Royal Wood

Forget the Smoke and Mirrors

All the puzzle pieces seem to be falling into place for Royal Wood. His new album, The Waiting, is a polished artistic statement that builds on his past work but draws from a more penetrating understanding of human motivation. The musician attributes this to age. “It really is just about the big intellectual, philosophical and ideological shift that happens when you hit thirty,” says the Toronto-based songwriter. “You really feel this change.”

His transition away from the limitations of youth is hammered home by the first track, ‘You Can’t Go Back’. Recently married, Wood sings ‘In you, well I have discovered / Everything I need to live / Forget the smoke and mirrors / You can’t go back.’ This sentiment sets the scene for all that follows on the album.

Beyond the opener, there are two especially brilliant moments on The Waiting that deserve special mention.

At the heart of the collection is a modern spiritual gem, ‘Birds on Sunday’, which encapsulates a fascination with faith that yields no easy answers or peace of mind. “Artistically, that was the one that I was most excited about,” Wood says. “There is no way that song is ever going to make it on the radio! When I write, I don’t write for that reason, but when you’re picking songs when you’re putting a record together, and you’re coming up with the path that you want the listener to take, I definitely plan it so they get to experience a lot of emotion. That song is such an epic tale of spirituality and faith, having it and losing it.”

Immediately preceding ‘Birds on Sunday’ is the first single off the album, the driving, instantly memorable ‘On Top Of Your Love’. Wood reveals that the track is entirely about lust. A beautifully made video by director Jeth Weinrich captures the essence of the song, concentrating on the ever-present lure of temptation in a life spent on the road. “When I sat down with the director,” Wood recalls, “they sort of thought of a ‘Wicked Game’, Chris Issak-type video. It’s not that I was against the idea, but seeing as I am in a relationship, I thought potentially my wife would be against the idea! So I said they had to come up with a way to have a video about lust where basically it’s lust that you can’t follow through on. We spend our lives travelling, so we’re away from our loved ones a lot. That was really the spirit of that song.”



The Waiting confirms the arrival of Royal Wood as an artist on the national stage. Although he is just thirty-two years of age, the road to this point has been long. The native of Lakefield, Ontario studied business at McGill University, and subsidized his music career for years with a day job as a foreign exchange trader in Toronto. Many people might remember their first exposure to the talented musician a few years ago during his one-year residency at The Cameron House in Toronto. Others may have discovered him opening shows for Sarah Slean, Emm Gryner, or Serena Ryder. Most recently thousands watched him perform in support of David Gray on a tour across Canada in spring 2010. With a decade of miles behind him, Wood has definitely earned his heightened profile.



One stop on the road with David Gray was at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener, Ontario on May 25, 2010. Before the show, Wood took a few minutes to talk about The Waiting, the aesthetic qualities of his album art, and his fondness for Montréal.

CI: The first track on the new record is ‘You Can’t Go Back’. As I listened to that song, it occurred to me that there are certain things from a past life maybe that you are letting go, yet you are aware that those things are still impacting you. From your perspective, what does that song accomplish as the opener, laying the foundation for the rest of the album?

RW: The record is called The Waiting. It really is just about the big intellectual, philosophical and ideological shift that happens when you hit thirty. You really feel this change. It’s a good thing, but it just made me take stock of my life and the relationship that I was in, and learning what actually love is and commitment is, letting someone else in. I was very much an island for my twenties. I went from relationship to relationship, and realized that it wasn’t anybody else’s fault. It was my own. But I think that’s what you do in your twenties! You figure out who you are. By the time I hit thirty, I had a clear idea of who I am.

CI: The first single, ‘On Top Of Your Love’, and the video for it – as I went back and listened to your previous work, this one strikes me as maybe the catchiest song that you have, and maybe the most driving. For the video – the process of setting images to music always fascinates me – the director was Jeth Weinrich. When you met with him to decide how you wanted the video to look, what element in the song did you especially want to address? It’s an excellent video.

RW: The song is purely about lust. It is. It was the obvious single for the record; the label, management and everyone involved thought that was the clear one. When I sat down with the director, they sort of thought of a ‘Wicked Game’, Chris Issak-type video. It’s not that I was against the idea, but seeing as I am in a relationship, I thought potentially my wife would be against the idea! So I said they had to come up with a way to have a video about lust where basically it’s lust that you can’t follow through on. We spend our lives travelling, so we’re away from our loved ones a lot. That was really the spirit of that song.

CI: There is the juxtaposition in the video of the private life of the touring artist and the images of public performance. The viewer gets a sense of what is happening in the background.

RW: Yeah, I told them where that song came from, and they really wanted to be honest about the video and the message. I think they nailed it, personally.

CI: I like the black and white, too.

RW: I do too. There are two versions that they released, and one has colour interspersed. I like the one that’s completely in black and white. It’s more an homage to the French films of the seventies, or even late sixties, that were just totally about the image and following a style.



CI: I am old enough that I like album packaging and the whole aesthetic experience. The cover image this time – who took the photo?

RW: His name is Ivan Otis.

CI: Well, I’ve noticed over the past couple of years, with The Lost and Found EP and now The Waiting – I know that Dustin Rabin took the photos for Lost and Found – it seems to me that you turned a corner with that EP and this album, where there is a sort of visual language building around the music. Even though there are two different photographers involved, both rock solid photographers, in each case the lines are crisp, the tones are muted, and there are just little splashes of colour. As the musician, do you give much thought to the visuals that go along with the songs and how you want it all to look?

RW: I am involved in all of it from the ground up. I’ve made sure, even when signing this deal [with MapleMusic Recordings], that I have kept that artistic control.

There was a lot of going back on that cover, and the label was, to be honest, against it. They wanted something a little more marketable, a little more like a Matt Dusk cover or something. What they wanted – I understood what they, as marketing people, wanted, but it just didn’t make sense for me as the artist, or for the record. It just didn’t paint the story of what it is. If someone had grabbed that record with the kind of cover that they had in mind, and put it on, it just wouldn’t have made any sense! This, I thought, did.

CI: I wanted to ask about the sequencing of songs on the album. The reason why is that there is a song called ‘Birds on Sunday’, which struck me – I’m not the brightest guy, so I might be a little off on this – but it struck me as a meditation on loneliness, and there is a spiritual dimension to that song.

RW: That is absolutely my spiritual song, yeah …

CI: Well, it’s pretty much at the heart of the album, so the question is, did you want that song to stand as the centerpiece?

RW: Artistically, that was the one that I was most excited about. There is no way that song is ever going to make it on the radio! When I write, I don’t write for that reason, but when you’re picking songs when you’re putting a record together, and you’re coming up with the path that you want the listener to take, I definitely plan it so they get to experience a lot of emotion. That song is such an epic tale of spirituality and faith, having it and losing it. Just exactly what you said, being alone; you find those kinds of answers in solitude. I don’t think you find them in a big old group of people! You find them in nature by yourself. That’s what that song is.

CI: That’s funny because – it’s not a similar song, really, but after listening to your song I was left with the same feeling that I have after hearing the Bob Dylan song called ‘Every Grain of Sand’. When you reach the end of that song, it’s not an affirmation of faith or a denial of faith really, you just feel that he’s a little perplexed by it all. When I listened to your song, I got the feeling that this was written by someone not content with any easy answers, either.

RW: No, because in life I don’t think there is, right? There is not a single certainty. You have doubt about every decision, every relationship, everything. There are always these ‘what ifs’ and ‘what if I had only’, and the same applies to faith, despite anyone’s religion. Even if you’re an atheist, you can have moments of thinking ‘well, maybe I’m not an atheist, maybe I do think there is something bigger than myself.’



CI: For the tour with David Gray, how did that pairing come about, and what has been the highlight for you?

RW: It’s been an incredible experience. My label just put me as one of the candidates, and David and his camp loved the idea. It’s been going ever since. We started in Victoria, going all the way to Halifax. Him and his band, they’re all in their forties, some fifties, and they’re just really talented and incredibly inspiring. We’re all treating each other as equals, and we’re all just having a good time, learning from each other and trading stories. It’s been more like a travelling group of musical comrades! I’ve done some shows where you open up for someone, the support act, and there’s this clear division: this is the headliner and this is where they are, and you guys are down the hall. It’s not like that at all on this tour.

CI: You went to McGill. I went back on your blog and found something that you wrote last year about Montréal. You wrote: ‘My old holy ground. The place where I cut my teeth as a songwriter, desperately wanting to be Leonard Cohen.’ When I go to the town where I went to university, it’s always an interesting feeling; out of curiosity, for you, what place does Montréal hold in your imagination at this point?

RW: Well, Montréal is, for me at least, that old city in Canada that has retained its heritage. In Old Montréal it still exists. In a lot of the rest of Canada – Canada obviously is a very new country, an infant – what we have, and Toronto is so guilty of this, despite the distilleries, is the idea that you tear it down and build something new. Then you tear that down and build something new! But Montréal is just soaking with heritage and history, architecture and culture. For me, that made me want to travel. Living in a place like Montréal really inspired me to do things like tour in Ireland and spend extra days there, and live in Paris – and just want to go!

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Canadian concert dates for Royal Wood, summer 2010:

June 17: Outlaws and Gunslingers, Lee’s Palace, Toronto, ON

June 19: Sound of Music Festival, Burlington, ON

July 2: Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Canso, NS

July 17: Home County Festival, Aeolian Hall, London, ON

July 23: Hillside Festival, Guelph, ON

August 14: Roots and Blues Fest, Salmon Arm, BC

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CI: This summer you have some festival dates lining up. I know that late last year you did a headlining tour in western Canada with Rose Cousins. What are the plans for later this year as far getting a full tour together?

RW: As soon as the festivals are done! There is a full national tour being planned right now. We’ll start in Victoria and go all the way to Halifax. This time it’s a full-on national headlining tour. So it’s the whole band, not just one guitar player and me. It’s an onslaught of touring, and some really amazing venues that I’ve finally worked my way up to playing. I’m really excited about it.

Date of Interview: 05/25/2010
Location: Centre in the Square, Kitchener, ON
Link: www.royalwood.ca