[Cover photo credit to Alex Evans]

Liverpool, UK-based project The Wood is made up of Alex Evans (vocals, backing vocals, percussion) and producer and co-writer Steve Powell (guitars, bass, backing vocals, keys, percussion), who met when Powell was recording Evans at his Ark Recording Studios in Liverpool. They had just completed their first collaborative album together when the pandemic hit, but now it has arrived as Days, and they are hard at work on a second collection as well.

You might call the music Indie Rock, which is a broad umbrella, but it also has elements of Soul music and certainly it draws on Roots music traditions that span cultures and eras. What’s particularly unique about the music is its dynamic emotional range expressed through vocals and composition. One of the reasons for this particular strength may be that Evans and Powell shake off genre restrictions when they are songwriting together and focus on that kind of distinctive emotional core for each song. Helping them achieve the punchy and layered sound on Days are Martin Smith and Simon James (The Coral, Shack) on brass, and Jake Howden-Woodward (Nova Twins) on drums.

I spoke with co-founders Alex Evans and Steve Powell about the nature of their collaboration and creative the songs for their debut album, Days.

Hannah Means-Shannon: Considering how much work you put into this debut album, clearly, I’m very happy to see the positive feedback I’ve been seeing on this work. I’m also really happy to hear that you’re working on a second album. Did you not feel that you needed to take a break after the first one?

Steve Powell: No [Laughs]

Alex Evans: They kind of grew arms and legs on the first album, but it encouraged us to write more. Everything we’ve ever written together, we’ve enjoyed. Each song leads you to the next song, and it’s a snowball effect. So the first album just encouraged us to write more.

HMS: I see that you’ve been playing out a little bit. How has that gone?

Steve: We did a launch event for this album. There are only two of us, so we gathered some other musicians to play with us, which was great. The first ever show we did was just the two of us with a string section, which worked out great. But this time we brought a bass player and drummer as well, which was wonderful.

Alex: It was nice to rock out. We’ve been doing the acoustic thing for quite some time now, since it’s been the easiest thing to do. Other bassists and drummers we’ve had in all already had other commitments or were top players who were very sought after.

Steve: The drummer we had on this album [Jake Howden-Woodward], and is also on the next album, plays with a band called Nova Twins, and he’s been over in America quite a few times in the last year or two, touring with Foo Fighters and Muse. He’s a busy boy. He’s set a high bar. It’s hard to fill his boots.

HMS: The past couple years, touring has been like gang-busters, so it’s amazing if anyone gets any new music recorded.

Steve: Because music’s free now, musicians by necessity have to tour to make money, to sell merch as well as playing. That’s just the fact of it. It’s essential to carry on.

HMS: Especially making up for lost time.

Alex: Covid was a big time warp for all of us.

HMS: Were you all able to get together and make music during that time? I understand that this album was actually completed before Covid.

Alex: Not as much as, obviously, we would like to.

Steve: There was a year where everyone was just shut up at home. I grew a big beard! [Laughs]

Alex: It was a “time warp.” I can’t remember how long it was until we got back into the studio together.

HMS: Does that mean that these songs feel even longer ago for you, like a distant thing? Is it hard to get back into playing them now?

Steve: Oddly enough, for this show, those are totally fresh versions. We’ve had to re-learn the way that we wrote them initially. For some of them, we’d never played them with a full band. We’d kind of recorded them by building them up and getting players in. It was really exciting to play them!

Alex: The sound is for a full band. The acoustic thing has been great, to be visible, but now we’d love to be visible with a bassist, a drummer, and whoever else wants to join.

Steve: The work we’re doing now is full of big string parts and all sorts of orchestral stuff. I don’t think we’ll be taking all that on stage, though!

Alex: I don’t think we’ll be taking the Philharmonic on with us!

HMS: I was really surprised the first time I heard the album, because I saw that you were built from a duo, so I expected a more minimal sound. It was such a big sound, so ambitious!

Steve: A lot of it’s not about the number of people, even on stage, but about the attitude, the playing.

Alex: It’s an attitude thing. A lot of the songs we’ve done, like “Let It Loose”, we’ve also done acoustically with three people. It’s really worked. It’s still effective. Sometimes we add a lot when we’re recording, but sometimes it doesn’t have to.

Steve: When you’re recording, sometimes you throw stuff at a song, and sometimes the song throws it back at you! [Laughs] Sometimes the song doesn’t really want that! A song develops character while we’re recording, and grows a personality. We’ll work on about ten songs at a time, and keep going back to them. When you come back to one after leaving it for a while, it’s kind of telling you what it wants you to do. The song always leads the way, really.

HMS: I was wondering about your songwriting processes, and whether you tended to write multiple songs at a time, sketching as you go. Does any of that happen before you’re face-to-face?

Steve: We bounce things off each other mainly when we’re together.

Alex: We still get ideas, sitting at home, or wherever. If I get a lyric idea or a melody, I record it onto my phone, or hum it. Then I present the idea to Steve and we go from there. Steve sometimes will have some chords that he’s recorded at home, and brings them in.

Steve: There’s a couple of songs on the first album that started with a bassline, which is kind of an odd way to go. We haven’t got a strict focus for it. Sometimes we’ll be sitting around doing something else, and I’ll pick up an acoustic guitar. All of the sudden, there’s another song. It’s like having too many kids at once!

Alex: There have been a lot of songs dropped, as well, to be honest. The first album was really tough to pick, and the second one has been just as tough. There’s so many songs, and you just want to put them all, but you’re limited.

HMS: First albums often have that problem, but it’s a good problem if that’s happening even on your second album! What do you two think that you have in common in your musical vision that allows you to work together like this?

Steve: The thing we’ve got in common, really, is that we don’t have a definitive way to go at a song. It doesn’t have to be a similar style or anything. If a song is a good song, it’s good enough to put in the pot with the other ones. Our songs are different, one to another. There’s no definitive way.

Alex: We’re both influenced by a lot of great music. I don’t think you have to be pigeon-holed to one particular style, just be yourself. I think we both recognize that and whatever comes out that day is what comes out. We just run with it.

HMS: Do you find relief in working together with this attitude? This is not the most common mindset when recording music in a studio, as I’m sure I don’t have to tell you. People are often more narrow and driven when it comes to recording, and it can be a stricture. What you’re describing is a free play of creative activity.

Steve: I think in some ways, historically, bands by necessity have been put in a corner where they have to a certain type of band. If they’ve got a record company driving them, or a manager driving them. It’s a necessity for those people to do that. Now, because a lot of people like us are doing it for themselves, because that record company model is gone, the shackles are off! There are no laws or rules. It’s liberating, really, for a lot of people.

Alex: Certainly, for us it is. We can just go with it. It’s really liberating.

HMS: And then you make your decisions later about which songs fit together or work best for release? Do you compose the album in that way later?

Steve: I think your album is your final part of the composition. The album is a composition and we go in an order that makes sense.

Alex: We try to make it make sense to us. Whether it makes sense to other people, I’m not sure!

HMS: Do you see the album as more like a novel, or like a book of short stories?

Alex: The songs definitely link together. There’s a lot of personality.

Steve: There’s a lot of personal stuff in there, as well.

HMS: The themes, I think, do connect.

Alex: It’s not a concept album, but there’s a lot of personal stuff from my experiences growing up. That type of stuff. There’s a theme of my youth, really, and the second album is a bit more of a development from that, where we are now, personally and globally.

Steve: There’s stuff on the second record where you can’t help but be affected by the way that the world is now and the experience of the past few years, particularly. That naturally comes into it.

HMS: Some of the songs seem to be about struggle, and assessing where we are in the aftermath of struggle. Then there are some that seem more about relationships and human connection. Something that appealed to me about the album is that it’s not super-upbeat in a forced way. It engages with heavier emotions. But in terms of sound, I think just about every song is quite dynamic, moving from being very quiet to being more muscular and energetic.

Steve: When you’re dealing with really emotional content, I think that’s going to happen naturally. While a lot of the content is quite dark, I think there are some joyful moments. It kind of encompasses all of life’s experiences.

HMS: I think the album pushes back against real but daunting things that we face, like the song “Let It Loose”, which made it a good representation of the album. It’s the human spirit, right? That surge, that urge to fight back in our own ways. It encourages people to get up again, which is positive.

Steve: It’s an album full of hope, really.

Alex: As dark as it may seem, there’s hope.

Steve: There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, really.

Alex: Everyone’s got their own concept of what the song “Let It Loose” might mean, but that’s the great thing about music.

HMS: I want to mention Soul music for a minute, because I think it has to do with the success of this album artistically. I’m no expert in Soul music, but what many people say to me is that Soul music’s great strength is that it can convey so much emotion. Was that on your mind with vocals, particularly?

Alex: I think it’s just about being real. I come from a very emotional, expressive family. It plays into my character, really, and it kind of comes out through music. I feel like I’m using music as an extension of who I am as a person. I think it’s important to express who you are.

Steve: I think the best music is where people are being brave enough. If you’re bearing your soul, the music is going to benefit from that, and I think the listener has more to get involved in, as well. It kind of raises the question, “Why not to do that?” It’s about connection, isn’t it, really?