Roderick Woodruff: Detroit, Drama and Defiantly Different
This week, Dan welcomes Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Roderick Woodruff, whose catchy track caught Dan's attention on Spotify. Born in Detroit and raised in a musical family, Roderick shares his journey from church choir to Off-Broadway success with his show "A Boys Room."
Roderick discusses his transformative Easter Sunday experience when a pastor's sermon targeting his appearance became a catalyst for embracing his authentic self. He explores the importance of dedicated Queer spaces and his musical influences, including his dream of becoming "the Black Elton John."
The conversation delves into Roderick's evolution as an artist during COVID isolation, which birthed his latest album "In Between." His gateway track recommendation "Have You Lost Your Mind" showcases his ambitious, radio-friendly pop sensibilities.
Find Roderick on all streaming platforms and social media @itsrickynasty.
Spotify playlist can be found HERE.
The podcast is on Instagram (@inthekeyofq) and Facebook (search: In the Key of Q).
Transcript
Dan
Hello and welcome to In the Key of Q, where I celebrate queer music and queer musicians. I'm Dan Hall, and by day I'm a documentary producer and director. But by night, I'm a queer podcaster. And I'm absolutely delighted with my guest today. Who? And this is without any bullshit, genuinely. His song. Well, one of his songs came up on my algorithm on Spotify.
::Dan
It's just, What the hell is that? And occasionally I'll listen to a song and just fall in love with it. And this artist that he. His song was doing that for me. It was absolutely giving me the chills. So thankfully I reached out to him and he's agreed to be on the show. He's a Brooklyn based singer.
::Dan
He was born in Detroit, Michigan, which of course, all of us older gay boys know was also the hometown of Madonna. He began writing songs in his childhood, and he loves all sorts of art, storytelling, music, and his love of art has allowed him to travel internationally, both around the US and of course, outside. And he did have a one man show, A Boys Room, which recently debuted Off-Broadway with the Arts Nova theatre in New York City.
::Roderick
Yes it did.
::Dan
I am delighted to welcome to in the KVK the insanely talented Roderick Woodruff. Roderick. Hello.
::Roderick
I am so happy to be here. Dan, thank you so much for the opportunity and also a great introduction. Like, you probably saw me better than I saw myself. So thank you.
::Roderick
I come from Detroit. Motown, as you said. Also hometown of Madonna. Let's not. Let's not forget Im Queen mother. but, yeah, I come from Detroit and I come from a family of singers. churchy background. Growing up in the choir, I was always the one that they asked to do solos. I was always that little boy that was humming and, like, creating songs and head, and I would annoy my siblings and annoy my cousins and, like, they didn't really want anything to do with me because they're like, why can't you stop singing?
::Roderick
Why can't you stop humming? but I would create these songs in my head all the time, not even knowing that that's what I was doing. I would eventually get into choir as a kid with the Mosaic theatre of Detroit. That would lead me to perform, in Europe and and, Canada, as well as in the United States and probably most of the 50 states with the Mosaic theatre of Detroit.
::Roderick
I've also performed for two presidents. with that choir. Like, we were just going all over, and then something shifted in me where it's like, I kind of, like, denounced music. And I think this is after I call it my high school music teacher, a bitch after she told me I walk like a girl. So I felt like, you know, that was a justifiable, you know, comeback.
::Roderick
Like you are a bitch. Why would you tell me? I walk like a girl so, after that, I kind of, like, denounced music and got into acting. I went to Southern Methodist University for acting. I did that for four years. I was really, really good. I think storytelling, became my bread and butter. Like, I was really, really, really good at acting.
::Roderick
but I think by the time senior year came around and I was, as I was writing more of my own, like solo performance work, my work just started leaning towards like plays with music, music that featured my original compositions. and I think that's when it was like first, like set in stone, that this was like me writing my own music.
::Roderick
And then I moved to New York after I was trying to workshop a play that I was taking to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Covid happened. We didn't end up going to the, to French that year. but I was in New York. I was really depressed. I had just broken up with my boyfriend. So I'm alone in New York City in this, like eight by ten room, just like isolated.
::Roderick
And I felt like the only things that I could do during that time was right. I would hear these melodies from the streets of Brooklyn. I would be and I would be in these dream world states like which sing for different lights. And the ones that I was living at that moment, as we all were. So I would just write.
::Roderick
And out of that experience, I think I wrote the In between my latest album that just debuted January 30th. I believe it was the exact date. Yeah.
::Dan
That's correct.
::Roderick
Yep. I mean, so the album was birthed out of one that the heartbreak of that relationship, mourning that, but also mourning what life was before Covid and accepting what life is like after Covid.
::Roderick
ry specific moment on Easter,: ::Roderick
I have on my pink polo shirt, like I had these, like white patent leather converse. I thought I was so cute. I go and I have like these diamond earrings that my grandmother bought me for Christmas. I go in and I'm sitting in the pews and the pastor. Very tiny church, I promise you, like a storefront church. We had maybe like 30 people max in our church so we can see and we know who the pastor is talking about because there's so few of us.
::Roderick
so he goes on his sermon about homosexuality and how God forbids, homosexuals from entering the Pearly Gates and all this jazz. And then he literally starts describing like, things that I was wearing the diamond earrings or like, you know, boys wearing effeminate colors, like pinks, like, and then like, I'm hearing him say these words and I'm like, at the time, I think 13 or 14 and I'm like, identifying with, like, the things that he's describing.
::Roderick
The diamond earrings, the pink polo shirt. I'm like, I am the embodiment of what he is preaching right now. I am the person that he is trying to cast out of this. You. Yeah, I am the morning I literally am. And I think after that I went home and I like got into a really big argument with my mother, like I'm not going back there.
::Dan
So how did you do that though? Because that is a young to to have that experience and hear that and basically be pointed at and you know, the, the, the fires of, of shame come down on you and your reaction, instead of being one of self-hatred and doubt, is to go, fuck you, fuck you and fuck this place.
::Dan
What gave you the confidence to do you know what?
::Roderick
I think that's just my natural makeup. I'm one of those artists that if I'm denied something, I 100% a fuck you. I'm going to go figure it out on my own. Opened the door on my, build the table on my own. I mean, this album is kind of a fuck you album. People told me that I sounded too musical theatre to ever make a pop album.
::Roderick
Oh, my.
::Dan
God, how can anyone sound to musical theatre? Well, literally. What? New York.
::Roderick
City bitches. Yeah. so I literally wrote this album as like, a fuck you. So I think in that moment, once I was told that I was not worthy enough to be in that church. of course it took time, but I think I am made the exact way that I should have been made, that nothing about my life is a mistake, that I am queer because I'm designed to be queer, and I should embrace all of the parts of myself.
::Dan
Can you tell me a bit about your play of Boys room? What is it? Is it a autobiography?
::Roderick
It is, it is, So it's about my life. Little, little Ricky, as they caught me growing up. it's about little Ricky wanting to be Beyoncé, dreaming of this grand Coachella stage. The play exists in two parts. There is the Coachella performance that he's keep trying to have over and over, but it's interrupted by, you know, triggers that happens in his life where he's forced to deal with, like some of the issues that hinders him from being Beyonce.
::Roderick
By the end of the play, though, realising that one you can never be Beyoncé because you are Ricky and your destiny is different, and you also have a different upbringing and background in like place in the world. As a black gay man. So you need to learn to love that first before the world will open itself up to you.
::Roderick
So he sings forgive me at the end of the show.
::Dan
Sounds like it might be worth workshopping into a full musical.
::Roderick
Yeah, I actually started writing it the last time I was in London. I feel like every time I come to London, I just like, have this huge artistic awakening, which is why I'm so excited to come back to summer.
::Dan
Well, I'll just find out where you're staying. I'll lock you in a cupboard. Yeah. When you've got the book written.
::Roderick
Please. I might need it. and so that I just don't waste a lot of time going out to wait. Is heaven still a club? That's open?
::Dan
It is heaven still there? Don't worry.
::Roderick
It's not going anywhere.
::Dan
No, it's not. It's not going anywhere. And, And every play I live in, in an area called Brixton in south London, and for some.
::Roderick
Reason I will be staying in Brixton.
::Dan
Are you joking?
::Roderick
I'll be staying in Brixton.
::Dan
Yeah, well, every other, every other paper shop in Brixton sells poppers, so.
::Roderick
Oh, great. I will have a great time. my doctor told me not to.
::Dan
Have you ever been tempted to use your your talent for performance and your talent for music in a musical theatre space? Because Matt Fishel, who was the first ever guest I had on the show, he writes fantastic pop songs. But there is something in his writing, in his melodies that I think would just make him, musical theatre superstar.
::Dan
He just manages to write these incredible things.
::Roderick
Can I tell you a secret? What I've always wanted to be the black Elton John. And I mean that in so many different ways. I want it to be this huge pop star, and I wanted the campy outfits that I wanted to be the one that's sitting down at the piano sometimes. The one that's like prancing around the stage.
::Roderick
At other times, I wanted to be the one that's like kind of a diva to my band, making sure they know who's queen bitch, like Elton. But also I wanted to compose like musicals like The Lion King or Aida, like, I, I think that Elton John is a huge inspiration of mine, and I think you can kind of hear that in my music as well.
::Dan
What is it about him that inspires you?
::Roderick
I think Elton is just fearless and chaotic and like, Elton was like one of the first queer people on that scale that I've like, really like knew about. I think growing up, also, I just as a theatre person, I think The Lion King was probably the first musical that I ever wrote, and once I found out Elton did the music for it, it was just like, yeah, this is this is a path I see myself going down as well.
::Roderick
so I do have I do have thoughts about, like, you know, having a pop career, but also eventually, like composing for musical theatre as well.
::Dan
Can you tell us a bit about your own career journey? Because it's something. You know. I'm a 51 year old guy living in London. You're a much younger guy living in America. And yet all of our queer families be lesbian, gay, trans. We all have this arguably shared trauma that it does bring us together. I think it's whilst on one hand it's a bad thing.
::Dan
On the other hand, it means that you and I, who have never spoken to each other, I'm sure that we we immediately come on to a call and there is a commonality, I don't know, kind of language for each other. Yeah. For what? What we've done. Can you tell us a bit about your queer journey and and your ups and downs?
::Roderick
Yeah. you know, I was that kid that was always bullied, like in second grade. I remember being called gay over and over and over again to the point where, you know, I was such a I was such a personal kid. Loud and like, you know, I took up a lot of space. I have a Leo rising like I was, you know, I was always friendly, with family.
::Roderick
And then I would go to school, and I found myself a little bit more mute, a little bit shy around the presumably straight boys in elementary school. I think that the bullying turned into fighting, because I was a I was tired of people talking about me, and I think I needed to protect myself. yeah, I wish I wouldn't have done that.
::Roderick
I got suspended for the first time in like fourth grade for fighting this summer between eighth and ninth grade, I met this guy, and I befriended him, and I, you know, he became my best friend. And we did everything together. And I wanted to spend all of my time with him. unbeknownst to me, I think I had fallen in love with that person at that time.
::Roderick
And I think he opened my eyes to who I had always authentically felt. And then I look back on like, elementary school best friend, and I'm like, oh, you were actually in love with that person, too. This is a similar feeling that you got with that person. so that person and I eventually started dating in between eighth and eighth grade.
::Roderick
It was really great. And I kissed my first play for the first time, and it was all really great. But at this time I think I'm like 12 to 13 and my family put me in therapy. They had the pastor pray over me. It was a lot of like holy oil and like, what's going on with you?
::Roderick
Lots of family fights for like a while. like tumultuous fights. I'm not going to stand for anything I do not believe in. So I owned it very Lisa Rinna. I owned it, and I moved on with my life. But I felt lucky in my queer journey that I even though my family and I had a tumultuous relationship for a brief period, that they were able to support me.
::Roderick
Sure, all of our upbringings are different, but you know, sometimes you got to fight for what you want. And I think that is exactly what I did.
::Roderick
And then I struggled in college because not with my queerness, but because I had accepted it so much. But I felt like all the roles that I were getting required me to be something that I was not. And I think that's why I walked away from acting a little bit and geared more towards solo performance, because I wanted stories that I could relate to, that I believed in, I wanted stories that I saw myself in, and I wasn't getting that in an academic setting at a Christian school in Dallas.
::Roderick
Like I just was not getting that at all. so I wrote a boys room, and I think a boys room really unlocked my queerness for me. Like, if you look at my Instagram before a boys room and after a boys room like it is vastly different. and then I moved to New York right after I wrote that play.
::Roderick
And then I start wearing skirts and then I, you know, I'm wearing heels and like, the effeminacy increase and realising clothes have no gender and I can wear what I want to as long as I feel beautiful in it. And I think new York has been a ground in just so necessary in my exploration of my queerness.
::Dan
Why do you think there is so much shaming around men dressing or behaving effeminate, or being bottoms, which is perceived as being a feminine thing because you're receiving, you know, why? Why do you think there is this, this issue and plugged into that is also this kind of toxic mass culture where everyone's gone on Grindr and Scruff and being like, I am straight acting, so, oh, please match.
::Roderick
Because for so long we have been told that anything that goes outside of the patriarchal structure should be shunned and like, okay, you can be a gay man, but don't be too gay, you know, don't be flicking the wrist, don't have a switch in your walk like you can do all of that. You can be gay, but as long as you are presenting as a man in this world, you will still have your power.
::Roderick
And I think as soon as you lose your power, you know, it becomes a little bit more difficult for you. And people don't like to struggle. People don't like, you know, to manoeuvre the world without with discomfort.
::Dan
And how do we fix that? How do we fix it then? Do you think.
::Roderick
I want the, I don't know, visibility, like you said, like we have to show that, you know, these people are exist, their lives matter, that they still have power and can manoeuvre spaces and sit on executive boards and climb to pop charts and, you know, still lead fortune 500 companies with like while being effeminate, like effeminacy does not take away your ability to command spaces.
::Dan
What do you say to people who go, I don't understand why you people, you gay boys and girls, need your own balls, your own spaces and your own music. Aren't you just ghettoised in your cells? You know you're not going to get beaten up on the streets anymore, so you should just blend in. Just blend in with everything else.
::Dan
You don't need your own music and your own bars and your own culture. All you're doing is putting your hand up and going, I'm different and.
::Roderick
I'm I need it, I need it, I need it specifically because I don't often feel safe in other spaces. Even if, you know Brooklyn has turned into a queer utopia where it's like, you don't know who's gay or who's straight like it is. You know, Brooklyn, it looks like everything goes here so you can walk into a bar in Brooklyn.
::Roderick
And sometimes that is, it is queer accepting. but even in those spaces, as a black queer man, I want to be around people who share similar experience with me. I want to try to get churchy, but I want to praise and worship with my girls. I want people that look like me and share similar experiences with me because they get me in.
::Roderick
I feel like I, I can let my guard down. I don't have to perform for you to make you feel comfortable in spaces. I can be as loud and as free and as, yeah, as chaotic as I want to be without worrying about if you're going to judge me. Because for so long we have had to quiet ourselves.
::Roderick
We have had to diminish our own beings and spaces to make others feel comfortable in theirs. So yes, I want my own space so that I don't have to worry about that. When I go out on a Friday, I want to go out and have fun, not go out and cuddle you and make you feel safe in spaces.
::Roderick
I want spaces where I inherently and innately just feel safe now.
::Dan
Then, if you could go back in time and speak to your 15 year old self, what do you think you would say to him and what would he think of who you are now?
::Roderick
oh, I think about that little boy all the time. What would I say to him?
::Roderick
You know, I would say.
::Roderick
best albums you have heard in: ::Roderick
the nose is why you live in New York and you have this lifestyle that you wanted. I do think you would be proud at how authentic I have been, and how unwavering I have been in my beliefs.
::Dan
And do you think you can tell them that it'll be all right.
::Roderick
In 1,000%? We'll be all right. Like I feel all right right now. You know, we have our bad days, but, like, I feel all right. We're about to go to therapy soon, so, it will be all right. yeah, it will definitely be all right. Actually, more than all right.
::Dan
Now we're coming to the end of the show. And to wrap up, I like to say to our guests, many people listening to this will never have heard you before or heard any of your music. What one track in your catalog is a fantastic entry point for them and why you picked this song.
::Roderick
You know what I feel like Dan would probably tell you all fake celeb and I think fake celeb is that girl. It's a really great track. Honestly, it is my baby. Like nobody really had a hand in that kitchen except for me on celeb like from the vocal production all the way down to the writing. I did that and I'm really proud of what I did, but I think.
::Roderick
Have you lost your mind is one of the greatest intros introduction into my catalog. It is a well-crafted pop song. It is rockets angsty, gets you move in and make sure hit one two bob. Like the lyrics are really personal and deep. They're inspired by my grandparents. This relationship, it's really, really good. Also, I think vocally on there, I'm just doing really cool things.
::Roderick
honestly, I think it's probably the most radio friendly song that I have. It's also the most ambitious song that I have, but it's also it's radio friendly.
::Dan
And it's really catchy.
::Roderick
It's really, really captured. It's really, really catchy. It's really catchy.
::Dan
Roderick. It's been so lovely to have you on the show before we finally disappear. Can you just tell people where they can find you?
::Roderick
Yes, you can find me on all streaming platforms. Roderick Woodruff, that's Roderick Rufus. Or you can find me on social media. Same handle across all boards at. It's Ricky nasty at. It's Ricky nasty. Thank you all so much Dan thank you so much for joining us for having me. Now joining me Dan, thank you so much for having me.
::Roderick
I really, really appreciate it.
::Dan
A big, big thanks to you for listening to in the Key of Q. If you've enjoyed the show, please do give us a five star rating. It really helps other people to discover the show. As ever. Big, big thanks to Paul Leonidou to the wonderful, talented Paul Leonidou, to who provided us with our opening and closing title music. Thanks to Moray Lang for his continued support on the show.
::Dan
And of course, a huge thank you to Roderick Woodruff, our wonderful guest today. See you next Quesday.
