"I write a lot of my music while I'm at work. On a good day, I get to play a lot of guitar while I'm there - I teach a bit of guitar, and write songs, if it's not too busy. It's a great job, as a musician."
After a childhood of listening to classical music, and occasionally 90s pop filtered down through his older brothers, Wood actually discovered country music in an unlikely place - Grand Theft Auto.
"In a past life, I used to play computer games quite a lot, and the Grand Theft Auto series has its own radio stations that you listen to when you're in the cars, and there was a country music station in one of the versions. That was pretty much my first big introduction to country music.
"I heard it and thought, that's actually perfect, it's exactly what I want - songs that tell stories. I think songs should always be about telling stories, and I think that's what puts me off some modern music. Or that's why I love country so much anyway."
He didn't immediately start writing his own country music though. First, he became a drummer - an instrument he picked up because his two best mates already both played guitar, and they needed someone to drum with them. That led - via contacts made while working at inner-city venue The Wine Cellar - to plenty of other gigs: "I ended up playing drums in four or five bands at a time."
So how has he ended up out front? A promoter friend, knowing of his songwriting sideline, asked if he would open for a band she was touring.
"I didn't want to do it, but she convinced me, and it went quite well, and I haven't really stopped. And somehow I ended up making a record."
Wood's songs are notable for their direct lyrics.
"I'm not so good at dressing things up in beautiful metaphors, so I end up being quite blunt. Performing them is quite intimidating, because they're blatantly about me, or me and a certain girl, and I find it a little bit worrying, baring that part of yourself to a whole lot of people you don't know. But I've never had anyone come up to me and say, 'Well that was dumb', so I guess it's okay," he laughs.
Indeed he's garnered a great deal of respect from fellow musicians -- enough that a number of them (Delaney Davidson, Dave Khan, Reb Fountain, Ben Wooley, Joe McCallum, Chris Winton and Tom Landon-Lane) helped record the album in Lyttelton with Ben Edwards. "I always had this idea that I really wanted a record that started with just me and the guitar, and then building up slowly along the way, adds bass, drums, horns, strings, until you end with these big arrangements.
"I can't believe how good the songs have turned out, and I feel like I can say that without being egotistical, because I did pretty much nothing and all these amazing people contributed this awesome stuff."
Who: Will Wood
What: Debut album Broken Man
Where and when: Performing at the Wine Cellar, Sunday, September 21, and Golden Dawn, Tuesday September 23.
- TimeOut
