Cory Wong is relentless. There is no argument to be made to refute this fact. His solo album releases are into the double digits, including his latest Lost in the Wonder. He’s a member of Vulfpeck. A world touring band with another handful of album releases. He’s also a member of Vulfpeck’s offshoot The Fearless Flyers. A third touring band that keeps his calendar full.
While countless musicians would sacrifice an appendage or two for a quarter of this productivity, there’s loads more to Wong’s musical resume. Of course he has a podcast, Wong Notes, where his guests run the gamut of music’s elite. Carlos Santana, Brad Paisley, Pat Matheny, Derek Trucks, Dave Navarro and about 100 others. There was his 2021-22 variety series Cory and the Wongnotes which featured live performances, sketch comedy, and interviews.
If you tossed out everything mentioned so far, Wong’s credits as a guitarist, arranger, engineer, etc. for musicians ranging from Dave Koz to Billy Strings to Bruce Hornsby would be worthy of sacrificing an additional appendage or three.
What’s incredible about Wong’s unending musical output is that it’s not repetitive. Sure, there’s a distinctive Cory Wong sound. He’s got a one of one jazz/funk rhythm guitar flavor that jumps out of any mix he’s a part of. With so much output covering a nonstop rotating wheel of musical genres, Wong’s releases are always fresh and full of something new for the listener. .
Despite journeys deep into the veins of multiple musical genres, Wong chose a new path for Lost in the Wonder. He wanted to follow through on a half hearted offer made infinite times between musicians, “Hey, let’s hang and make some music some time.” Wong was ready to don his collaborator cap and knock out some bangers with his musical pals. To trim down a long, long, list of potential collaborators, Wong decided to add vocals to the release.
Lost in the Wonder rides as smoothly as a luxury car. Fueled with unrelenting funk and pop grooves, Side A makes it difficult to stay in your seat. A dialed back R&B/Soul infused Side B showcases Wong’s ability to find a flowing throughline between two sides of opposite musical styles.
Slide&Banjo caught up with Wong in his Minneapolis recording studio where unsurprisingly, he was working on a new song. Wong took a pause to detail his visions for the album and try to explain the secret sauce he’s using to crank out so much music. He begins. “Music is my job, but it’s really my passion in life. It’s what I feel I’m meant to do in the world. What’s fun about this album is that I get to explore a different side of my artistry. More as a producer, writer, and arranger. A lot of the album, as you heard has vocal features.”
“Today I’m in the studio. I got this tune that I’m stoked about.” Wong continues, “I was in the middle of recording the bass part for it and paused when you called. I’m always writing and working on stuff. How many songs ended up on this album? Twelve? Something like that. But I wrote 30, 40 songs. I intended for it to be half instrumental and half vocal. Suddenly, other collaborators let me know, ‘Hey, I’ve got the time. You want to get together?’ When I thought I was almost done with the album, somebody else would say, ‘Hey, let’s do that thing you were talking about.’ I ended up getting a lot more of the vocal stuff happening. So, I decided to focus this album mostly on that. My band can attest.”
With a wide range of collaborators covering a wide territory on the musical spectrum, (Stephen Day, Devon Gilfillian, ellis, Yom Haus, Elsyia Baro, Theo Katzman, Louis Cato, Magic City Hippies) Wong began to lay out his patented template to construct the outlines of new tunes to bring to his friends. “I look at songs like scientific equations or mathematical equations. There are puzzles to be solved. With a lot of songs, there’s a set of information, which is the A section. Another set of information, which is the B section. There’s momentum. There are dismounts and sendoffs into other things. What is the song calling for from this section to this section? What does it feel like it needs to do? How can I make something feel familiar to the listener but also surprise them with certain elements? It’s satisfying when there’s something familiar with enough surprises it makes it unique.
When it came to finalizing his roster of collaborators, Wong chose a mix of friends, old and new. “A lot of them are people that I’ve never worked with, and some of them are folks that I know quite well. My friend Cody Fry (Better Than This), he and I can write funk pop bangers together. We’ve done it before, and we know what kind of territory we can get into that feels effortless and great. Some of that stuff is easy.”
“When I got together with Benny Sings (Lost in the Wonder), we had only met once. He asked me to come out to Amsterdam. He has a studio on the canal under a bridge. Come hang out and see what happens because he wanted to be a part of the record. I sent him about five or six things ahead of time. He’s like man, I really like these, but let’s just sit down and talk. What’s going on in your life? What’s going on in my life?”
Loaded with a half dozen possibilities, it became apparent their inspiration would come from a completely different direction. “What ended up happening is we realized we should just start from scratch. We sat down and wrote and recorded a song together in one day.” Wong recalls. “That was, Let’s hang out for a couple of hours. Then boom, hit it hard for two hours. Find the thing and get into it. Take a break and hang out some more. Then come back to it. Realize, this can change. That can change. This feels good. Let’s add this here. Let’s give this some time. Those sorts of things.”
After a previous fishing trip for new songs produced only a couple of nibbles, Wong and Taylor Hanson landed a big one with All Night, Alright a 70’s R&B/disco flavored standout of the second side. For Wong, there are things much worse than a day on the water without a catch. “Taylor and I got together to write once. Ultimately, it was like we went out fishing and didn’t catch anything. These sessions are like fishing. You hope you catch one. Sometimes you catch a decent fish. Sometimes you catch an amazing one. Sometimes, well, we just had a good time hanging out on the water.” Wong adds, “Taylor came to Minneapolis to do a writing day. We wrote a couple of songs. One of them felt like it was right down the middle. The other one is still a great song. It’s now on my hard drive to be explored again at a later date.”
The addition of vocals to the album created a new level of collaboration and trust for Wong. Finding the right lyrics for each song was a give and take. Just like the music underneath them. “A lot of times I’ll have sketches of lyrics that revolve around a concept. I’ll send them to a collaborator and let them know, here’s what I’m thinking. Here’s the message. Here’s the story of this one. Take it and run with it. A lot of collaborators are incredible lyricists. So, I can let them do their thing. I’ll make some recommendations or suggestions. They’ll do the same thing with my guitar playing. Be like, oh, yeah, I like this, but what if you tried that guitar thing here, here, here. You’re not a guitar player, but you’re a music fan. You’re a musician. You’re a writer. When I collaborate with people, it’s important that I do it with folks where we respect each other’s artistry and instincts.”
Given Wong’s unquestioned relentlessness, it should come as no surprise, he’s already hard at work on his next release. He wraps up with a look at some of what’s on his continually full plate. “We’ve done a lot of sessions over the last year. I probably have twenty other songs that are all instrumental bangers that I feel great about but didn’t fit on the album. This is a producer and collaborator album. I’ve got all these songs that are now contenders for the next album, and I’m still writing more. I want to beat those songs. I want to see if I can make an even better album.”
Cory Wong – Lost in the Wonder
2026 Diggers Factory