Dreams Are Made Of

Text by Tinah Ogalo.

Nick Wood was ready to risk it all to pursue a career in music.

While attending the University of South Carolina, he knew he wanted to take music production seriously. He took on the persona of Vyce Bloom, and the Maryland native continued to work on his craft.

A few years after graduation, life brought him to New York City, where it’s been a grind ever since. Just last year, he dropped an electric Lizzie McGuire remix, all while working his full-time job in video production and booking gigs between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Balancing these two worlds comes with its challenges, but it can also bring new opportunities. Late last year, Vyce Bloom opened for Dillon Francis at (le) poisson rouge.

As he looks forward to his goals, the 30-year old takes a moment to reflect on how he got here. 

Before I ask anything else, I have to know, how did you come up with the name Vyce Bloom?

I literally just wanted it to sound cool, and I wanted to brand it around flowers. So I put the Bloom at the end.

But for the Vyce part, I did want a little bit of contrast, because I think the music that I like – half of it is extremely hardcore and the other is emotional, sad stuff. I wanted some contrast in the name, but I also made sure to put a Y in vice so that every time you type in VY, my name comes up.

You’ve been DJing for a while, but when I go to your socials, there’s not much on there. I didn’t even know your last name until this interview. How did all of this get started?

Man, I don’t know. I feel like it still hasn’t really started yet, to be honest. DJing and producing music are two completely different things. I’m first and foremost a DJ. I made mixes and stuff growing up, and that is something I know. But for me to really get to that next level, it’s getting my own music out and playing more shows and putting them in my mixes and stuff like that. 

You were making mixes growing up? So becoming a DJ wasn’t something that developed when you moved to New York? 

I think I made that decision pretty hardcore in college, actually. I wanted to drop out and go to music production school.

I did not have the funds to do that, so I asked my dad to help me out. I come from a pretty blue-collar family, so trying to explain that to him was probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do in my life. I made a whole pitch to him and a full folder of where I wanted to go with this stuff.

That was close to 10 years ago. He was kind of on board with it. I thought I was gonna literally drop out, move to LA, and go to production school. That’s how much I wanted to do it. I’ve done this for so long that I want DJing to be my full-time career. 

So, did you really drop out?

No, my dad ended up not going along with the idea.

That kind of stunk. But in that moment, that’s when I really knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And it’s been such a long journey because it’s very tough financially to sustain yourself on the music aspect in the beginning stages. But yeah, that was when I knew this is what I’m going to be doing, or at least embark on this journey, however long it takes. 

Earlier, you said you feel like you haven’t started your DJ career yet. But you opened for Dillon Francis last year, which is huge. Describe to me how you felt when you were told you’d be opening for him.

Oh, I was ecstatic. I could not believe it. One of the guys at Project 91, he sent me like a list of shows coming up, and one of them was Dillon Francis. Right away, that was the easiest pick of my life. I mean, I was just so excited. I used to get nervous and stuff about opening sets, but this one, I was ready to do whatever I needed to do to make that the best set that I could possibly do. 

How did you feel once you finished that set?

It was a mix of relief – and I just felt so much more motivated to go even harder because, like, the feeling that I had when I was playing, was … it just felt so right. It kind of just solidified even more emotionally for me that like, “Hey, you can do this. This could only go so much further for you.” 

You manifested opening for Dillon and got it. What are your goals for 2026? What do we have to look forward to? 

Getting my music out is 100 percent on the top of that list, and then I would say promoting it on Instagram.

I never had a plethora of music to promote, I’ve just found these very interesting ways to prove myself as a DJ. One of my goals would be to have a lot more of that content involve stuff that I’ve actually made musically.

I think that’s probably what’s going to be the next step for me in getting out of, like, the local opening acts, which is great, but I want to get over that hump. And I would love to get booked to headline a show, whether it’s big or small or whatever, maybe because an actual show at a venue would be a huge goal for me.

That would be a good proving point that my value is high enough for people to actually just buy tickets for me being the headliner.