Woody Goss is not entirely as he seems. He’s best known as the keyboard player and founding member of the band Vulfpeck, a funk collective of musicians, singers, and songwriters created at the University of Michigan nearly a decade ago by Jack Stratton.

The band was first known as an internet phenomenon, coming to national attention for a series of videos and one infamous Spotify stunt (their silent album “Sleepify” which generated thousands of dollars in revenue before it was ultimately removed from the platform). But in recent years their online celebrity has translated into live ticket sales. The night before this interview was recorded, Woody played with Vulfpeck at Madison Square Garden in New York to a sold out crowd; they have no manager, no label, and no formal team. The band remains completely independent and represents a future model for the music business in which artists engage completely and directly with their fans and control their careers completely.

Fans of the band know Woody to be an extremely accomplished piano player, composer and (somewhat unexpectedly) birding enthusiast. He loves Thelonious Monk, and even went so far as to record an album of solo Rhodes renditions of songs associated with Monk’s solo repertoire. His harmonic approach and love of locking into a good groove with a rhythm section have both left their mark on the Vulfpeck sound. While the other guys in the band are somewhat notorious for their banter, schtick, and humor, Woody is the quiet one.

It’s always the quiet ones.

Woody Goss has no social media accounts. There is next to no biographical information about him online, and what little material there is reveals him to be understated, low key, good natured and even childlike. Almost everything you can find on him is performance footage with Vulfpeck. As we learn in this conversation, much of that is by design.

Left to his own devices, Woody’s humor is acerbic and biting. He has what almost behaves like a compulsion to say the most extreme thing in the moment. He tells me, “I’m so inappropriate […] I just want to make people uncomfortable and I just go to the most awful places. But that’s part of having an imagination and I think that’s part of what gives me my value as a composer; I hear things people don’t hear. That’s creativity.” He does it with no apparent ill will - it’s just how his mind works! So as a protective measure, he just stays off the internet and away from interviews like this one.

With Woody Goss, Brooklyn, September 2019

Here he talks about his early days growing up in the suburbs of Chicago where he learned to elevate rhythm playing to high art, when he connected with the crew that would become his Vulf family at the University of Michigan, how talking about evolutionary psychology is emotional, why organized religion is dubious, where he likes to go bird watching, and who he really is when the spotlight is turned away. This conversation is surprisingly provocative, enlightening, and funny. Woody is not entirely as he appears to be. He is, in fact, much more.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review on iTunes and consider supporting the podcast on Patreon! And now you can also listen to the podcast on Spotify!

137: Woody Goss