Fresh from opening this year’s annual Winter Sprinter at London’s The Lexington last week, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Michael Wood, who goes by the name (and anagram) Whoa Melodic, shares his latest single “I Will Never Let You Down“. Clash wrote; “Pitched somewhere between Teenage Fanclub and Paul McCartney, it’s a self-effacing stick of bubblegum that won’t stay stuck on your teeth. Blessed with an incredibly infectious chorus, the spare production allows each note to ring out.” The track opens the gorgeous indepeop gem of a self-titled debut out on 1
February via wiaiwya. Wood explains further:
“I wanted to open with a positive song/idea – it’s supposed to be nostalgic and hopeful. You can be shy and naive and be a success, have faith in yourself. I kind of lost my faith in myself at some point, especially creatively, and getting this album was a struggle in that sense. I’m not sure how I ended up making a Psychedelic Furs style 80s indie jangle pop song, I certainly didn’t intend to, it was sort of an accident, but I like it a lot!” Michael Wood wrote songs under the name Michaelmas in the early 2000s and shared them in a series of CDRs to friends and people who came to gigs, later putting them all up online via Soundcloud. Some of his most popular tracks were included in a Christmas EP, with the stand-out track being “I Want Snow”. In 2007 he met Steven Adams (Broken Family Band) who invited him to join Singing Adams, and Michael has played in his various different line-ups ever since. Wood also plays in Darren Hayman and Emma Kupa’s band The Hayman Kupa Band (whose album was released in 2017) as well as occasionally with The Leaf Library. These various projects meant that his own music took a back seat, although he continued to write songs.
In 2016 he was invited by wiaiwya to contribute a song to their annual singles club, which is when he decided to change his band name. He landed on Whoa Melodic, which is an anagram of his own name, Michael Wood, which seemed highly appropriate seeing his natural instinct for a good tune. He released the double AA side single “Hey Hey My Reflection”/”Goodbye Good Luck” – which was chosen in writer/broadcaster Pete Paphides’ singles of the year list in both 2016 and 2017! As he had waited such a long time to release his first album, Wood wanted to make sure he had a pool of songs to choose from. Going in to the recording process he had 25 song ideas and ended up writing more towards the end, plus two brand new Christmas songs (including the recent “Christmas Stars“ for wiaiwya’s compilation Stars which came out December 2018). He started to record all of them and hoped that the ten or twelve best songs would reveal themselves as he worked. Many of them were improvised on the spot during the recording process, with him playing all the instruments himself and mixing the tracks. He had no idea how they would end up sounding, which was a fun and creative way to work but an incredibly slow process. The home studio made this much easier as it would have cost a fortune if hiring a proper studio and band. His day job experience as a sound engineer proved invaluable.
Melody is key yet his lyrics tend reflect what is going on in his life. Having taken a lot of comfort and help from other people’s music, much of this record is trying to give that back in the hope that this album would offer the same for others. Whoa Melodic’s eponymous debut long player is a loving hug of an album, a favourite cosy cardigan on a chilly day. It’s nostalgic, tune drenched and reassuring.
