Royal Wood talks music, fame & industry changes

Being named iTunes Songwriter of the Year in 2008 came as a surprise to Royal Wood.

“I would have thought something like that would have gone to someone at that time who was more established, with much more of a machine behind them,” he said.

Machine or not, the Ontario native has been doing well for himself. Playing at the Charlotte Street Art Centre on Oct. 23 in a final show of support for his latest EP “Lost and Found,” Wood is exactly where he wants to be, despite the way the music industry has changed.

“The industry itself got turned on its ear by the time I started,” he said. “The whole idea of the holy trinity… the massive label, the big guy smoking the cigar, getting all dressed up with the limo and all that really just went up and died.”

Replacing this old model is something that Wood said leads to artists picking their own paths.

“[Artists aren’t] making a living not just through record sales, because those are dying for everyone,” he said. “It’s making a living through licensing and soundtrack work and producing other people’s records and playing on other people’s records and every medium possible.”

“Because people don’t want to pay for music anymore, so [big labels] are really the way of the dinosaurs.”

Without big labels, those interested in making music as their only job face a lot of risk.

“You basically run your own business, 24 hours, 7 days a week if you want to be an independent artist,” Wood said. “[You’re] free. You can make any record you want, as long as there’s funding…but it’s a big investment and a big risk.”

But for Wood, the changes offer artists a valuable chance to try new things.

“If you’re making music for monetary reasons, I guess you’re not really doing it for the right reasons,” he said. “I mean, once you have a voice, I think it is our duty to actually call attention to something you care about. You have a chance to educate people on something they might not know anything about. I think we should be doing that.”

“I hope to do something good in my life other than writing some songs.”