Press Pass: Will Mahoney

Charleston's 2016 Bassist of the Year

WILLIAM C. MAHONEY

PALMETTO BREWING CO.

CHARLESTON, SC - EVENING

It’s the final hour of a 1770 Records fundraising event. Hip-hop-rap-duo, Speakerbox, and space-funk-jam-band, The Night Caps, have performed for an hour each. In this third hour the two acts get together and jam.

Will Mahoney throws down a bass line. Jeff Wagner’s on the drums. Ryan Flannery accompanies with chords and Patrick Magwood wails on the sax.

In the audience sit Will Blackburn (lead vocalist), John Keith (keyboardist), and Marc Bryan (manager) of Stop Light Observations. Stop Light's bassist is setting out to leave the band and the three have come to Palmetto to discuss their next move. They can’t help but notice the groovin’ bass-ace that is Will Mahoney up on the Palmetto stage. “I like that bassist’s style.”

How about that for timing?

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About a month later, Keith remembers those words spoken by Blackburn, I like that bassist’s style.

Meanwhile, Mahoney and I are eating burgers at Boone’s Bar on King Street. Unsuspectingly, he opens a Facebook message and guess. who. it. is. Why, it’s John Keith. Keith explains that Stop Light Observations' bassist recently left and the band is looking for a fill-in for a couple of shows.

And that’s how it all started! That day was the beginning of what turned into a remarkably successful year for the now-21-year-old. He is bassist for local rock band, Stop Light Observations, he completed his first full East Coast tour with the band and, just in November, was named Charleston City Paper’s 2016 Bassist of the Year. Not too shabby.

We at WoodChuck had the fortune of bringing the Chattanooga-born bassist into our makeshift downtown home studio (our living room) to snag some pics and ask a few questions.

Mahoney first picked up a guitar in 5th grade, y’know, to impress girls. As he puts it, “being a skinny white kid and having no other talents, y’know… guitar was the way to go.” Will’s dad promised him, “I’ll get you an electric guitar, only if you learn how to jam.” And learn to jam, he did.

Two years later, Mahoney’s friend, Thomas, told him what he needed to hear: you suck at guitar. “Here. Play bass instead. Let’s make a band.” (Thanks Thomas!) Playing bass felt “really natural… felt perfect, just felt right.” The first song Mahoney learnt on bass was 7 Nation Army. Although not even sure he learnt it in the right key, "ever since then [he’s] just kind of stuck with it.” The first bass solo he ever learnt was John Entwistle (of The Who)’s solo on My Generation, which he played at a wedding gig in 8th grade — a pivotal moment.

And, oh, how far he’s come since 8th grade. At the age of 20, Mahoney went on, um, hiatus from The College of Charleston, where he was studying jazz bass performance. After that happy incident at Boone’s, he was shown the unmastered version of Toogoodoo, Stop Light Observations’ most recent album and Charleston City Paper's 2016 Album of the Year. Having heard the rough mixes then, Mahoney has been able to hear the "whole album get to grow ever since [he] joined."

Nervous about this exciting opportunity, Will talked to his jazz guitar ensemble teacher and asked "what process to go through to impress these guys.” The professor’s advise? Write notes down and know the shit out of every single one of their songs.

“It was just super cool, because it literally just came out of nowhere and I was super happy about it.”

Since joining the band, Mahoney has been fairly absent from Stop Light's social media and official promotional material. The main reason, he thinks, is "because they didn't want to make it a big deal or anything that their bassist left and [he] was kind of like his replacement... and they wanted to focus more on the album, which [he's] completely understood." However, "whenever they post casual pictures on Instagram [he is] there because [he is] there."

Will was excited to inform us that he will be in an upcoming photoshoot in early December! We're on the lookout.

The new Stop Light bassist has certainly been receiving recognition from fans. The "realest moment” that he's experienced was at the Shem Creek Music vinyl release party. "I had people come up and call me Mahoney… Strangers, people that I don’t know that are associated with the fandom, were like 'Mahoney, come sign this!'” A pretty surreal moment.

Mahoney has also received public recognition. For one thing, being named 2016 Bassist of the Year by Charleston City Paper. (Also cool to note: Louis Duffy was nominated for guitarist of the year, Luke Withers was nominated for drummer of the year, John Keith was nominated for (and was awarded) pianist of the year, Toogoodoo was nominated for album of the year and Stop Light Observations was up for rock band of the year. That's 6 SLO nominations!)

Besides touring with Stop Light Observations, Mahoney helps good friend, Logan Crank (Colmusphore), record original songs. Crank and Mahoney co-wrote Sun Dried Leaves, which they tracked at Mahoney's house. They wrote and recorded it in just 3 days.

"I learnt so much in just like that three days time… messing with sounds, learning how to sample things... We took the flip of a quarter, actually, and made that into a drum beat.”

As for The Night Caps, Mahoney doesn’t play with them often but certainly as often as he can. "I love playing with them. I really miss playing with Jeff Wagner, both Jeff and I started the Night Caps.”

With shows all along the East Coast and a City Paper award under his belt, Mahoney has a lot to celebrate. And we have a lot to look forward to from this young musician...

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