Donovan Woods is feeling good.
It’s not yet 11am and he’s dropped his daughter off at school, got his 10,000 steps in, and even washed the car.
“I feel very accomplished already,” he says, with a smile.
They may seem like mundane achievements for the Ontarian songwriter. His musical career, launched with his first album a decade ago, includes winning a JUNO, opening for k.d. lang, writing a song then recorded by Tim McGraw and most recently, collaborating with Broadway star Ben Platt.
Indeed, it’s a quiet day in the midst of a big year. Singles from his upcoming album, Things Were Never Good If They’re Not Good Now, are coming out one by one, ahead of the album’s July 12 release. He’s leaving for an Australian tour in a couple of weeks.
“I’m excited,” he says, of his departure Down Under. “I’ve never been.” When congratulated on his touring stretching further afield, he laughs. “Well, we’ll see if anybody comes to the shows.”
He just got back from touring through the States, supporting Tennessee folk-rockers Drew Holcombe and the Neighbours with his quiet, pristine, heart-rending folk songs.
“Opening is the best gig in the world for me,” Woods says. “I love walking up to a room of people who are skeptical and changing their minds.”
“If there’s one thing in the world that I’m confident in, it’s that, if you gave me 40 minutes in an auditorium, I would be able to make it a nice time for people. I think that’s maybe my only confidence in the world.”
He had one show in Houston where the 600-strong audience talked loudly throughout his entire performance. “I feel like my skill set is quieting a room down, there’s not much I’m doing performance-wise beyond that, and I was not able to get them,” Woods says.
“They literally conversed through the whole thing and it was such a humbling experience. And even in that, there’s a real thrill to me. I got off-stage, thinking “no one gave a f#*k about that at all,” he laughs. “It’s just as interesting to me.”
His new album is described as a funeral to the life he’d been living. The last few years have been transformational, he says.
“I think, for somebody watching my life from 30,000 feet, it would have been pretty obviously described as a mid-life crisis,” Woods says. “I had to just sort of remake myself in the last two years because the thing I was doing was not sustainable.”
Living his values was not something he’d ever thought was possible, he says.
“I’m certainly a drastically different person than I was two years ago,” he says. Learning to let go of toxic masculinity and to accept vulnerability were a big part of it. “I’m attempting to live my values now instead of just having values.”
The record is thus filled with emotional honesty, he says. He enjoyed the process of making it. “During COVID I taught myself to record and engineer a little bit, which were skills that were lacking. I used to be so tied to producers I couldn’t change anything on my own. Taking a bigger role in the production was a real joy.”
The one thing he didn’t like was the time span between records. His last, Without People, came out in 2020. “It was a long break for me. I was stressed about the time,” he says. “I feel like people forget you so readily these days. I was just worried about that.”
Overall, though, he had a good time. “I love all recording. I love making new things. I love making something out of nothing. So it’s always fun.”
Donovan Woods will perform in Edmonton and Calgary in October. Keep an eye on his website for details.
Woods’ latest single, “Back for the Funeral,” from his upcoming album:
