It’s a little bit funny that Will Hoge didn’t consider himself a writer for a long time. “It begins with performance,” he told me. He and his friends formed bands, put on shows. In the 90s, he played with the group Spoonful, who put out an EP. They had songs to the extent they needed material to play at those shows.
With his background in solid rock & roll, it’s a curious thing that Will has found success as a songwriter who is covered most often by country artist. He received Academy of Country Music (ACM), Country Music Association (CMA), and Grammy Award nominations for Best Country Song for “Even If It Breaks Your,” which he cowrote with Eric Paslay and which was recorded by the Eli Young Band. Artists like Hayes Carll and queen of rockabilly Wanda Jackson have also recorded his songs.
Will told me that he’s gotten more serious about the writing as his career his progressed and he works harder at it now. He holds himself to a schedule for writing, getting to work early in the morning after his wife has left for and his kids have gone to school. He writes in a notebook, and, often, what comes out isn’t anything useful. He agreed that longhand writing, especially in pen, forces one to keep writing instead of editing. While the computer is an essential tool, it tempts a writer to get bogged down in editing and revising rather than getting words down. He’s comfortable with the tactile elements of working at a computer, it’s not how Will is most comfortable writing. (I didn’t bring this up, but transferring from longhand to a word processor can help you catch mistakes and fine-tune the writing.)
Along with an increased focus on the craft of writing, Hoge has also grown in his use of the studio. When he was starting it, recordings just captured what he and his band were doing live. As his career progressed, he became more aware of the possibilities of what the studio could add beyond that. Studio embellishment, I mentioned can lead to music which can’t be replicated by a live band, I mentioned, pointed to the later work of the Beatles as an example. While he’s come to use the studio as more of a tool, he said it’s still “nothing that a few guys with guitars can’t play.”
Will has a new album, Wings On My Shoes, coming out later this week. The songs are, typically for him, more like a collection of short stories, vignettes, capturing the lives of everyday people. He’s not going on the road right away to promote the record, but will be playing some dates with Dave Hause, another rowdy rocker who’s also attracted interested as a singer-songwriter.
Will was a pleasure to talk to, highly curious about some things I mentioned. I mentioned Gene Wolfe’s quip to Neil Gaiman, “You only learn to write the book you’re writing,” which he’d said when the younger had said, “I think I’ve learned how to write a novel.” Though Will’s not a prose writer, the sentiment hit home — and his circle has come to include people who work in that medium. He asked me to recommend Wolfe’s best book, which is the tetralogy ‘The Book of the New Sun’, though it’s not something that one wades into lightly!Â
Check out Will Hoge’s new album, ‘Wings on My Shoes’ from Friday 26th August.
