Sad songs give energy.

"I've got to make music. It is my duty to make the most of this gift with which I am blessed and that I am responsible for. Not that I have already come that far, but I am working on it".
This is David Eugene Edwards talking, son of a preacher [sic] and leader of 16 Horsepower. The band from Denver, Colorado swears by a unique mix of folk and roots-rock with a biblical streak, dictated by Edward's banjo and his plaintive singing.

16 Horsepower entered through the main gate. On the stages of Torhout/Werchter and Pukkelpop the band members blinked their eyes uncomfortably. Their music does not tolerate that much daylight. "But festivals are important to us. In this way we reach the masses, as our songs are hardly being played on the radio", Edwards says.

Actually he has no cause for complaint. After the untitled debut mini-album and the very favourably received Sackcloth 'n Ashes CD, the new record Low Estate, produced by P.J. Harvey's right hand John Parish, places 16 Horsepower in the spotlights even more. "That recognition gives us more possibilities. We grow as a band and gain in self-confidence.

"Music has always occupied an important place in my life. From childhood on I heard melodies in church. Later I discovered rock and punk. For a long time I didn't know what kind of music I wanted to make myself. Actually I still don't know. There are constants but you should not ask me whether 16 Horsepower will evolve in a quieter or a louder direction.

16 Horsepower is in many respects an old-fashioned band: the dilapidated instruments, the nostalgic cover-photos. "I have a weakness for old photos, old clothes, old instruments, old music", Edwards says. "There is something romantic about it, that's the way in which I want to present myself. You can call it our style."

"We do not fit in with the alternative music-scene, but people place us in that category because they do not know what else to do with us. I do not necessarily have to be kept informed about the latest hype. When I am at home I spend time with my wife and children. The latest record that I really liked was "The boatman's call" by Nick Cave. Further I mostly listen to old music, from bluegrass to Bob Dylan records, but also to Sonic Youth and U2"

Drummer Jean-Yves Tola says he is only touched by sad music. "Cheerful music is too volatile and one gets easily bored with it. In those sad songs I hear passion. They touch me and they give me energy."

Is 16 Horsepower's music art or entertainment?
"It is a combination of the two, although they are both strange words", Tola says. "We are neither artists nor entertainers. We do what we want to do and we'll see what happens. At our concerts we see that we appeal both to grungers and punk rockers and to people that listen to country and blues. A very heterogeneous audience, but in one way or another they are all looking for the same."

-Low Estate (A&M/Polygram ***)

Translation by Petra