Wovenhand
Interview by Matt Fink
Offering the dark and ominous counterpoint
to Danielson’s celebratory avant-pop and Sufjan Stevens’ studious
craftsmanship, Wovenhand is the Sounds Familyre label’s most unfortunately
overlooked act. Recorded in the dead of winter, Mosaic continues
former 16 Horsepower leader David Eugene Edwards’ fascination with
all things brooding and solemn, again using a mix of deeply haunted Eastern
European sounds to illustrate his private world of regret and repentance.
Portions of this interview appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of Under
the Radar; the following is the full transcript of our interview
with Edwards.
Under the Radar:
So what was the recording process like for Mosaic?
David Eugene Edwards: I took a little more time than normal. I did it over a period of maybe a year and a half, recording different things at different times and different places. That was a bit different than normal. Once again, it was mainly just me and the engineer in the studio. Ordy [Garrison] would come in a play drums, and different people would come in at different times. I went about it the same way that I normally do, I guess. Just the pattern of it was different.
UTR: Was there any reason to chose to spend
a little more time on this one?
Edwards: That’s just the way it worked out, and I wasn’t really
in a hurry. I just wanted to make it the way it should be, and I wasn’t
really worried about when it was going to come out. I just took my time.
UTR: Did you have specific goals for this
record?
Edwards: No—not other than making a record that I was satisfied
with. That’s usually my only goal—to make it good enough to
hopefully put out there. I just tried to finish what I started, as far
as my ideas for the record. Hopefully I was able to do it.
UTR: This album was recorded during the
winter. Do you think that has any influence on the way that it sounds?
Edwards: I’m sure it does. I think a lot of the moods of it have that element to it. Just from what I was reading at the time and the music that I was listening to. It’s hard to say exactly how much of an influence it had.
UTR: Do you conceptualize how you want an
album to sound before you go into the studio? Or does it all sort of happen
once you get there?
Edwards: I have certain ideas. They’re fairly vague, but at the
same times I have a definite idea, though it’s a vague idea. Sometimes
it changes, and that’s to be expected. Nothing ever turns out exactly
the way you want it to. I have certain ideas, certain instruments, certain
sounds, certain moods that I want to get across. Whether or not that gets
across—it’s all subjective in that way, because everybody
hears things differently.
UTR: So you recorded with a hurdy gurdy
this time? Had you used that before?
Edwards: Yeah, I used it on Low Estate [a 16 Horsepower album
from 1997] actually. I’ve had it since then. I’ve played it
on and off. I’ve used it on all of the Wovenhand records in some
way or another. This time I used it a little more prominently.
UTR: Is it a difficult instrument to play?
Edwards: Not so much to play as it is to get ready to play. It’s
a very temperamental instrument, and all of the conditions have to be
right for it to work right. The strings, and the wheel, and the way it’s
tuned—it’s quite temperamental in that way. But once it’s
tuned and rolling, it’s not so hard to play.
UTR: So you also adapted a chant from St.
Ambrose for the song “Twigs.”
Edwards: Yeah. I think it’s called a plainsong more than a chant.
It was written in the third or fourth century by St. Ambrose. I just really
liked the imagery that he used and thought it would be nice set to some
music.
UTR: Do you look to those sorts of sources
for inspiration very often?
Edwards: I do. I don’t look to them for inspiration; I just look
to them because I’m interested. Then I do get inspired by certain
things and I don’t really know exactly why. I read a lot of theology
and do a little bit of research on people in history—different preachers
and theologians—and I sometimes stumble across things that affect
me, I guess.
UTR: Do you think this record has a different
character than the other two Wovenhand records?
Edwards: Yeah. I think all of them have a different character. Of course,
there’s something similar, since it’s me moaning about something,
but they all have a fairly distinct character. Each one is quite different.
UTR: Would you say that Mosaic
is a little less meditative than Consider the Birds?
Edwards: Yeah. I think it’s a little more aggressive, in every way,
really. I’ve heard different reviews where people say that it’s
more subtle than Consider the Birds, which I don’t really
agree with. To me, it’s a little more direct and aggressive.
UTR: Was that an intention before you recorded
it?
Edwards: I think that was just the mood I was in, not something that I
intended—just where I was at.
UTR: Making albums must be a lot different
than making them with 16 Horsepower.
Edwards: Not really. When I created music with 16 Horsepower, I created
it on my own at home, and I would bring it together with the other two
guys and play it for them. Maybe I’d have an idea for what they
could do or they’d come up with something on their own, and toward
the end they’d bring in songs as well, and we’d arrange them
together. That’s basically the way I do it now. I think it’s
more of my ideas, because I have a lot of ideas. But at the same time,
the people that I play and work with, I let them do what the want to do
most of the time.
UTR: Do you find that your audience today is similar to that of 16 Horsepower?
Edwards: Well, I think when we first came out the whole alternative country
thing was just getting rolling and we didn’t really fit in there,
but we sort of fit in there and some people accepted us as part of that.
But 16 Horsepower really started to stray from there and we were on the
outside of that world and steadily increasing in that way. I think I’ve
kept a lot of fans and lost a lot, but I’ve gained new ones for
different reasons. I think it changes all the time, but at the same time,
there has always been a steady core group of people that like what we
do.
UTR: Have you noticed an influx of people
who don’t know about 16 Horsepower?
Edwards: Oh yeah, I meet people all the time who don’t even know
who 16 Horsepower is. They’ve never heard of it, and it’s
not until they get deeper into Wovenhand that they find out about it.
That’s happening more and more.
UTR: How about people that just know you
through your association with Sounds Familyre or Danielson—things
like that?
Edwards: Because Sufjan [Stevens] is so huge at the moment, I’m
sure that brings eyes to my music and Danielson’s music that wouldn’t
normally come there. Not to say that they’re going to like it, but
they’re exposed to it.
UTR: Do you think people sometimes miss
the hope in your music because it’s presented in a dark way?
Edwards: It’s possible, yeah. I think so. I think people expect
a band or musician that is a believer [in God] to, in every song and every
time, encapsulate everything. The struggle, the “this is what you
need, this is what needs to happen, and this is what will be the outcomes
of that”—the whole story. I’m not a preacher. I’m
just a musician. I’m a music-maker, and I sing about what I believe
in. Sometimes I’m only singing about a certain aspect of something,
and sometimes that’s a situation with no hope. Maybe there is no
hope in a certain situation in a song that I’m singing, to my knowledge.
Lord only knows where the hope is. But, yeah, I can see how someone wouldn’t
see the light at the end of the tunnel. But maybe they will see it somewhere
else, but they needed to see the darkness for me, first.
UTR: It seems that your music offers redemption
at the same time.
Edwards: Well, of course. That’s what it’s all about. The
whole reason for hope and redemption is because of this darkness. If you
don’t know you’re sick, you don’t go to the doctor,
as the Bible says. That’s what I consider my job, to let people
know how sick they are.
UTR: So you’re going to tour this
material this fall?
Edwards: I leave on tour Tuesday with my friends Serena Maneesh, from
Norway. I’ll be opening up for them solo. It will be the new songs,
but it’s just me. Every time we try to set up a tour in America,
it’s like, “Now isn’t a good time. No one’s going
to come see you. There’s no money. None of the clubs know who you
are.” It’s just an endless nightmare trying to get anywhere
in America. We don’t really have anybody that’s positive about
the future of the band other than the record company. I don’t think
anyone really believes in it other than the record company and the band
itself.
UTR: So you’d say that you’re
much more warmly received in Europe than in the United States?
Edwards: Oh, completely.
UTR: Why do you suppose that is?
Edwards: I don’t know. It has just always been that way. It was
that way with 16 Horsepower, and it’s that way with a lot of bands,
really. I see bands all the time, like Giant Sand or Calexico—they
do well in America, but in Europe they do twice as well. And they spend
a lot of time over there. There’s a lot more support of the arts
there, in general. A lot of the clubs that you go to, they’re supplied
money by the government for the arts. So the people that work there like
their jobs and they aren’t trying to thwart you at every turn. When
you want a glass of water or something. It can be really bad in America.
People are hostile to you when you come in as a band.
UTR: Have you been pretty well received
in the Eastern European countries?
Edwards: Yeah, we do really well. This will be the farthest we’ve
gone east. It’s fantastic in Budapest or the Czech Republic, eastern
Germany, Scandinavia; different places, different towns.
UTR: Do you think they gravitate toward
the Eastern European elements in your music?
Edwards: I think they’re happy that we do give it some respect,
that we’re interested in it. I think that’s a draw for them,
but I’m sure it’s much more than that.
UTR: So how did you get to know the folks
in Serena Maneesh?
Edwards: Well, when we were touring as 16 Horsepower through Norway and
Sweden, each time I’d run into Emil Nikolaisen, the leader of the
band. They would always come to the shows, and we’d end up talking
after the shows. So we struck up a friendship, and I ended up seeing them
every time we’d come through town. Then I did a tour with Daniel
[Smith] and Sufjan and Emil—we did a Scandinavian tour for a month,
just us all playing solo.
UTR: Are there any more updates on the collaborative
album with Daniel Smith?
Edwards: [Laughs] No. We haven’t had any time. Everybody
is so busy at the moment.
10/2006