the whiskey priest is seth woods is a sad accordion

Seth Woods is The Whiskey Priest, not the nameless alcoholic fugitive priest in Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, but the songwriter who put out last year’s Wave and Cloud and who will be touring the UK this October. Based in Austin, TX, Woods also plays with The Sad Accordions who released the EP, The Colors and the Kill in May. The Sad Accordions were originally billed as Seth Woods and the Sad Accordians" (the misspelling of accordions was not realized until later, around the time that "Seth Woods" was dropped from the name). As their songwriting process became more collaborative, Woods realized he was then saddled with a suitcase full of homeless songs. Itching to use these songs and struck by an identification with Greene’s priest character, Woods developed his Whiskey Priest persona leading to the creation of the fervently sincere and stirring album, Wave and Cloud.

Shelf Life had a chance this summer to talk with Woods and try to unravel his creative process, his literary influences and get a peek into that teeming brain of his.


Shelf Life-You have such great imagery in your songs.  I'm guessing that comes from being a reader and lover of words.  Are there any specific poets or prose writers who have influenced your songwriting?

the whiskey priest-

i'm definitely influenced by all sorts of folks, but it's hard to tell what makes it into the songs and what doesn't. off the top of my head, some folks who have definitely had direct impact on my music are: ursula k. le guin, simone weil, tolkien, kierkegaard, joseph campbell, c.s. lewis, mary doria russell, graham greene, t.s. elliot, shakespeare, khalil gibran. then there are folks that are pretty influential but who might not have made it in directly: annie dillard, rilke, cormac mccarthy, dean young, kurt vonnegut, salinger. a lot of comic book writers make it in as well, specifically warren ellis and neil gaiman, but also folks like alan moore, charles vess, mike mignola, jonathan hickman. also, works like the bible and the tao te ching come into play. the psalms have been pretty important to me as a writer.

when we were coming up with the title for the last sad accordions ep, "the colors and the kill," i was reading a lot of dean young, and was also being floored by "the love song of j. alfred prufrock." we thought about using a line from one of those poets for the title, and though we ended up with using a lyric from one of the songs, i feel like those two men influenced that decision a lot.


SL-What's the best compliment someone can give you about your music?

wp-

wow. i can think of a lot! i guess there's two sides of it, if i'm honest. there's the more ego-driven side ("i love your band, album, you, etc.") and there's the more universal/spiritual/non-attachment side of things, that really just wants human happiness and peace and understanding. i'm not much of a hippy, but those things are really the more universal concerns. i can be obsessed with bob dylan or radiohead or tolkien as personalities or creative-types, but my heart and spirit can also be touched and moved by "all the tired horses" or "the ainulindale," completely divorced from the author. so i guess at the end of the day, i'd rather hear the latter, than the former (though my ego is always hungry for praise!).

there's a short poem by c.s. lewis that kind of hits the mark:

Have you not seen that in our days
of any whose story, song or art
delights us, our sincerest praise
means, when all's said...You broke My Heart?

it's a bit saccharine maybe, but that's kind of the best compliment i can imagine: the touching of the heart, the moving of the spirit.

also i want people to think i'm cool.

 
SL- Youtube seems to be teeming with musicians named Whiskey Priest.  Are you having them eliminated one by one until there is the only true Whiskey Priest?


wp-

ha! yeah, that was a scare when i discovered it. i keep expecting a lawsuit! i read "the power and the glory" and was so moved by the main character, and thought "wow, what a great and original name for a music project!" turns out others have read graham greene as well.

there's a british band from the 80s, there's a metal band, there's a bunch of pubs, there's some guy up in oregon... that's the first one i found. but see, he's "whiskey priest," and i'm "THE whiskey priest," so it's a pretty clear distinction, right?


SL-Walk us through your songwriting process.

wp-

it differs from song to song really. with sad accordions, we work together in practice to come up with the music, and then i'll often take those ideas home (both fully formed or partially), and come up with lyrics for them. sometimes it takes some sculpting, and sometimes it just fits into place.

for the whiskey priest or other songs, there's no one way. sometimes it's very nebulous, where i'll get an idea for a lyric or sometimes a melody or chord progression, and i'll sit down to try and flesh that out. other times i'll just play around on an instrument till something sticks, and i'll see what kind of mood that music has and try to find the right lyrics for it. i wish i could write a real good traditional narrative type song (like "the lonesome death of hattie carol" or "a boy named sue" or something like that). but i tend to write more abstractly. i think writing that way still tells a story, but a more open-ended one. i discovered a few years ago that when i listened to bands like talking heads, wilco, guided by voices - often the stories of the songs didn't make sense to my head right away, but my heart understood what was being conveyed. so i mostly try to write like that.


SL- How does your spirituality influence your writing?

wp-

i don't know about "how." i think it just DOES, you know? the same way it influences my reading - both what i read and what i take away from reading. same for listening, watching, conversing... and just like the rest of me, i'm discovering that my spirituality is in a state of flux. it's changing all the time, in subtle or obvious ways.

the choosing of the name "the whiskey priest" for myself was very intentional in that way. in "the power and the glory," the whiskey priest is this poor bastard who really wants to abandon his faith, his calling, his god, but god's sway over him is just too strong. catholicism has been outlawed and he's the last priest they haven't caught or who hasn't recanted. and he's running from the law, going from village to village to serve communion and hear confessions and such, but he's miserable. so he's always trying to turn himself in, or escape the country, or kill himself. but he can't. so he gets labeled "the whiskey priest" by the people because he is always drunk to cope with this tension of calling, faith, and the impossibility of being human. and the people despise him for it, but they need him too, because there's no one else to perform their rituals and rites. it's just an amazing story, and it really resonated with me. so i feel like my spirituality is like this often, kind of a tug of war between doubt, disbelief, and some sort of calling, whatever that may be. and for some "doubt" is this opposite to faith, an enemy. but i think for me it has been a tool, a testing or sharpening of faith. i think to side with one or the other is to miss the point a bit, possibly in all of life, but especially with faith and spirituality. so i think that's one of the core tenants of my personal faith, and i think this makes it into the writing (the most ready example i can think of is the sad accordions song "the boy who wanted to build a bridge but got a wall instead").

SL- You have your choice of artist to do a duet with, dead or alive.  Who do you choose?

wp-

i think it would actually be jon bon jovi, singing "dead or alive."

not really. you know this isn't going to be a "one answer" question... alive, either thom yorke or gillian welch (and if it was gillian welch, chances are i'd get to sing with dave rawlings, too, who is also a bad ass). or leonard cohen.

dead: nina simone. i don't think i'd sound very good paired with her (like a rusty power tool singing along to opera), but how could you pass up an opportunity like that?


SL-Who has the better beard you or That Purple Bastard?


wp-

it's a toss-up. actually, these days TPB's got me beat, hands down. but when we're both at our full glory, it's a bit like comparing apples to persimmons, panda bears to red pandas. you can have a favorite, but you can't say they're the same kind of cornbread.


SL- In your mind what are the stylistic distinctions between The Whiskey Priest and Sad Accordions?

wp-

i think the most ready distinctions are "singer-songwriter" and "indie rock." or something like that. with sad accordions, we've really made an effort to write collectively, especially after making our first record. and there's different instrumentation in that band. the whiskey priest is often just me and a guitar, though there are lots of folks on the record. but it all tends to be a little more folky than sad accordions.

it's fun, too, letting different influences out in the different projects. obviously i'm in both bands, but i try to bring different sides of me to each. i think ben lance, who's in sad accordions and also plays with the whiskey priest from time to time, treats it that way, too. i do appreciate separation like that in bands. i don't really want low to start making reggae, but i'm fine with them being fans of reggae, and even finding outlets for that influence. so i try not to bring as much folk love to sad accordions as i do to the whiskey priest. i don't know if the reverse will hold true for long, though. i could see the whiskey priest songs having room for some electric guitars and drum machines. maybe.


SL-In the Sad Accordions' album The Colors and the Kill there seems to be a recurring theme of baptismal fire, painful change and growth.  Am I far off here?

wp-

no, i think you're right on the money. all of those songs really have some pain in them, and have different reactions to the pain. "you can't hide from it" was written about an old friend, who i hadn't seen or talked to in years, who was dying of cancer. "savage" was taken from lyrics i wrote on a four-month long road trip with my buddy alex dupree, which was a very significant time of change and upheaval for me. there's also stuff in there about wrestling with shame, expectations of others, labels - trying to live under the weight of all of this, running away from it, hiding from it, rebelling against it, being stuck in it, and the consequences of all of that.

the record starts with a guy getting his feet knocked out from underneath him, talking to the cops, and trying to explain to everyone why he's a fuck-up. the record ends with this dude driving out to the desert, replaying all these nightmares in his head, trying to keep his head above water and not explode from shame and anger. and while he's out there, this change happens, and this dry and rocky place blooms full of life and color and beauty. for me, that's the two sides: the colors and the kill. the desert can be beautiful and vibrant, and it can also be harsh and deadly. and i think that's life, too. it goes back to not choosing sides. not "faith or doubt," not "the colors or the kill." it's both/and i don't think you get to have one without the other.

For your listening pleasure:

sad accordions



the whiskey priest