation jam with me, Zach, and Zane, the guy who I’d mentioned I’ve been playing with for the last couple decades. We were sort of doing this endless summer kind of thing in our head. We just played that loop for a long time and let it roll and selected a little bit of that. Krassner re-arranged and brought in Larraine Kaizer-Viazovtsev. She did that beautiful raga like string arrangement, sort of this weird L.A. noire thing, but also very much about setting up camp as your daylight is running out. 

There were words to it and they felt extraneous. I was kind of like, “Well, I don’t want to necessarily put an instrumental.” “Something Happening” and “Always Happening” are pretty limited vocally, but they both have words. So I was kind of like, “I don’t know if i want a straight up instrumental on the record.” Ultimately, it felt like a nice thing to do. 

Krassner, independent of me mentioning the Verde River and places like Sycamore Canyon, was like, “This really gives me the feeling of the 1970s.” He grew up here too. 1970s on the Verde River on a Friday night. I could imagine these Phoenix kids driving in their Camaros or whatever to the Verde River. I was like, “That’s a good image.” So, when he said that it was a weird metaphysical cue that that one was good. I stopped thinking if I whether or not I should come up with words. 
  • Clarifying Word” 
I was thinking side-A and side-B the whole time as well. Something Happening/Always Happening, I was thinking of it as A/B, this two syllable mantra. I wanted “Clarifying Word” to have sort of like an introductory quality. I grew up leading songs in church and it would be an Introductory hymn kind of thing, which is sort of what I’m playing on there, maybe subconsciously. 

Krassner plays, again, beautiful piano on it. His piano work on it is gorgeous. He really brought so much care and skill to the record and accentuated my melodies so honestly. He was a real generous musical ear. The fact that the record sounds as good as it does is entirely due to him and the other guys who play on it with me, even though a fair amount of it was me in my room. I don’t want to not give myself any credit, but also think they deserve much more for sure. 
  • Halfway to Eloy” 
It’s not even specifically about Eloy, Arizona. It’s just a scene that I imagined in my head. Some sort of Philip K Dick kind of thing where a guy’s been awakened to the cosmic light and is driving to Eloy or from Eloy. I’m pretty vague about it. That one was a lot of fun. That was in a jam with Zane and Zach. Then we fade into that Beastie Boys breakbeat. That was so much fun. I love that one. 

I did grow up in Pinal County and I do feel like there is a sense of this. You have to drive through Pinal County to get to Oracle where Kitimoto  recorded. Driving that road with Zane down for the Kitimoto  record, before this one even started, I think those trips were real inspirational to the record. There is a sense of place about it. It is sort of a Pinal county record in a weird way. 

You create your own world in your head. That’s a lot of what Dick writes about, and with something like this, you have this beautiful excuse to do so and to populate with all sorts of weird scenes or whatever. That one was a lot of fun. That’s a good collaboration with Zach, especially on that back half, and then with Zane really holding on that bass on the first one. That’s a fun one. 
  • Addressed By The Multi-Formed Image” 
This was one where it kind of came later in the album. I have a weird, fitful relationship with singing. Just like everything else I’m talking about, it’s taken me a long time to admit how much I love doing it. This album was a great chance to re-engage that with myself. Like I said, I grew up singing in church, and for all the weirdness that might bring to the table, it has implied for me the relationship between expression and spirit and all that stuff. I really do think that singing is a form of expression that does mean a lot to me. It was always tough to come up with anything that I felt comfortable putting word wise to melodies. 
  • Always Happening” 
It’s the third thing that was recorded for the album actually. It’s a drone that was built on this loop of a Link Cromwell song, “Crazy Like a Fox,” which is Lenny Kaye, the music writer and guitarist of Patti Smith’s band, and assembled the Nuggets compilation. Just a huge icon in this world of record dude culture that I’m a part of or whatever. I looped just a small sample of that and wrote the mantra over it. I knew I was almost risking psych-rock… parody is hopefully not the right word… but I knew I was really explicitly invoking most of those psych moves. 

The loop of the Link Cromwell thing also puts it into a sort of tape loop setup which lends itself well to the psych rock thing, which again, I let it go. It was incredible because I reached out to him. When it comes to incorporating a sample, it can be difficult and a lot of people opt to not try to contact the rights holder. I decided I was going to and reached out to him and he was kind enough to respond and allow for it to happen and he seemed to like the song. If the guy who produced Nuggets doesn’t hate the song, who am I to argue. I love that song. It’s a lot of fun. We’ll probably release it at some point, but there’s an extended cut too that goes on even longer and it’s beautiful! That’ll probably come out when the single comes out. 

I remember being a teenager in Coolidge and learning how to play guitar and reading something in Guitar World that was like, one of the best things you can do is leave the audience wanting more. So, I did want to put a really cool one on the end to reward people who spent time listening to the record. It was that way for me. I always sort of knew that the book ends were going to be “Something Happening” and “Always Happening.” This was such a fun project and I’m really excited it’s getting out and that some people will hear it. It’s a pretty fun thing to finally be on this side of sharing something.