I… Read Full Bio ↴1. Wood is an experimental noise/ambient music project started in 2023
2. Traditional Rock and Americana from James Maddock and company.
He's just an ordinary guy. We know that because he's forever telling us he's just an ordinary guy in that likable, down-to-earth, "fancy a drink, pal?" sort of way.
But how many ordinary guys do YOU know who amble nonchalantly on stage looking as if they're about to pick a fight with a karaoke machine and then sing with a sublime power that charms and chills in equal measure? How many ordinary guys do YOU know who write a whole catalogue of songs with such emotional depth that they sound like classics the instant you hear them?
He's a Midlands lad called James Maddock from the English city of Leicester, famous for... well, Leicester's not famous for anything at all really. But for years, he's had this unfeasible dream of making wonderful music under the name of Wood and, hey, dreams come true.... "We used to be called 'The Gift Of Love,'" he remembers, "and we were talking one night about music and I said, 'On all the records I really love -- like Dylan and The Band -- you can picture the room they're playing in and you can hear the wood.' And it suddenly hit me. WOOD! That was the name I wanted for my band."
James picked up his first instrument -- the ukulele that his granddad used to play in wartime bands -- at the age of eight. His dad, an optician, filled the house with jazz and if you venture into Leicester on a wet weekend you might still find Mr. Maddock playing in a jazz band in some remote corner.
"By the time I was 14, I started thinking seriously about being able to play the guitar," James recalls, "and I was pretty good at it. I had this great guitar teacher and at the end of a lesson he'd say, 'You should check out this record by Neil Young.... ' I worked on a market stall on a Saturday and I'd go in, get my wages, and then go and buy a Neil Young record. And the next week he'd say, 'have you heard Ry Cooder...?,' and it went on from week to week... The Eagles, Jackson Browne... and all the West Coast stuff...."
"Then I found Born To Run at a friend's house and it completely blew me away," he continues. "I was a big Bruce fan, still am. The Band's second album was a seminal influence on me too. Bob Dylan is a big hero for me."
James Maddock moved to London when he was 20 and served his apprenticeship in covers bands working the ...ahem... boisterous London Irish pub circuit. He played in the Arsenal Tavern, North London, every weekend for several years, an achievement that surely merits some sort of long service gold medal award. It was hard, the audiences took no prisoners and you could play there for a hundred years without being discovered, but James wouldn't have missed it for the world. And besides, from this unglamorous environment of beer, tobacco and loud covers of old standards and the hits of the day, the first splinters of Wood began to emerge about three years ago. "I took over as singer and started doing my favorite songs -- Creedence Clearwater Revival and Bob Marley stuff -- but all the time I was also writing my own songs."
They even recorded some demos of his material (at Abbey Road Studios, no less, where they fantasized about being rich and famous as they arrived to be gawked at and have their pictures taken by Japanese tourists) and waited for unspeakably lavish offers to flood in. Strangely enough, they didn't. But James somehow knew his music's spiritual home was America. "Two of the albums I most identify with are Late For The Sky (Jackson Browne) and Harvest (Neil Young). I love songwriters and I try to combine melodies and story. I've always liked my music to be quite gentle, with an acoustic, friendly feel...."
At a time when nothing got signed in the UK unless it came with nasal voices and loud twanging guitars and could be marketed as "Brit pop," James suddenly found himself flown to New York where a chance play of the demo sufficiently impressed Columbia Record executives to offer him a record deal. Classic songs. Beautiful melodies. Great lyrics. Choruses just made for dancing on the ceiling. A voice to sell your grandmother for. Where had this boy BEEN all their lives?!
"They got me to fly out there and do a gig in their offices!," James exclaims. "It was pretty scary! You spend all your life trying to get to this point and suddenly you're standing there with your guitar and it's all hanging on what you do in 20 minutes in that office."
The boy obviously done good. His old Leicester schoolchum, Bill Newsinger (guitar), and the other two Wood mainstays, Jim O'Malley (bass) and Steve Jackson (drums), found themselves finally summoned to Tongue & Groove Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to record, with producer Dave "Stiff" Johnson, the album they'd begun to despair would ever get made. "It really is a dream come true!," James admits. "When you've spent so long scrubbing around trying to get £50 together for rehearsals you think it will never happen. But when it does happen it's a huge responsibility. I'm learning a lot about myself through this."
The first Wood album, Songs From Stamford Hill, is not only full of unfeasibly memorable melodies and immaculately crafted songs, it has some telling lyrics. "I'd written hundreds of songs before," James estimates, "but when we called the band 'Wood,' everything seemed to fall into place." The album's title was inspired by the area of London where James was living at the time most of the songs on the record were written.
You may already know the opening track, "Stay You," which is featured on the best-selling Top 10 album Songs From Dawson's Creek (Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax). "Never Ending," the album's closing song, is another key track, a particularly poignant, nostalgic autobiographical song about growing up in Leicester and losing touch with schoolfriends. All of James' years of frustration are reflected in the lyric of "Knock It On The Head," in which he promises to allow himself just one last crack at this music nonsense before giving it all up to get a proper job. Then again, you don't have to spend long in his company to know he could NEVER give it up!
James has a rare way with a sentimental love song, as well. "I really love 'Our Time Has Come', it's so SOPPY!" he laughs. "There's only about three chords in it too, but there's a symmetry as well." And then there's 'You Make Me Feel Bad.' "Oh, that's about a girlfriend who made me decorate the apartment about four times," he admits. "I'd do it and she'd turn round and say, 'Oh I don't like that color!.'" All human life is here.
Wood. Crazy name. Perhaps. Ordinary guy. We think not!
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(3)Wood is rapper from Houston, Tx.
He is member of S.U.C. ( Screwed Up Click) & Half Dead Organization.
(4)Wood is also an instrumental band from Wheaton, IL. They are, what you call, like-minded forward thinkers. http://www.myspace.com/ourbandwood
(5)Wood is also a project by Wouter 'Wood' Loderichs, operating from Apeldoorn, The Netherlands . On his debut he mixes hiphop, funk, rock, blues and a tinge of industrial. More info can be found at his MySpace page.
(6) Wood is also a young Norwegian pop comet, also known as Elsa Marie Skjong. http://soundcloud.com/woodnorway/wood-honey-youre-a-dog
7. Stoner/Doom Metal from Rennes, France
Bandcamp
8. French rapper signed to GrintaRecords who started in 2020
https://www.instagram.com/woodsvs_/
Stay You
Wood Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I don't even go downtown
So don't worry about it
Don't want to know what I'm doing now
And on the nights you stay home
I don't run into your friends
Had a party in Parkdale
C'mon girl, get your head upright
C'mon girl, you can lose sleep tonight
I want to tell you about something that happened
I won't tell you about anything that happens tonight
Girl, get your head upright
C'mon girl, well tell me some other time
I know you wonder if I sleep alone
On the nights you stay
And on the nights you stay home
I don't even look at my phone
You need time alone
Well me, I guess I don't
And on the nights you stay home
Nobody says your name
Nobody talks about you
Everything's exactly the same
Girl, get your head upright
C'mon girl, you can lose sleep tonight
I want to tell you about something that happened
I won't tell you about anything that happens tonight
Girl, get your head upright
C'mon girl, well tell me some other time
I know you wonder if I sleep alone
On the nights you stay
On the nights you stay
C'mon girl, get your head upright
C'mon girl, you can lose sleep tonight
I want to tell you about something that happened
I won't tell you about anything that happens tonight
Girl, get your head upright
C'mon girl, well tell me some other time
I know you wonder if I sleep alone
On the nights you stay
On the nights you stay home
On the nights you stay
"Stay You" by Wood is a song that speaks to the dynamic of a relationship where one person enjoys staying in while the other likes to go out. The singer of the song is telling his partner not to worry about what he's doing on the nights she stays in, as he also stays in and doesn't do anything noteworthy. He even avoids going out with his friends to avoid any potential discomfort for his partner. The chorus urges the partner to not worry and get their head upright, indicating that they might be feeling insecure or jealous. The singer wants to share things with his partner that have happened, but not anything that will happen on the night she stays in, suggesting that he might have a different agenda.
The lyrics have a sense of melancholy to them, as the singer appears a bit resigned to the fact that they have different interests. There is a sense of patience and understanding that comes through in the song, with the singer willing to forgo social situations for the sake of his partner. The line "You need time alone, well me, I guess I don't" speaks to the idea that different people have different needs when it comes to socializing and being alone.
Overall, "Stay You" is a heartfelt song about navigating the intricacies of a relationship where partners have different social tendencies. It shows that while there might be challenges, there is a willingness to work through them and a deep sense of caring for the other person.
Line by Line Meaning
On the nights you stay home
When you choose to stay in, I don't go out either
I don't even go downtown
I don't venture out anywhere beyond home when you're home
So don't worry about it
You don't need to stress over me being out or being home
Don't want to know what I'm doing now
I prefer not to disclose my activities these days
And on the nights you stay home
Again, on days you choose to stay in, I don't socialize with your circle of friends
I don't run into your friends
I don't end up bumping into your acquaintances when you're home
Had a party in Parkdale
Once, I went to a gathering in Parkdale when you weren't around
At a bar in the east end
I also visited a bar located in the eastern end of the city without you
C'mon girl, get your head upright
Hey, snap out of it and focus
C'mon girl, you can lose sleep tonight
You don't have to stay up worrying tonight
I want to tell you about something that happened
I have a story I'd love to share with you
I won't tell you about anything that happens tonight
However, I won't keep you updated on tonight's events
C'mon girl, well tell me some other time
Tell me about something else at a later point
I know you wonder if I sleep alone
I understand that at times, you wonder if I am sleeping alone
On the nights you stay home
On days you're home alone
I don't even look at my phone
I don't check my phone when you're home
You need time alone
You require and deserve some alone time
Well me, I guess I don't
But it doesn't bother me or make me feel lonely
Nobody says your name
Nobody mentions you in conversations
Nobody talks about you
Our conversations don't involve you
Everything's exactly the same
Life continues as usual when you're home alone
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: Andrew Austin, Carleton Stone, Donovan Woods
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind