Matthew: All right, so first of all, just an introduction, how long have you been playing, where do you call home?
William: I've been playing now for about 27 years, and I live in Lee County, Iowa, which is the southeastern tip of Iowa, where the Mississippi River meets the Des Moines River. It's that little southeastern tip. That's where I call home.
M: What originally got you into music, and was the guitar and banjo, where it all started, or was there a different instrument first?
W: I started on guitar, acoustic guitar. I come from a kind of a musical family, my dad played the guitar, my grandpa played the guitar, my grandpa also played the banjo, and so there were just instruments around. So I was lucky in that sense, and we were always playing music on the stereo. My folks would spin records on one of those home console record players that was like a piece of furniture in your house, a whole console, and we'd spin records on it. My folks were big fans of country music, and stuff like Charlie Pride, Dolly Parton, and Johnny Cash.
M: Yeah, that kind of shows through, I can see that.
W: We were listening to a lot of that in the house, and there were just instruments around. So I got into it kind of organically like that, and I was writing too, even as a kid, I liked to make up little stories, and I had an old typewriter that my mom had given me, that still had some ribbon left that worked in it, and I would type little stories and poems and stuff on it. So I always liked to do that, and then, yeah, there were guitars and banjos around, but the banjo came later after the guitar, but yeah, it kind of just happened in an organic way.
M: Being from Iowa, and growing up around here, other than the obvious family aspect, what has kept you here? Was there ever a dream of going somewhere more outside the Midwest, as a permanent kind of thing?
W: I probably dreamt of that when I was real little. I grew up on a farm. I still live on the same farm that I grew up on.
M: Oh, that's really cool.
W: I'm lucky like that, and a lot happened to make it that way, but that's just how it ended up. But probably as a kid, I wanted to live in California or something, because I would read Thrasher magazine and dream of being able to go skateboarding all year round with no snow.
M: I understand that for sure.
W: So when you're little and you kind of don't know what your priorities are yet, it's stuff like that. And movies, you know, like movies set in Los Angeles, I just think, oh, that looks so much fun. So there was probably a short period of that, but then it didn't take long to realize that Iowa is where I wanted to live, but I'm lucky because I get to travel a lot. I didn't know that this was going to be my life, necessarily. Like in high school I didn't know that I'd be traveling for a living. I always liked to run around and see new places, but I always wanted to end up back here. So I can kind of scratch that itch a little bit. I got family members that have barely ever left Iowa. That's how they like it, and they don't understand what I do or why I would ever want to go to New York City or Paris or Australia or whatever. And that's cool too, but I always had that itch to move around. As far as living somewhere, I would never want to live anywhere else. It's where all my family is. It's where I'm used to. I was never running away from anything. I have friends that had things to run away from. Maybe bad family situations or whatever it may be, and now live in Chicago and all over the world in different places. I didn't have the things to run from as much so I really love living in Iowa. It's also cheap to live here. So people ask How do I make a living as a musician or whatever and I'm like, first of all, I don't have a band or a crew or anything to pay, and also I live in Iowa, where it's pretty reasonable to live. But I don't know how my buddies who live in Brooklyn or somewhere could ever make a living being an artist at all.
M: I had some friends in the Bay Area, and it was just a struggle the whole time.
W: I spent some time out in Oakland and San Francisco and the only way you could do it is if you had 10 of you in a warehouse or whatever, and the warehouses kind of went away after that big fire. The Ghost Ship Fire. I lived in one of those warehouses where there's like 20 of you, and you might have a mattress in some corner and pay a couple hundred bucks to have a mattress in the corner and man, I loved it. There’s a lot of different ways to live this crazy life, but I am where I want to be for sure.
M: I've been lucky enough to see you with Middlewestern a handful of times. What's the shift like being with a band on stage as opposed to just being solo? Do you like that sort of change?
W: I do. We haven't played together in a couple of years, but those guys are some of my best friends, and the reason we started that band is because we all play in other bands and have other things happening. It was an excuse to get together, hang out and make music. And I love it because it fulfills something that I don't get by myself on stage, which is you can look over at your buddy and have a laugh or just get a groove going and have a vibe that you're creating something bigger than yourself. You can look at each other on stage and sort of just trip out on what you're making together. And those guys are all great musicians. I was the weakest link, musically. I would just trip out and watch these great guitar players, and I’d almost forget that I was in the band. So when bands are working and clicking on all cylinders, I get why people do it because you can create something that's different than yourself. But I wouldn't want to do that all the time because there's something about what I do just by myself that I like too. I can sort of change it anytime I want. I can make it faster, slower, change the key, change the song in the middle if I want, change the set list, do anything like that. You can't do that with a band. Unless you're Bob Dylan, who would just change the key on a whim, you know, and the band better just follow along because he's going to change it. So it's cool to have both, but I like being nimble like that.
M: This isn't your first time at Codfish. Other than the fact that it's obviously a barn in a cow pasture. What makes it stand out from other venues?
W: Tiffany and Curt and everyone, all the volunteers that run this place, they should all write a book on how to run a venue and everyone should read it. I've told those guys that it's just that they put a personal touch to it that you don't see anywhere else. They're also able to. Not every venue is able to do that. What they've built here is something very organic that they can grow and change on their own terms. They're not beholden to Hard Rock Cafe or like, House of Blues. These chains, where the orders are from on high. I've played everywhere from the tiniest hole in the wall to Carnegie Hall, literally, and everywhere between, and this is one of the most special venues in the world. It's because they put that personal care into it. That's like back breakingly hard for them, and I hope bands that come here know all the work that has been put into this. It's not just them. It's a whole team of volunteers, and it's super hard, and it's a real labor of love. So I understand why not every venue is able to do it. If you're just in some city and you're, the Mohawk in Buffalo or whatever. That is a punk rock club that's its own thing, and of course, you don't come there expecting the same kind of treatment. And that's cool. I like that. There are all sorts of different venues and places to be. This one is just special. When they have shows in seasons like this, it's nice out. There's green spaces for you to hang out. For those that have never been here or can't see, it's just this beautiful little farm and a holler, and the people that live here, it's been in their family for generations, and I just love it so much. So it's just a very special place, and it's because of the people they've had. Other people try to say, Hey, we have an old barn. How do we put on shows like you guys do? You can't do it, unless you're ready to put in every second of work and every hour of back-breaking labor, and it's just not for the faint of heart. It takes a certain constitution to do this. So it's the people that make it what it is
M: To shift a little bit. Who are your biggest inspirations currently? Are there any musicians that you think a lot more people need to hear about it?
W: So what I've been listening to lately is a lot, of like, weird hardcore music. I don't know if you've ever heard of Scowl.
M: I've heard of, but never listened to.
W: Scowl is great. There's a band called Gel that’s really great. There's a band called Mannequin Pussy.
M: They were just in Iowa City.
W: Yeah, for Mission Creek. Wish I was there. They were on a different night than me. They're doing really interesting things. There's just this great, kind of weird, hard post-post-punk. You know, they're just doing their own thing. There's this great band called Zulu. These youngsters are coming up and doing this great hard, melodic, beautiful, weird, angular music. I was also struck recently by all the artists that I kind of grew up with that are still kicking ass, like, the newest Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album was really good.
M: I didn't know he had new stuff.
W: Oh, he's consistently been putting out records since forever, and they're always good. Their new album is called Wild God. Kim Deal from the Breeders. Her solo album that came out just last year is awesome. Bob Mold.
M: Yeah he just played here, it was so good
W: Yeah, his new record is really good. There's others that aren’t coming to my mind right now. But just these Titans of music that have been around for a long time still making killer stuff.
M: So two more. What's the biggest piece, or the best piece of advice, that you've received from another musician, and is there any advice you'd give to your younger self?
W: The best piece of advice was from my friend Smelly, who sings in a country band called Red Meat. They live in the Bay Area. They're from Iowa, but they've been out in the Bay Area for a long time. Great country band. But my friend Smelly, he's always been a little bit of a mentor to me. When I was first starting to play shows, he said, Hey, man, you're not singing into the microphone. You got to sing into the microphone. Now that seems like a simple thing. But I close my eyes when I play. It started off as being mortified and nerves. I just closed my eyes and kind of pretended I was alone or whatever. Now I just do it out of habit. I closed my eyes so I would lose track of where the microphone was. He's like, dude, no one can hear you. The mic's over here, and you're singing over here. So it's really nuts and bolts, like literally singing into the microphone. It's such a silly thing. But he's like, let your mustache touch it almost. So to this day, and that's been like 25 years ago he gave me that advice, it's because of him that I let my mustache touch it. That way I know where it is. So that's a piece of simple advice.
Then what I could tell my younger self. That's such a good one. That's a really good one. What would you tell yourself? Just have fun. Don't worry.
M: I’ve had quite a few interviews with musicians, and that's what a lot of them say.
W: Just let go of what you think you should be doing. Where you should be, and who you think you should be. This goes for anyone no matter what your line of work is. A little bit of healthy anxiety is all right. If that fuels your fire, to go, okay, I need to do better. I wasn't my best self last night, maybe I could do a little better tomorrow or whatever, there's a healthy amount of that. But mostly, I think we could just let go of all that stuff. Be yourself, and have fun. Now I'm talking specifically about music again as a job. Have fun, and just enjoy it. Don't worry about the next thing. Have goals for sure. And I think you need to have those goals to drive you forward. I like that in my life. I like steps and goals, but don't worry about it.
And that's interesting that a lot of people say that. Because it's the old thing of like, what were you worried about 10 years ago? Or what were you worried about last year? Now, this is besides big picture things, political things. I'm worried about a lot in the world. It's not to say there aren't things to worry about. There are, and we need to keep fighting the good fight. But I'm saying in your personal life, something that was causing me anxiety a year ago, like Oh, did I say a weird thing to someone at a party? Did they take that the wrong way? What happened in a year? Nothing. You're fine. So in a year from now, what will you look back on and go, why was I worried about that? So I try to heed that because I'll chew on a negative thought until it's just nothing.
Mark Twain called it the devil's racetrack; it's just a loop, and usually it's at three in the morning. You know, you wake up and then some bad negative loop…the devil's racetrack. So to get off the devil's racetrack and just enjoy a lot of it. I would tell my younger self just to lighten up. Don't worry about it. And, uh, invest. Invest Dammit.
M: Finally, what do you have planned for 2025? Is there anything big that you're excited about?
W: Let's see. I don't have any new material coming out. I've got tours coming up, and I always look forward to more shows. I’ll speak career-wise for a second. I found this old CD, the demos of my very first album, which came out in 2003, that I forgot I even had. It was some demos I did in the studio. I'd never been in a real recording studio or anything. It was in Chicago, and we just demoed some stuff out with no band or anything. It was just kind of me. We drank a few beers, and I would just demo the stuff out for the guy that was going to record, and he made a CD of it back in the day, and I just found it. I was listening to them and I thought, man, these are kind of cool, maybe I'll release these. So I'm going to press them on vinyl. It's the first record, called “Hymns for the Hopeless.” So it's the Hymns for the Hopeless demos. I'm going to release that on vinyl. I'm kind of excited for people to hear that. So that'll be something cool. And then yeah, my daughter will be taking swim lessons. That's not, you know, it's not cosmically big, but big in my life. She'll have some swim lessons this summer and then start kindergarten in the fall. So there are those family things that are these milestones. But yeah, there's no seismic shift happening, just some kind of cool things to look forward to.
M: Awesome, well, thank you again. I appreciate it.
W: Yeah, Matt, thanks, appreciate you.