ENTER THE WIZARD
Will on moss and music
Avg. Read Time: 3m 37s
I met the Wizard on a drizzly Sunday downtown at Flying M Coffeehouse. He’s missing his signature chainmail and wizard garb, instead bouncing into his seat with seafoam green layers and a shining smile. His boots are caked with mud and dirt, seemingly transposed from the greenhouse and into the seat across from me.
Tools of the trade.
An iconic fixture of Boise, Will aims to be the weirdest guy in town—or at least dress like it. When he’s not spinning CDs as the Wizard, he’s getting his hands dirty at Edwards Greenhouse where his plant installations flourish. His passions collide as his artistic expression ventures into unconventional forms.
Always twiddling with something new, it’s difficult to pin down exactly what his specialty is. Finding different niches and exploring them comes naturally, collecting different mediums to work with as one would collect sentiments. Will’s eyes tick back, nostalgia saturating the memory of these past fixations.
“I feel like it does change based on my mood. Sometimes I’m super into collages, but it really does depend. I was really into drawing, but I was getting sick of that because I couldn’t touch it. I love these textures, but I want to feel them.”
GETTING HIS HANDS DIRTY
Will’s childhood played out across a diverse kaleidoscope of fauna, as his family travelled the Pacific Northwest. Born in Orem, Utah, Will’s family spent some time in California, and settled in Boise when he was eight.
His affinity for working with plants was seeded during a formative trip to the Redwoods:
“I had never seen anything like it before. I was 18, and I thought that it was the most incredible thing. And I got into houseplants after that, because I wanted to bring that into my home - to make my room a forest.”
And Will’s room is a manifestation of that. Covered floor to ceiling in collages, plants, and cd’s scattered about, it seems as though a mad musician made home in a mossy hiding spot. Straight ahead, a chest shelves a worn notebook filled with chicken scratch and a clunky contraption holding two cds.
Will spinning away in his room.
B-SIDES + RARITIES
“I’m very into 90’s music. I’m playing a lot of Deee-lite, Fatboy Slim, Black Box, and the Chemical Brothers. I collect a lot of CDs, and they’re at most $6.00. I think the most I’ve ever spent was $20.00 on a super rare FatBoy Slim,” he rambles on about his favorite deep cuts. “I already collected CDs, because my car takes them, and I had all my favorite albums already. And I was browsing on Craigslist and said wait-- that’s the thing. I need that. And so I’ve just been working on my sets ever since.”
Will’s sun room houses 20+ plants, including cacti, philodendrons, and carnivorous plants— his favorite being a large fern cactus.
Graduating from his USB (the little file storage stick used pre-airdrop), this vintage mix table called a CDJ poses a new hurdle for building sets. It doesn’t work with speakers, and it doesn’t carry the functions of a modern controller. However, this machine does allow him to mix two CDs at a time.
“It’s a challenge. No loops, no cues, no highs or lows. I just have to know my thousands of songs and when two will click.”
Sometimes he’ll find himself pacing back and forth to find just the right song for the right follow up. It’s in the hours of wheels turning alone, sometimes late into the night, that things come together.
“There aren’t that many people doing these things. There’s maybe 50 DJs in Boise, and it’s super easy to shoot your shot. I have a friend that works at Space Banana, and once I mentioned that I do this as well, and they took a chance on me.”
Wood mite trails as tattooed by Will.
As one of five kids, his parents filled his childhood with music.
“They wanted us to feel like the Von Trapp family. You know, Mormons, lots of singing,” Will says about his parents. From singing, to playing piano and sketching out his own graphic novels and character animations, the arts have always been a place where his talents clicked. “So I really locked in, and taught myself a lot of technical skills.”
He’s since left the church, but credits singing for the ward with discovering his musical inclinations.
TAKING ON THE BOISE SCENE
Now, he’s forging his own path.
“I think my biggest pet peeve is when people say that nothing ever happens here, or that there’s never anything cool going on,” says Will. “I have incredible, talented friends that I love to go out and support, and they support me too. If you want to be a part of this, then be a part of it.”
Seeing Will emerge into this space comes as no surprise. While Will is still fresh to the DJ circuit around town, it’s a space that welcomes new and emerging talent. While endlessly driven and inspired, his creative magic blooms when it's appreciated and supported by his community. Whether it’s Edwards Greenhouse encouraging free rein in work or local venues showcasing his music, Boise’s ecosystem of opportunity rewards him for taking chances and leaning into his instinct.
Find Will at @Mossbased on all platforms and keep up on BNDRY for the deep dive on Boise’s hottest new stories.
