“That’s the price I have to pay. I’m doing what I love, but I can’t be happy doing it.” is going through it. After releasing ‘ in July 2023, Woods broke his six year hiatus between albums. He almost quit music altogether in 2019 while struggling with mental health and substance abuse, which he’s refreshingly open about, “I was running away from everything that I didn’t like from the industry, and that was turning me into somebody that I didn’t like, and I already hated myself.”
But a two hour heart-to-heart on a cold balcony with his manager Banks was course-correcting. “He really just snapped me out of it. I barely remember the conversation because I was so high around those times… But I just remember we had a deep talk, and I remember I cried, it got very real.” He made a long-awaited move to LA but when the pandemic hit, he was right back home in Brampton, just outside of Toronto.
To experience a setback like this might have pulled somebody else back into the depths, but Woods was determined to persevere. He had already started on ‘Mixed Emotions’, and continued the creative process at home. If it was up to him, the album would have been released much sooner, but he now sees the timeline with a fresh perspective, “Somebody who’s making very emotional, vulnerable music, that’s not easy music to make. That takes years to make when you want to make it right, not sped up and not rushed.” He also admits that through the creative process, he makes sense of the situations he sings about, “Now I’m in a place with my artistry where I can take…my emotions because sometimes I don’t even understand them…and put it in a song.” Although Woods explains that he now can’t listen to some of his older music, “Hearing my honesty back then is embarrassing…I feel that ick.” One wonders if this will be true in the future for ‘Mixed Emotions’.
Time is one thing, but it’s the emotional sacrifice that takes the highest toll. “I needed to go through some more pain, I needed some more experience, because I was running away from pain for so long…I wanted everybody to just let me be happy. But everybody wanted me, for Roy Woods, to be sad, so I can give them sad music.” Although this refers to the years working on the album, Woods believes this emotional destiny is here to stay, “I can’t be happy, I can’t have that right now, I’m not meant to. I’m meant to have my heart broken, somebody else has to have their heart broken. I have to sing about that.” For someone who intertwines their music and personal life together so strongly, Woods a.k.a. Denzel Spencer, takes a more boundaried approach with his artist moniker. “I feel like Roy is one person, especially to my family, then Denzel is somebody else… I don’t want to mix the two together.”
Continuing the theme of self-reflection, Woods explains that the album title originated from the first two letters of ‘Mixed Emotions’ spelling “ME”. Given the heartache Woods has poured into the project, the title can only be described as an understatement. It seems he’s torn between relinquishing happiness for the sake of other people’s emotional journeys, and desperately craving happiness so he can move forward once and for all. Woods is now father to a two-year old daughter whom he loves and dotes on deeply, and is close with his mum, but a romantic partner that fits his lifestyle has eluded him thus far, “I’m still empty ‘cos I can’t give the love that I do want to give, which is more companionship, building with somebody type love.” Maybe other R&B artists feel this way, and Woods is the only one brave enough to say it out loud.
The album itself is a return to form. Woods’ high pitched voice delivers a range of anguish, desire and despair over soothing production from the likes of OVO extraordinaire, 40, and emerging producer Dimi, with features from Coi Leray and Jada Kingdom. Each track tells a story of romantic turmoil, whether it’s breaking someone’s heart on ‘Don’t Love Me’ or ruminating on a relationship gone bad in ‘Unsettling’. The album ends with the self-explanatory, ‘I Just Wanna Love’, which heartbreakingly echoes much of our conversation.
Woods feels the weight of the world on his shoulders. But it does seem that others are trying to share the load, namely his manager who pulled him back from the brink, and his label OVO, made up of like-minded, original artists, “I feel like I only started learning about why I’m on the label as of recently…We do what we do differently than anybody else, and we’re great at it.” In the best case scenario, a label is a family for people who operate in a very lonely business, and OVO subscribes to that philosophy.
Given the driving motivator behind Woods’ lifestyle is how fans receive his “truth”, touring is where he witnesses the emotional impact first hand, “I’ve had guys at my shows crying, tears in the front row.” The crowd at were in the palm of his hand. He exudes genuine excitement from the moment he steps on stage, often breaking into a British accent, which he gushes about hearing. No stranger to the UK music scene, with collaborators such as Nines and Tinie Tempah in his discography, he introduces WSTRN to the stage, and shares that there’s music on the way together. Of course his breakout single ‘Drama’ featuring Drake is one of the most popular tracks of the night, along with ‘Gwan Big Up Urself’ and ‘Say Less’.
They say the best music comes from pain, and maybe that’s true. But it’s one thing to make contemporary R&B that helps fans process their feelings, and it’s quite another to demote your own happiness to get there. Roy Woods may not have found the love of his life quite yet, but maybe his relationship with music is enough for now.
