Vancouver Island singer-songwriter WiL explores the memories, connections, and experiences that shape our lives on his heartfelt new single “Pieces.”
Vancouver Island indie-folk singer-songwriter WiL returns with his captivating new single, “Pieces”, available now on all digital streaming platforms. The release is accompanied by an intimate live version and a live performance video.
Co-produced by WiL and acclaimed alt-country singer-songwriter and Dirty Windshields (CKUA) host Leeroy Stagger, “Pieces” showcases WiL’s deep, commanding vocals, distinctive guitar work, and warm, organic instrumentation.
Stripped of unnecessary embellishment, the song captures the intimacy of its central theme: the fleeting moments and connections that, together, make up a life.
WiL Pieces: The Inspiration Behind the New Single
The idea for “Pieces” first emerged from a potential composition project for a media campaign. WiL had been asked to write music and lyrics to picture, and one particular image stayed with him: a woman running freely across the sand toward a lake, looking back over her shoulder with a sense of joy and vitality.
What began as music written to accompany a single visual evolved into a reflection on the snapshots we collect throughout our lives. Moments of connection, beauty, desire, loss, and everything in between became the individual “pieces” at the heart of the song.
“Be wild in your life by building it and filling it with meaningful, great experiences and moments,” says WiL. “These, to me, are the ‘Pieces’ of our lives. Good or bad, just keep putting the f’n puzzle together until you run out of pieces.”
WiL Pieces: Recording With Leeroy Stagger
That sense of immediacy also shaped the recording process. Wanting listeners to feel as though they were sitting in the room with him, WiL and Stagger kept the production deliberately intimate and uncluttered.
Rather than layering the track with unnecessary production, the pair allowed the vocals, guitar, and emotional weight of the song to remain front and centre.
The accompanying live version grew out of an early recording session at Barnhouse Sound in Qualicum Beach, BC, where WiL and Stagger first explored the song in a spacious, natural live room.
Although they ultimately re-recorded the studio version at Stagger’s Neighbourhood Recorders in Victoria, the Barnhouse experience left a lasting impression.
WiL and his manager and wife, Caroline, decided to return to the space and perform the song live in front of an audience.
Captured with a videographer and audio engineer, the performance became both the live recording and accompanying video, offering a raw, in-the-room counterpart to the studio release.
WiL Pieces: A New Chapter in Canadian Indie-Folk
“Pieces” follows WiL’s previous single, “I’m Sorry”, further showcasing his ability to transform personal reflections into deeply relatable music.
Known for his fiercely distinctive guitar style, deep velvety vocals, and unflinching approach to songwriting, WiL blends the raw acoustic intimacy of Ray LaMontagne with rich, organic instrumentation and the percussive explosiveness of Nathaniel Rateliff.
His songs explore life’s deeper, darker corners with honesty and a wry sense of humanity. That emotional depth creates a compelling contrast with an artist equally known for his onstage humour, off-the-cuff rants, and sweat-soaked, string-breaking live performances.
“Pieces” was inspired by an image of a woman running freely toward a lake. What was it about that particular image that struck you, and how did that initial spark evolve into a song about the moments and memories that make up our lives?
I was composing to film for a commercial spot I had been working on. There were people living their best lives outside, and one gal was running as the sun was setting, pulled her top over her head and was only wearing what looked like her underwear, living in a real moment, a moment that had her running into a very cold mountain lake. The whole scene was mere seconds, but it stuck with me, living free and just doing the thing, and all these things make for a grand puzzle of pieces in one’s life, especially if you are willing to really live it.
There’s a beautiful sentiment behind “Pieces” about collecting experiences, both good and bad, as we move through life. Has writing this song changed the way you think about your own experiences or the moments that have shaped who you are?
Not really, because this is a sentiment/idea I spent years understanding and developing for myself. Especially how to move through it all, moving forward, never stagnant or still and wallowing in self-pity when the shit becomes too heavy to lift. It’s gonna get better, then it’s gonna get good because it was once bad.
You co-produced “Pieces” with Leeroy Stagger, keeping the arrangement deliberately stripped back and intimate. What was it like working together on this track, and how did you approach capturing that raw, in-the-room feeling?
It is something I had been chasing for probably a good 25 years now. How to feel and hear the room in a recording by being comfortable in this room and capturing it. Seems pretty straightforward, and a lot of our favourite albums were done this way, but I had never once been comfortable in this environment, not once. I always called it “running underwater.” Then one day Leeroy and I sat down with my demos, and he was basically like, “What is all this extra shit all over this beautiful song?” and “Why don’t you trust your own voice and writing?” It was a heck of an eye-opener, as we peeled back my fully realized demos and found the gold in them there hills. I just spent 25 years panning, I suppose, and being a live performer by trade, in a living, breathing room filled with people, it was always tough to get comfortable and out of my head. Leeroy somehow figured out how to have me discover it.
Alongside the studio recording, you’ve released a live version of “Pieces” recorded at Barnhouse Sound in Qualicum Beach. What inspired you to revisit the song in that setting, and what do you feel the live performance brings to the song that the studio version doesn’t?
This was done at a live show, where I am most comfortable. I paid no mind to the fact it was all being recorded to try and yield something. If we could not get it, so be it, but if not… oh well. Luckily, we did, and it made Caroline (my wife and manager) super happy to have something she could use for promo… which I have no part in, thankfully. It is an impossible job, especially nowadays. I just wanna show up and play the shit out of a night, moving people in real time. That’s my job, as well as driving and writing and recording these things. The rest is on Caroline, and it’s a lot, especially trying to convince people you are worth any salt from a 30-second reel nowadays. I do not envy her position in all of this, and without what she does, we have no rooms to play anything, which was not the way of it all not that long ago. Show up, sing and play to 7 people, get better, move on to the next, stir, and repeat for however long it takes to fill that room with folks who want you to keep going.
Your live shows are known for their intensity, spontaneity, and humour, while your songwriting often explores some pretty personal and vulnerable territory. How do you balance those different sides of yourself as a performer, and does that contrast influence the way you connect with an audience?
It totally does. It was never intentional, just how I became more me. Laugh my ass off and then cry the rest of it off if there is any left. I am emotionally dynamic as it is. I am not a good humdrum middle-ground participant in life. This is where that dynamic range resonates: being human in great hardship and failures and loss, write about it but laugh in-between because you got through whatever it was to the next thing. This is what belly laughing and deep, powerful bawling at devastation physically create… the same reactions in your body. Tears, noises, shuddering, hard to breathe, from a distance, sometimes people cannot tell what’s going on. They are very much connected by being on opposite ends of the happiness/sadness spectrum, they belong together and aren’t so far separated, in my opinion.
You’ve just wrapped up a tour across Alberta and B.C. in support of your new music. What’s next for WiL? Can you give us a little sneak peek at what you have planned for 2027?
I have said I am no longer going to be recording records after doing 8 or 9 of them. I will only focus on singles, back to the great 45s and maybe a B-side. I’ve wanted to do this since day one, really. All energy and resources on crafting one great fucking song as they come to you. Well, that all changed a bit after Leeroy recently told me that I am going to make an 8-song LP with my greatest tunes, and we will press it only to vinyl, then I can at least say I did that. “Pieces” is the beginning of a run of songs that I would be proud to tell people they need to hear, like Nathaniel Rateliff’s “Mavis.” So, I’ll have 8 of them, one better than the next. It’ll be out when it’s done.
