Royal Wood

Royal Wood
Royal Wood
Background information
Origin	Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2002–present
Labels	MapleMusic Recordings
Website	Royal Wood

Royal Wood is a Canadian pop music singer-songwriter, producer and arranger based in Toronto, Ontario. His classic pop style has drawn comparisons to Hawksley Workman, Ron Sexsmith, Randy Newman and Rufus Wainwright.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Born and raised outside of Peterborough, Ontario,.^[2] Royal was named after his great grandfather (his grandmother Margaret Emma Nicholson's father), Royal Rufus Wood of Chatham, Ontario, who died in 1962. Royal Rufus Wood was the treasurer of Chatham Hydro for many years and was an avid, amateur musician himself playing the Hammond organ at church functions and at a local funeral home. Royal Wood grew up in a household filled with music.^[3] He began playing piano by ear at the age of four and started lessons at age eight.^[4] With the support of his school music program, he had access to a variety of different instruments, and by his teens, he became a multi-instrumentalist well-versed in many different styles, including the guitar, bass guitar, drums, clarinet, and trumpet.^[2]

After high school, he studied business at McGill University. During this time, he performed piano in Montreal jazz clubs and focused on his guitar playing while trying to find his voice as a songwriter.^[4]

Wood is the brother of Canadian musician Luke Nicholson.

Career

Wood released his first EP, entitled The Milkweed EP, in 2003. This collection of songs were written, arranged, performed and produced by Wood himself.^[5] The release garnered much critical acclaim, and critics drew comparisons with Randy Newman, Jeff Buckley, and Tom Waits.^[6]

Following the release of his debut EP, Wood set out to create an over-the-top pop record for his full-length debut. Drawing inspiration from The Beatles and The Beach Boys,^[7] Wood once again undertook production duties during the recording sessions. In 2004, he released his full-length debut record, Tall Tales on Maple Music. The record’s ornate sound and layered arrangements garnered much critical attention, and Wood was praised for his vocal style and infectious lyricism.^[8]

With the goal of creating a more mature and pristine sound,^[9] Wood entered Toronto's Reaction Studios in 2005 to begin recording the follow-up to his full-length debut. During the recording session, he used a Steinway grand piano, scored a full string quartet, and also enlisted the help of many well-known musicians, including Hawksley Workman and Kurt Swinghammer.^[10] The result was A Good Enough Day, which was released in 2007 on Dead Daisy Records in Canada, and in 2008 on Rounder Europe. The record received much radio attention domestically and abroad, and Wood was praised by critics for his fluent piano playing, melodic lyrical style and production ability.^[6][11] The record spawned three singles and three music videos, “A Mirror Without”, “Juliet” and “I’m So Glad”. Music from the record has also been featured on several TV and movie soundtracks, including TMN/Movie Central's ReGenesis, the CBC series This is Wonderland, the CTV movie Playing House, the film The End of Silence, and the Food Network’s The Surreal Gourmet. Internationally, A Mirror Without was featured on an episode of Grey's Anatomy.^[12] His song Paradise was also featured on an episode of Private Practice.

With the success of A Good Enough Day, Wood was invited to share the stage with numerous Canadian songstresses, including Emm Gryner, Sarah Harmer,^[4] Kathleen Edwards, Sarah Slean, Jill Barber and Serena Ryder.^[13] In support of the Rounder Europe release of the record, he also embarked on a European tour in 2008.

Constantly evolving, Wood wanted to focus his next effort on the lyrics and string arrangements. The result was the 2009 release The Lost and Found EP.^[14] With a consistently growing fan base, Wood embarked on his first headlining tour in Western Canada in November 2009 in support of the new EP. Joined by Atlantic Canadian singer-songwriter Rose Cousins, Wood played to capacity crowds^[15] during three-week tour.

In 2010 he released The Waiting after which he was named iTunes Songwriter of the Year and nominated at the Junos for Songwriter of the Year. He also supported David Gray on a full national tour, and completed three headline tours of Canada, and others in Europe and the US.

His 2012 album We Were Born to Glory debuted in the Top 25 on the Canadian Albums Chart, and was nominated for Adult Alternative Album of the Year at the 2013 Juno Awards.

Personal life

In 2008, Wood and fellow singer-songwriter Sarah Slean got engaged while in Paris.^[16] The pair married in 2009.^[17]

Discography

• Sketches (2001)
• The Milkweed EP (2003)
• Tall Tales (2004)
• A Good Enough Day (2007)
• The Lost and Found EP (2009)
• The Waiting (2010)
• We Were Born to Glory (2012) #23 CAN^[18]

References

External links

• Royal Wood