About Willson Wong
Biography
Willson loved music ever since he could remember. At age 9, he started taking piano lessons and continued until he left high school. At age 13, he received his first guitar and worked hard to teach himself to play. A few years after, at age 16, he borrowed his brother's bass guitar and started playing occasionally with a jam band at school. While he was in college, he happened to come across two students playing guitar in the middle of the campus. The next day, Willson joined them, and after a few more people joined the jam group, they started a post hardcore band called Oxford Zodiac with Willson on bass and backing vocals.
While in Oxford Zodiac, Willson developed a distinctive bass style which can be heard in his music today. Although he had played bass before, Willson still wasn't familiar with the instrument and played very simple riffs. After a discussion on bass playing with the well known local performer Patty Lax, Willson started experimenting with different ideas and developed an aggressive funk/hard rock sound. He played so aggressively that on separate occasions he snapped two of his thickest bass strings with just his fingers. During this time, Willson also managed to learn how to play drums. They played several shows together for over a year, mostly in the southern New Jersey area and a few shows in Philly. Willson's energy, optimism, and never say die attitude helped carry the band through good and through bad. An example of this was at a battle of the bands at the Trocadero in Philadelphia. After staying up 2 whole days and nights, Willson played the show thrashing about like a madman, completely sleep deprived and on the verge of collapsing. To this day, he can't remember playing that show.
Discontent with the musical direction Oxford Zodiac was taking, Willson left the band. He spent the next few years working and not thinking about music until about 2008. Feeling a bit down and weary, Willson decided to pick up his guitar and play to cheer himself up. He quickly got bored of learning other people's songs and started to write his own. He started a very short lived band in the spring of 2010, but they disbanded a few months later. Willson continued writing, and later that year, started playing acoustically at an open mic night at Malelani Cafe in Ventnor, NJ. At the start of 2011, Willson joined a band based in Bellville, New Jersey called Zero Inhibition as their rhythm guitarist, but shortly after the band disbanded due to infighting. During this time, Willson stopped performing to record his first album at home. He continued performing again late in the spring, and by June, his album was finished. Later that year, Willson started booking proper shows, including two 3 hour shows, one at Malelani Cafe on October 23, and the other at B.Y.O. Grille on December 17. Currently, Willson is still playing at different at open mic nights and shows around the Atlantic City, New Jersey area, and is writing music for himself, and another as-yet-unnamed band consisting of Willson on bass, Guitarists Tom Whaley and Max D'Aulerio and Singer/Saxophone player Evan Heffron from the now defunct Back Seat Riot, and Joe Marino on drums.
While in Oxford Zodiac, Willson developed a distinctive bass style which can be heard in his music today. Although he had played bass before, Willson still wasn't familiar with the instrument and played very simple riffs. After a discussion on bass playing with the well known local performer Patty Lax, Willson started experimenting with different ideas and developed an aggressive funk/hard rock sound. He played so aggressively that on separate occasions he snapped two of his thickest bass strings with just his fingers. During this time, Willson also managed to learn how to play drums. They played several shows together for over a year, mostly in the southern New Jersey area and a few shows in Philly. Willson's energy, optimism, and never say die attitude helped carry the band through good and through bad. An example of this was at a battle of the bands at the Trocadero in Philadelphia. After staying up 2 whole days and nights, Willson played the show thrashing about like a madman, completely sleep deprived and on the verge of collapsing. To this day, he can't remember playing that show.
Discontent with the musical direction Oxford Zodiac was taking, Willson left the band. He spent the next few years working and not thinking about music until about 2008. Feeling a bit down and weary, Willson decided to pick up his guitar and play to cheer himself up. He quickly got bored of learning other people's songs and started to write his own. He started a very short lived band in the spring of 2010, but they disbanded a few months later. Willson continued writing, and later that year, started playing acoustically at an open mic night at Malelani Cafe in Ventnor, NJ. At the start of 2011, Willson joined a band based in Bellville, New Jersey called Zero Inhibition as their rhythm guitarist, but shortly after the band disbanded due to infighting. During this time, Willson stopped performing to record his first album at home. He continued performing again late in the spring, and by June, his album was finished. Later that year, Willson started booking proper shows, including two 3 hour shows, one at Malelani Cafe on October 23, and the other at B.Y.O. Grille on December 17. Currently, Willson is still playing at different at open mic nights and shows around the Atlantic City, New Jersey area, and is writing music for himself, and another as-yet-unnamed band consisting of Willson on bass, Guitarists Tom Whaley and Max D'Aulerio and Singer/Saxophone player Evan Heffron from the now defunct Back Seat Riot, and Joe Marino on drums.
Influences
The album "The Life and Times of a Minimum Wage Hero" were heavily influenced by: Oasis, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, David Bowie, Dave Matthews Band, Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Nirvana, and The Killers.
Other influences include: Queen, Aerosmith, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Smashing Pumpkins, the Strokes, John Mayer, The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, We Are Scientists, Paramore, Elvis Costello, The Police, Muse, The Wallflowers, Say Anything.
Other influences include: Queen, Aerosmith, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Smashing Pumpkins, the Strokes, John Mayer, The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, We Are Scientists, Paramore, Elvis Costello, The Police, Muse, The Wallflowers, Say Anything.