Rising alt artist, Woz, releases new single “The Things I Love The Most”. On “The Things I Love The Most,” Woz looks back on his relationship with his brother and explores themes of religious redemption and self-destruction.
What have you been up to since we last spoke?
Tons! Been doing some writing, which has been fun! Lots of band practice and prepping for shows. The biggest thing recently has been slowly releasing this new batch of songs!
This track is loaded with heavy topics. Tell us about why you felt the need to explore them
It’s been one of those things I’ve been dying to write about since I first picked up a guitar. My siblings have always been the most important people in my life. We’re best friends, and we’ve seen it all together. We come from the same place, and we’ve all branched off down different paths. They’re the only family I have left, so I cherish every second I spend with them.
What’s your relationship with religion and religion-adjacent ideas?
It’s complicated at times, but I definitely consider myself an atheist. I envy those who are religious. I love it when it pushes people to do good, and I envy the solace people find in it. I’ve never been able to claim that for myself, because of the harm that religion causes in the world, and also the fact that I can’t wrap my head around the idea of an actual God physically existing. But I do envy those who can.
What’s the most brotherly moment you can recall of you and your brother?
I have so many. We used to watch the WWE growing up, so obviously this led to a lot of wrestling. Within the first month of us watching it, we had 2 hospital visits, one involving a Swanton Bomb gone wrong, and then the other a Tombstone. Safe to say, we weren’t allowed to watch wrestling anymore. We still did though…. in secret.
Did he inspire your creativity growing up?
Totally. Fun fact, my brother Justin is the only reason I can sing. When I was learning, he was always brutally honest, and let me know if it sounded bad. You get the kind of honesty from siblings that you can’t get from anyone else. Eventually he pushed me to get on TikTok and social media, and pursue music.
How did you come up with this arrangement and sonic landscapes?
It came so naturally, the entire song was done in a day. It was the first time we really experimented with the piano, usually guitar is the go to. The post-chorus came from this big Queens of the Stone Age kick I was on. I wanted something super dark and distorted. I was super proud of how we did that, I love the contrast between the soft piano and vocals in the chorus, and then to the sonic wave of distortion and fuzz after. My producer Dallas killed it on that post, and Alex is literally the vocal harmony guru, I love them