Wil - By December - ibreakstrings

Wil was born to parents who were both musically proficient. On Friday nights he would sit and listen while his parents played and sang along to the old crooners and guitar legends such as Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins and Hank Williams.

By the age of 13 he was seriously refining and defining his playing style unknowingly blending his love of "old school country" with new diverse new influences from Led Zepplin to Michael Hedges. He subsequently landed his first paying gig in 1992 as a solo artist, and spent a number of years honing his musicianship while finding his true voice. The sound of the band “Gomez” was instrumental in helping him to achieve this goal. 

In 2001 and 2002 Wil wrote his first full length record. The result: an independent release titled "Both Hands" containing 10 original tracks by Wil and the title track written by friend and collaborator, Jeff Leitl. Wil sold over 6000 copies off stage before catching the attention of label execs at 2004's Canadian Music Week in 2004. Wil played over 300 live performances that year with acts such as Colin James, Matthew Good, Joel Plaskett Emergency and Xavier Rudd among others. The CD has since gone on to sell over 16,000 copies.

Wil is and will remain, the consummate touring musician, developing his expansive roots-rock sound and world-weary lyricism while building a dedicated following for his famously intense live shows which would later be described by the Calgary Sun as having so much "power and soul it could stop your heart."

In late 2005 Wil came off the road to write: despite his enduring independent streak, he decided to collaborate with some of Canada's most respected musicians; producer and multi-instrumentalist Dave MacKinnon (FemBots), " 54-40's Neil Osborne, who co-wrote the defiantly optimistic "Big Life" and Broken Social Scene's Jason Collett, who helped write the melody for lyrical relationship drama "The Way I Used To" about the ravages of cancer.

That musical guestlist is just the tip of the iceberg actually, as a host of other musicians known for working with Arcade Fire, Hidden Cameras, Feist, The Weakerthans and Blue Rodeo pitched in on instruments such as: mellotron, steel guitar, mandolin, trombone, sax, strings and backup vocals. Then the whole shebang was mixed together in Nashville by Grammy-winner Trina Shoemaker.

Wil, who writes 100% of his own lyrics felt the melodic collaborations of these artists as well as the musicians who played on the recording made it a very grand  experience. Wil kids that "it was recorded in 27 different places with 356 people" and though he briefly feared its sheer enormity might get away from him during the two years it took to complete, the combination of diverse influences and widescreen sounds never even threatens to overpower Wil's gruff, soulful voice, virtuosic guitar and dark-hued storytelling.

"I like calling it a 'real' record," Wil offers. "I don't know what a not-real record is, but in my eyes a real record is people playing in a room together, feeding off each other, and capturing those moments.

By December, was released in May 2008 to critical acclaim. The single, Wedding Dress, was released in early spring to Triple A radio with moderate commercial success and can still be heard on satellite radio and the ever supportive CBC radio. The fun alt country romp of a tune titled “Tell You Twice” is currently being played on cross over country stations, satellite radio and CBC.

Wil is currently touring in support of this effort and will appear at select festivals and engagements this spring and summer before entering the studio to record his third full length record.