Will Wood (10,062 views)

[BassSquared]

Vocal Range: E♭2 - G5
Associated Acts: Will Wood and the Tapeworms (2015-present)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Album Ranges}

Everything Is a Lot (2015): G2 - G5
Self-Ish (2016): E♭2 - F5
The Normal Album (2020): E2 - G5
In Case I Make It (2022): F2 - D5

SPOILER: Click to show

{Vocal Summary}
One of the most unapologetically unique musicians to rise to prominence in recent years, Will Wood embodies a crazed, off-kilter energy in both his songwriting and his explosive live shows. Making eccentric music that can variously be described as "Mr. Bungle for theater kids" and "Oingo Boingo, but if Danny Elfman listened to a bunch of '50s doo-wop and Tom Waits", Wood centers his songs around his virtuosic piano skills and theatrical high baritone voice. Vocally, he is quite versatile, able to go from smooth crooning to deranged screams to keening falsetto at the drop of a hat. His belting covers the entire fourth octave easily, with numerous particularly strong A4s, while his lower register is fairly respectable as well. Also notable is his incredible facility with rapid-fire diction- numerous songs feature him spitting out convoluted, sardonic lyrics at an incredible pace. An incredible talent overall, and definitely recommended for any fans of music that is unusual and genre-defying.

Significant high notes:
G5 ("Cotard's Solution (Anatta/Dukkha/Anicca)", "I/Me/Myself" live in studio 2019, "Suburbia Overture/Greetings from Mary Bell Township!/(Vampire) Culture/Love Me, Normally")
F♯5 ("Chemical Overreaction/Compound Fracture", "Front Street")
F5 ("2012", "Cotard's Solution (Anatta/Dukkha/Anicca)", "Chemical Overreaction/Compound Fracture" desert performance, "The First Step", "Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)", "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)", "6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)" live The Real 2017, "The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate, Atheists!, a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know", "Thermodynamic Lawyer Esq, G.F.D.", "Wealth & Hellness, "Yes, to Err is Human, So Don't Be One")
E5 ("Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!", "6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)")
Eb5 ("Mr. Fregoli and the Diathesis-Stress Supermodel, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Con (An Untitled Track)")
D5 ("6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)" live The Real 2017, "Becoming the Lastnames", "Dr. Sunshine Lives!" live The Real 2017, "I/Me/Myself", "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, But I Need You to Leave", "Misanthropologist" live Rockaway 2022, "Mr. Capgras" live The Real 2017, "Suburbia Overture/Greetings from Mary Bell Township!/(Vampire) Culture/Love Me, Normally", "Wealth & Hellness")
C5 ("Cotard's Solution (Anatta/Dukkha/Anicca)", "(Cover This Song) A Little Bit Mine", "The First Step" live The Real 2017, "Front Street", Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)", "I/Me/Myself", "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)", "Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples", "Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY (Bones)", "The Song with Five Names" live Asbury Park 2021, "Um, It's Kind of a Lot", "Vampire Reference in a Minor Key", "White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off?)")
B4 ("Against the Kitchen Floor", "Becoming the Lastnames", "Falling Up", "Front Street" live at Coffee Haus Studios, "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!", "The Main Character", "Misanthropologist" live Rockaway 2022, "Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Roll", "The Song with Five Names" live Lakewood 2022 "That's Enough, Let's Get You Home", "Tomcat Disposables", "Um, It's Kind of a Lot", "Venetian Blind Man")
B♭4 ("2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.)", "BlackBoxWarrior- OKULTRA", "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead", "Half-Decade Hangover", "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)", "Skeleton Appreciation Day" live Columbus 2022, "The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate, Atheists!, a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know", "Suburbia Overture/Greetings from Mary Bell Township!/(Vampire) Culture/Love Me, Normally", "Yes, to Err is Human, So Don't Be One", "Your Body, My Temple")
A4 ("2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.)", "6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)", "And If I Did, You Deserved It" live Spokane 2022, "Becoming the Lastnames", "BlackBoxWarrior- OKULTRA", "Chemical Overreaction/Compound Fracture", "Cicada Days", "(Cover This Song!) A Little Bit Mine", "Euthanasia", "Front Street" acoustic, "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!", "I/Me/Myself", "-ish", "Jimmy Mushrooms' Last Drink: Bedtime in Wayne, NJ", "Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)", "Love Me Normally", "Lysergide Daydream", "The Main Character", "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, But I Need You to Leave", "Memento Mori: the most important thing in the world", "Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples", "Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY (Bones)", "The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate, Atheists!, a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know", "Vampire Reference in a Minor Key", "Wealth & Hellness", "When Somebody Needs You", "White Noise" live LA 2022)
G♯4 ("2012", "Cotard's Solution (Anatta/Dukkha/Anicca)", "Front Street", "Love, Me Normally", "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)", "Thermodynamic Lawyer Esq, G.F.D.", "White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off?)")
G4 ("2012", "2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.)", "Against the Kitchen Floor", "¡Aikido! (Neurotic/Erotic)", "And If I Did, You Deserved It" live at HEAD 2019, "Black Box Warrior- OKULTRA", "(Cover This Song!) A Little Bit Mine", "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead", "Euthanasia", "Everything Is a Lot", "Falling Up", "The First Step", "Front Street", "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!", "I/Me/Myself", "Inhumane" live at HEAD 2019, "-ish", "The Main Character", "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, But I Need You to Leave", "Memento Mori: the most important thing in the world", "Misanthropologist" live Rockaway 2022, "Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples", "Red Moon", "Self"-, "Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Roll", "Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY (Bones)", "The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate, Atheists!, a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know", "Tomcat Disposables", "Um, It's Kind of a Lot", "Venetian Blind Man", "When Somebody Needs You", "White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off?)", "White Noise", "Willard!", "Your Body, My Temple")

Significant Low notes:
D3 ("2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.)", "6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)", "Against the Kitchen Floor", "¡Aikido! (Neurotic/Erotic)", "Becoming the Lastnames", "BlackBoxWarrior- OKULTRA", "Cicada Days", "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead", "Front Street", "Half-Decade Hangover", "Lysergide Daydream", "Memento Mori: the most important thing in the world", "Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Roll", "The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate, Atheists!, a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know", "Um, It's Kind of a Lot", "Venetian Blind Man", "...well, better than the alternative", "When Somebody Needs You", "Yes, to Err is Human, So Don't Be One")
C♯3 ("Against the Kitchen Floor" live Charlotte 2022, "Love, Me Normally", "Yes, to Err is Human, So Don't Be One")
C3 ("2012", "And If I Did, You Deserved It" live at HEAD 2019, "Cotard's Solution (Anatta/Dukkha/Anicca)", "Euthanasia", "The First Step", "Front Street" acoustic, "Inhumane" live at HEAD 2019, "Jimmy Mushrooms' Last Drink: Bedtime in Wayne, NJ", "Love Me Normally" live 2017, "Lysergide Daydream", "The Main Character", "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, But I Need You to Leave", "Memento Mori: the most important thing in the world", "Millie Rolls a 7" live The Real 2017, "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)", "Self-", "Suburbia Overture/Greetings from Mary Bell Township!/(Vampire) Culture/Love Me, Normally", "That's Enough, Let's Get You Home", "...well, better than the alternative", "White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off?)", "White Noise")
B2 ("Euthanasia", "Falling Up", "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!", "Love, Me Normally", "Misanthropologist" live Rockaway 2022, "Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY (Bones)", "The Song with Five Names" live Asbury Park 2021, "Tomcat Disposables",)
B♭2 ("2012", "Cotard's Solution (Anatta/Dukkha/Anicca)", "Love, Me Normally" live Portland 2022, "White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off?)", "Your Body, My Temple")
A2 ("6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)", "Becoming the Lastnames ", "Cicada Days", "Front Street" acoustic, "Hand Me My Shovel, I'm Going In!", "Inhumane" live at HEAD 2019,"Jimmy Mushrooms' Last Drink: Bedtime in Wayne, NJ", "Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!)", "The Main Character", "Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples", "Tomcat Disposables", "Vampire Reference in a Minor Key", "Venetian Blind Man", "Willard!")
G♯2 ("Cicada Days" live Spokane 2022, "Euthanasia" live Portland 2022, "Love, Me Normally")
G2 ("2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.)", "¡Aikido! (Neurotic/Erotic)", "And If I Did, You Deserved It" live at HEAD 2019, "BlackBoxWarrior- OKULTRA", "Cotard's Solution (Anatta/Dukkha/Anicca)", "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead", "Falling Up", "Inhumane" live at HEAD 2019, "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, But I Need You to Leave", "Self-", "Suburbia Overture/Greetings from Mary Bell Township!/(Vampire) Culture/Love Me, Normally", "That's Enough, Let's Get You Home", "Tomcat Disposables", "White Noise", "Your Body, My Temple")
F♯2 ("Tomcat Disposables" live Seattle 2022, "Willard!")
F2 ("Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)", "White Noise")
E2 ("Outliars and Hyppocrates: a fun fact about apples")
E♭2 ("2012")
.......................................................
*Blue marks soft falsetto notes.
*Green marks distorted screamed notes.
*Underlines mark notes found in backing vocals or otherwise obscured in the song mix.
*Italics mark non-sung notes.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Questionable Notes}
B5 "Dr. Sunshine Is Dead" [2]
B♭5 "The Song with Five Names, a.k.a. Soapbox Tao, a.k.a. Checkmate, Atheists!, a.k.a. Neospace Government, a.k.a. You Can Never Know" [2]
G♯5 "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)" [2]
G5 "The Main Character" [3]
F♯5 "6up 5oh Cop-Out (Pro/Con)" [5]
E5 "Skeleton Appreciation Day in Vestal, NY (Bones)" [5]
E♭5 "White Knuckle Jerk (Where Do You Get Off?)" [1]
C5 "Love, Me Normally" [2]
B4 "¡Aikido! (Neurotic/Erotic)" [2]

E2 "Love, Me Normally" [2]
C2 "Cover This Song (A Little Bit Mine!)" [3], "I/Me/Myself" [2]
B♭1 "Suburbia Overture/Greetings from Mary Bell Township!/(Vampire) Culture/Love Me, Normally" [2]
G1 "Mr. Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: Tulpamancers Prosopagnosia/Pareidola (As Direct Result of Trauma to the Fusiform Gyrus)" [5]
.......................................................
[1] marks yelps and short trills in high range or anacrusis and short dips in low range.
[2] marks notes of questionable identity that cannot be confirmed to be the singer in question.
[3] marks non-melodic notes that don't have a significant enough pitch to warrant inclusion.
[4] marks notes that possess uncertain pitch or have been pitch-shifted.
[5] marks notes that do not fit the previous criteria but are not of a substantial enough quality to warrant counting towards the singer's range.

.......................................................
Blue marks falsetto or whistle notes.
Underlines mark notes that are obscured in the song mix.
Italics mark non-melodic notes.
Boldface marks notes that are considered to be particularly notable examples of this person's vocal capabilities.

[Smitty.]

Mar 23, 2021 23:40:06 GMT BassSquared said:

"Suburbia Overture/Greetings from Mary Bell Township!/(Vampire) Culture/Love Me, Normally

whatttttttttttt
Ediy: Also countable italic G5 in 2012 at 3:50

[Henny Macc]

As the original creator of this thread on TRP3, I am happy to give my endorsement to this revival of it! I also hope this helps introduce more people to his music - he's truly an incredible artist, and lots of fun to listen to.

Been working on trying to learn how to sing "BlackBoxWarrior- OKULTRA" lately myself - the amount of lyrics he ravels into that one at such high speeds is INSANE! I can make it through the first two verses and choruses okay-ish, but I sometimes start to run out of steam on the third, just because it's so hard to keep up singing at that pace once the key change kicks in and you gotta maintain enough breath support to do that kind of hyperspeed singing around A4.

[Henny Macc]

New song out! D3s, G4s, and some surprisingly strong belted B4s (in addition to some very nice falsetto ones as well)! His high range definitely seems to have been improving as of late - he almost never dared to belt those kinds of notes before, and when he did they came out pretty rough and screamy. The G4s in this one are also very nice and smooth.

Very powerful video and lyrics as well, for that matter. I hope he's doing okay, because everything about this seems to indicate him being on the verge of quitting music, having a mental breakdown, and/or even suicide. I really like the way he managed to channel it into art, but if creating that art is taking too much of a toll on him, obviously he should put his well being first.

[BassSquared]

Yeah, I was likewise worried about him based on this song and video, but I came across an interview that clarifies that it's more about his attempts to move away from his previous flamboyant persona into something more authentic to who he is, and his frustrations with some of the negative backlash from certain fans who built up said persona to something beyond what it was meant to be.

From the interview:

L: Soooo this song/video sorta feels like a season finale, the way you tied in all of that old footage. Are we watching the series finale of “Will Wood” as well?

W: I think that would depend on how you define your terms. If by “Will Wood” you mean the version of me that’s been sort of cobbled together by the audience that somehow found me like an effigy and turned into a symbol for god-knows-what? Maybe. Who knows.
I think it’s a bit more like a premiere than a finale. This video will be partially to promote the launch of an Indiegogo Campaign I’ll be starting on 9/27, midnight right after a special launch livestream 6pm EST on the 26th. That campaign will be raising money so I can record an album filled with music that is entirely unlike the vast majority of my current catalog, and I think much better. More honest. More raw. More like this interview than the ones where I claim I have a daughter and live in the basement of a Korean restaurant outside a coal processing plant.

I keep saying this but it’s true.

I’ve always tried to consistently re-invent myself as an artist, I think. But this time is different, because for lack of a less dramatic phrase (oh, who am I kidding, I’m a dramatic fucker) I’ve reinvented myself as a person.
I couldn’t be more different than I was even a year or two ago. That guy is as gone as the guy before him, going all the way back to whatever guy I was before I was born into this life.

I couldn’t be that version of me anymore. If I wanted to be anyone at all, it had to be literally anybody but him. So here’s the unimportant, boring little man that I always was underneath the gay space vampire I was publicly re-imagined into being.

So, yes, there's a fair bit of pain involved there, but he seems to be doing his best to move on, and he definitely isn't quitting music, which is nice to hear.

[Henny Macc]

Glad to hear it! Danerage follows his livestreams pretty regularly and was the one who told me about this new song. He mentioned how Will also deleted the music video for "Mr. Capgras" from his channel, and overall seems ashamed of his past. I'll always love his older albums (Self-ish was what got me into his music in the first place, and The Normal Album is probably a top 10 album for me at this point) and they've actually been highly influential to me as an artist, but if that's how he feels about them I definitely respect that. I'm just glad I got the chance to see him live during "that" era of his career, back in 2018.

I'm also kinda surprised that he's already getting started on a new album, after the four year gap that we had between Self-ish and The Normal Album. However, I will always welcome more new music from him, so I'm certainly not opposed to getting it sooner!

[Henny Macc]

I think the G2s from "Your Body, My Temple" could make for a strong bold choice. The first few he hits are a little on the breathy side, but these ones get some nice tone on them:


Also, any chance that in-studio performance of "I/Me/Myself" actually gets up to G♯5? I think I might be hearing a short one on "five FOOT five".

[Henny Macc]

B2s in this acoustic live version of "The Song with Five Names", plus a very impressive sustained B3(!) at 3:55, a nice falsetto B4 at 4:15 and a falsetto C5 at 5:52. Really cool arrangement of the song; he does some nifty guitar noodling at the beginning of the performance that I wasn't really expecting from him. :surprised:

This whole concert might be worth checking for some additional notes - apparently he just decided to play an impromptu acoustic set at the Asbury Park Boardwalk last year, and it sounds like he rearranged a lot of the songs and altered their vocal melodies for it.

[Henny Macc]

Just got done listening to In Case I Make It. Probably his best album vocally to date - his fourth octave has gotten really consistent and strong, and I was really surprised by how many B4s he belted out as parts of song melodies and stuff. Before he used to have the occasional song with belting up to B♭4, and then there was the one-off belted C5 in "White Knuckle Jerk", but everything above that was either screamed or soft falsetto. Now he sounds very comfortable on those B4s and like he still has room for more above that.

Musically I have some mixed feelings on it - it's still very good songwriting and performances no doubt, and it's definitely still recognizable as his sound and music, but I will admit that I don't quite enjoy this softer, more restrained sound of his quite as much as his more manic stuff. I don't think there's a single track on the album that I dislike, but I got a little tired of having every song start out very gently and having to wait for it to grow gradually - it started to feel a little repetitive in that regard. I think if you took some of those quieter songs and put them between some others that got to the action much faster, however, you could have a very enjoyable, better-paced album. We'll see how it grows on me though - I don't want to make it sound like I disliked it too much either, cause there was still a lot of great stuff to appreciate within that framework.

Anyway, isn't this a short F2 in "White Noise"? Didn't see it listed in the thread.

[Bink]

G♯2 and F♯2 have the wrong ♯ symbols. Just thought I'd let you know.

[Tetra]

think I'm hearing really faint G5s (panned to the right) in Laplace Angel at about 1:56

there might also be A5s a little bit before that but I'm a lot less sure about those

[dawsen2299]

This might be worth noting that at around 4:27 (4:43 on music video) on Love, Me Normally that their is a background vocal that seems very high. Looks to be a C6. There is also a large possibility it could be an instrument. youtu.be/yZf7EoV76Po

[Tetra]

is there not an octave harmony here? I definitely hear something around the D2 area at least but sounds like it could get lower.

[Henny Macc]

That's growly/gritty third octave that you're hearing - that kind of thing frequently fools people into hearing it an octave lower. There is no harmony there though; it's definitely just a single-tracked part.

[brookesquatchy]

i think they're referring to when he says "snidely whiplash, boris badenov" which fairly clearly has a second sub-octave vocal track to my ears, not the "twisted moustache" part that i assume ur talking about

[IhateMana]

Now! That's What I Call First Year Psychology Undergrad Topics of Interest

[Henny Macc]

Aug 18, 2023 19:59:45 GMT brookesquatchy said:

i think they're referring to when he says "snidely whiplash, boris badenov" which fairly clearly has a second sub-octave vocal track to my ears, not the "twisted moustache" part that i assume ur talking about

Oh yeah, I hear it now. If that's following the lead vocal there (which seems plausible), it would mean it gets down to C2. But it's so faint that it's hard to really tell without some isolation or something.

[BassSquared]

I vaguely hear something underneath that line, but it doesn't sound intentional/clearly pitched enough for me to count it as a clear C2.

[Tetra]

Aug 19, 2023 4:41:52 GMT Henny Macc said:

Aug 18, 2023 19:59:45 GMT brookesquatchy said:

i think they're referring to when he says "snidely whiplash, boris badenov" which fairly clearly has a second sub-octave vocal track to my ears, not the "twisted moustache" part that i assume ur talking about

Oh yeah, I hear it now. If that's following the lead vocal there (which seems plausible), it would mean it gets down to C2. But it's so faint that it's hard to really tell without some isolation or something.

yea, I was referring to that part, probably should've been more clear lol. I hear it get down to D2 on the "Boris Badenov", but it doesn't sound like it gets to C2 to me.

[brookesquatchy]

i agree, i think if the consensus is that that's his voice the D2 is probably countable but not the C2 (its too quiet to say with confidence that it gets there). im not familiar enough with his style of production to speak with any real credibility but from my outsider perspective they sound fairly similar in timbre and tonal quality to the background lows in 2012

[Tetra]

just wanted to share this absolutely KILLER A4 from a live performance of White Knuckle Jerk (also a falsetto D5 beforehand that can be added)