William Patrick Spencer Gold (born 14 September 1996), known professionally as Wilbur Soot, is an English Twitch streamer,

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

, and musician. He first became known in 2017 for his work with the group comedy

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel SootHouse, where he made recurring appearances and was the lead

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

and a

co-founder An organizational founder is a person who has undertaken some or all of the formational work needed to create a new organization, whether it is a business, a charitable organization, a governing body, a school, a group of entertainers, or any oth ...

. He later started his own channel, Wilbur Soot, in March 2019. Gold released his first single, "The 'Nice Guy' Ballad", in January 2018. His sixth single, " Your New Boyfriend", peaked at No. 64 on the UK Singles Chart. Gold is co-founder of the British

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery fiction, mystery series, based on the Lovejoy (novel series), novels by John Grant (Lovejoy), John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six ser ...

, where he is one of the songwriters, the lead vocalist and the rhythm guitarist. In 2021, they released ''

Pebble Brain ''Pebble Brain'' is the second EP by English indie rock band Lovejoy, released independently through the band's label Anvil Cat Records on 14 October 2021. With seven tracks, it is a follow-up to their debut EP '' Are You Alright?'', issued in ...

'', their second EP, which debuted at No. 12 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

, and their third EP '' Wake Up & It's Over'', released in 2023, debuted at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart.

Online career

YouTube

Gold first became known in 2017 for his work on the group

channel, ''SootHouse'', which was founded by Gold and some of his friends. This channel consisted mostly of

reaction video A reaction video, or a react video, is a video in which one or more persons react to something. Videos showing the emotional reactions, criticism or commentary of people viewing movies, television series episodes, film trailers, music videos, news, ...

s, with its members discussing

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

s and

life hack A life hack (or life hacking) is any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in all walks of life. The term was primarily used by computer experts who suffer from information overload or those with a p ...

s, among other topics. On May 30, 2019, the ''SootHouse'' channel reached 1 million subscribers. Gold's main channel, ''Wilbur Soot'', was created on 29 March 2019. This channel reached 1 million subscribers on 8 April 2020, and, as of June 2024, it has amassed over 5.82 million subscribers.

Livestreaming

Gold also live streams on Twitch, where, , he has amassed over 4.6 million followers, making him the 51st-most-followed channel on the platform. Nihachu_and_Wilbur_Soot_in_2020

In 2020, Gold joined the roleplay-focused ''Minecraft'' server Dream SMP, run by eponymous YouTuber

Dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensation (psychology), sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around ...

. There, Gold founded the fictional nation of L'Manberg and eventually became a lead writer for the server's stories and lore. Gold has competed in multiple ''Minecraft'' tournaments, including MC Championship and Minecraft Monday. On 4 August 2022, TommyInnit announced a book he and Gold had been writing called ''TommyInnit Says...The Quote Book''. The book was released on 13 October 2022. The proceeds from the book were donated to the Sarcoma Foundation of America in honour of late ''Minecraft'' YouTuber

Technoblade Alexander (June 1, 1999 – June 2022), known online as Technoblade ( ), was an American YouTuber known for his ''Minecraft'' videos, Livestreaming, livestreams, and involvement in the Dream SMP. Technoblade registered his main channel on YouT ...

Musical career

Solo artist

In 2018, Gold began his music career by releasing comedy songs and covers on YouTube. His first comedy song, "The 'Nice Guy' Ballad", was uploaded in January 2018. Venturing into more serious music, Gold released the EP ''Maybe I Was Boring'' on

SoundCloud SoundCloud is a German audio streaming service owned and operated by SoundCloud Global Limited & Co. KG. The service enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is ...

and

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

, in December 2019, followed by his debut solo album, ''Your City Gave Me Asthma'', in June 2020, as a surprise release. The album was originally supposed to release with 8 songs, however Gold scrapped the 4th track, "Screensaver", before publishing. Gold first charted with his sixth comedy song, " Your New Boyfriend", released in December 2020, which peaked on the UK Singles Chart at number 65. The song also appeared on the

UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the ...

and the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are ...

, where it peaked at numbers 10 and 100, respectively. Gold has also appeared on several artist charts, including ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Emerging Artists Chart and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' Top Breakthrough Chart. Gold's seventh comedy song "Soft Boy" came out in September 2022. Gold released his second solo studio album, ''Mammalian Sighing Reflex,'' in November 2023.

Lovejoy

Gold formed the indie rock band

in 2021 with his friend Joe Goldsmith. The band consists of Gold as lead vocalist, co-

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, and rhythm guitarist; Goldsmith as the lead guitarist, co-songwriter and backing vocalist; Mark Boardman as the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

, and co-songwriter; and Ash Kabosu as the

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

, and co-songwriter. On 9 May 2021, Lovejoy released their first EP, titled '' Are You Alright?''. On 20 May 2021, they debuted on ''

''s Emerging Artists chart at number 10.Their second EP, ''

'', was released on 14 October 2021, peaking at number 12 on the UK Albums Chart. The EP featured a re-recording of Gold's solo song "It's All Futile! It's All Pointless!". After joining

AWAL AWAL (shortened from Artists Without A Label) is a global recording business that claims to serve as an alternative to the traditional record label, offering deal structures that provide artists with the resources and expertise of a global label ...

, Lovejoy released the single " Call Me What You Like" on 10 February 2023, which peaked at number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. The band's third EP, '' Wake Up & It's Over'', was released on 12 May 2023 and peaked at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart.

Discography

Albums

Extended plays

Singles

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soot, Wilbur 1996 births 21st-century English male musicians British indie folk musicians English Twitch (service) streamers British comedy YouTubers English comedy musicians English gaming YouTubers Living people Minecraft YouTubers Musicians from Brighton and Hove Musicians from Ipswich British music YouTubers YouTube channels launched in 2019 YouTubers from Suffolk YouTubers from Brighton and Hove