Background
Will was born in northern California, but raised primarily in New Jersey.
composer singer songwriter singer-songwriter
Will was born in northern California, but raised primarily in New Jersey.
His first album, What the Night Said, was recorded in 2005, the summer after he graduated from high school, and was subsequently released in 2007.
He began taking piano lessons at the age of 4. He spent one year at University of Puget Sound studying philosophy, before finishing college at Bennington College, where he switched his studies to music composition. While at Bennington, Stratton took classes from composer Allen Shawn, which led him to compose his first pieces for other ensembles than a standard string quartet.
Stratton has incorporated projects from his course work at Bennington into his albums, including a set of ten piano preludes composed for a second course taught by Shawn.
He is 28 years old and currently lives in New York state. lieutenant featured a guest appearance by Sufjan Stevens on oboe, and received wide critical praise.
His second album, Number Wonder, featured the vocal work of Essie Jain, among others, and was released on November 3, 2009. The album was co-produced and mixed by Kieran Kelly at The Buddy Project Studio in Astoria, Queens New New York While the album never saw national distribution, Number Wonder"s title track was the National Public Radio Song of the Day on March 26, 2010.
He has also released two free download-only compilations of demos and instrumental works, as well as Vile Bodies, a free downloadable European Parliament. In March 2010, Stratton appeared on Way of New York City radio show Spinning on Air for an hour-long interview and performance with host David Garland.
In a first for the show, Stratton and Way of New York City gave away the songs from the episode as a free European Parliament. In 2010 and 2012, his third and fourth albums were released, titled New Vanguard Blues and Post-Empire, respectively. He toured Europe for two months with fellow songwriter Paleo, aka David Strackany, in 2012. Post-Empire was named #31 on America Online Spinner"s top 50 albums of 2012.
In 2012, Stratton was diagnosed with Stage 3 testicular cancer and underwent successful chemotherapy treatment and surgery.
Stratton is a "self professed disciple of Nick Drake." He has also been described as functioning "under the wing of Sufjan Stevens." Some have gone as far as to say that the resemblance to Drake is "unmistakable" at points, while his similarity to Stevens is "so apparent." John Fahey and Leo Kottke are often mentioned as influences on his guitar style.