When you think of the music Canadian singer Roy Woods has given his fans over the last decade, and we jump on Zoom to talk about his newest project, X, he feels a sense of relief. Like all of the dots are finally connecting. “A lot of the fans, they feel complete with what I gave with this project,” he told YAMS. “For the last few projects I’ve really been trying to attack a certain vision, and for this one, I wanted to just go back into that earlier…what it felt like listening to Roy in the earlier years, but with new wisdom, light and pain.”
As the 30-year-old enters what sounds like a metamorphosis on this new album, he realizes this era is less about validation and more about honesty. He kicks off the record with his (and seemingly the fans’) favorite song, “How You Say My Name,” which sets the stage with a darker tone. “Why you call so late? You must be alone/ Now that it’s cold outside, home don’t feel like home/ I question your intentions, might’ve been another lesson,” he recites in the song.
“For the record, it got me started on opening up this creative bag that I wasn’t too familiar with before,” Woods said. “I didn’t make a lot of records that sounded like “How You Say My Name,” so it took me a while to work on that record because I knew exactly what I wanted.”
Throughout this album, sonically and lyrically, you hear a story about what it means to enter a new space as you get older and mature, not only as an artist, but as a person. “I’m looking for myself now; I’m doing these things for myself now. When I was younger, I [looked] more to the outside to see,” he said. “I know what I want and what works. I’m here to deliver in all ways, so I feel like me being more in control of my sound, direction and my life, realistically, is the main key.”
That growing trust in his instincts extends beyond the studio. The relationships that shaped X also pushed Woods to examine how he loves—and what he needs in return. “I learned the kind of lover that I am. I learned how toxic I get, what makes me toxic, and what my initial trauma responses are,” he said. “I’ve needed to slow it down and give more to myself.” The experience, he added, made him consider what it means to be understood for who he is, not only for what he gives.
Songs like “Beautiful,” “For Me,” and “Break Ties” naturally show what it means not to force a feeling or instinct. He continues to navigate real-life experiences of battling moments of doubt. “I had to step into this power more of being this creative,” he said. “I’ve shunned away from it after a lot of disappointments early on in my career, and I had to say, I’m not going back into that mentality again, or letting anybody disrupt this frequency that I’m carrying.”
Roy’s ambition is to give listeners something they may not yet know they need—and make them feel it live. “I’m [constantly] trying to see what [music] needs,” he said. “People don’t know what they need, so it’s up to the artist to give them the things that they don’t know they need. The fans always want what they want until they get it, so you have to give them something new.”
That self-reflection is carrying into what comes next. Woods says he’s continuing to experiment with new sounds, and hopes to bring that spirit to the stage with a live band. “I really want to perform with a live band and go on tour,” he said, adding that he wants fans to see both his calm side and the “crazy-ass rock star” within.