About Will

Will Stratton is an American songwriter, composer, and arranger. He was born in Yolo County, California, and started making up songs on the piano when he was three years old. Will spend most of his formative years in the suburbs of northern New Jersey. On his twelfth birthday, he got his first electric guitar, and in the decade since, music has owned him unconditionally.

What The Night Said, Stratton’s first record as a solo artist, was recorded in the summer after his senior year of high school, at the invitation of the owner of a tiny but well-equipped recording studio in Astoria, Queens. It was quietly released two years later, in 2007. By the time it came out, Stratton was a student at Bennington College, studying music composition. In the time that has lapsed since What The Night Said’s release, Will wrote dozens of works for chamber ensembles and solo piano, and released three free records of outtakes, demos, and instrumental music.

In 2009, Will graduated from college and returned with his second album, No Wonder, a more ornate and ambitious record than its predecessor. No Wonder received little attention in the music press, but, despite its November release, its lack of distribution, and its virtually unknown creator, it appeared on some critics’ best-of-the-year lists, drew favorable comparisons to Fleetwood Mac, Nick Drake, and Loudon Wainwright, and received airplay from venerable WNYC disk jockey David Garland.

Now Will works and lives in New York, plays small shows when he gets the chance, and works on a third full-length record.