Excerpts from an interview with David Eugene Edwards which took place on 20 February 2003 before the Woven Hand show at the Bielefeld Forum.

Do you perceive a difference whether you are playing a concert in a relatively small town or in one of the so-called big media-cities?
No, actually I don't. There are differences between countries. In larger cities the audience that really is into the music often is larger. Actually, it depends on the town; in some places people are more reserved than elsewhere. In Germany the crowd usually is more distant and for me it is hard to ascertain if they actually like the concert.

Woven Hand is often described as your solo-project, which is correct as far as the albums is concerned, because you play almost everything yourself and there are only a few guest musicians. Live, when you're playing as a quartet, it is something completely different. But how did the idea arise to set up something besides 16hp?
After "Secret South" and the ensuing tour, 16 Horsepower took a break for a year, because everyone had other things to do. Since we started in 1995, we had virtually been touring almost non-stop. We really were somewhat burned out. Jean-Yves Tola had to look after his horse-breeding, which he had build up in California. Pascal Humbert had bought a piece of land in Utah and had to establish himself there. Only I had nothing else to do and above all I don't have other means to make a living. I simply could not afford to hang about for a year and do nothing! So I just continued working, wrote songs and played them live, back home in Colorado in a couple of joints in the neighbourhood. That ended in me recording the songs in a friend's studio. I really did not intend it, but things got rolling then and I devoted myself more and more and finally I sent the recordings to our record company. They liked them and they wanted to release them very quickly. And that was it! I then asked a couple of friends in Denver if they felt like touring with me as Woven Hand. There was no master plan; it was only just a great opportunity for me to work further on my music. And then one thing led to another, the collaboration with the Belgian dance-theater company Ultima Vez resulted and everything took its course...

When the first Woven Hand album was released last year I thought it was about featuring the quiet element in your music more prominently. That didn't happen much with 16 Horsepower, until then. But when the latest 16hp album "Folklore" was released, it was at heart much closer to the Woven Hand record, atmospherically speaking, then the first three 16hp albums. So it isn't about bringing out songs that perhaps don't fit the 16hp-context?
No, not at all. All the songs I wrote for what now is called Woven Hand, could have just as well been 16hp songs. There is no difference in the way I write the songs, and I pursue the same intentions, just as usual. When we met again to record "Folklore", the three of us had reached the same musical point. We wanted to make something more tranquil and restrained then hitherto. That's why this momentum takes place in both line-ups at the same time.

Can you describe what, in the post "Secret South" period, made the atmosphere move in this direction?
We never wasted words about that among each other. It was almost like a completely natural evolution.

Why is the "Folklore" album not simply titled "Folk", which would be the usual English denotation?
"Folklore" is a customary conception in English too. Most pieces simply pertain to Folklore and to different cultures. And to music we listen to which has influenced our sound. We just wanted to find one figure of speech to say, this is what we like and where we are coming from, and simultaneously give our interpretation.

These influences have been evident since the start of 16hp. But at the same time there is your "rockier" side. Cover versions of The Gun Club, Creedence Clearwater Revival or Joy Division. Is that side not as important anymore?
Frankly speaking, I haven't got a clue. I'm moving to and fro daily, so to speak. I love loud music when I can discover something special in it. For the future everything is open, perhaps the next album is more rockier than everything we have made so far. We never really know what will happen, until it happens.

Is there a special relation with the Gun Club and Jeffrey Lee Pierce's music? 16hp is often compared with them and you did release a cover of "Fire Spirit".
That simply is the music with which I grew up. I think that their music comes from the same sources as my music, and in addition I always loved the punk rock attitude. What I find interesting is that the Gun Club was never held in the same respect in America as elsewhere. In Europe they were much more popular than in the States

Just like you?
Exactly! The funny thing is that this so-called "Americana" music works much better in Europe. Other bands, which do comparable things, experience the same.

Have you played outside of America and Europe?
No, unfortunately not. We always have had plans to go to Japan or Australia, but until now they never came true.

Let's talk about "Blush Music": would you characterize it as a concept album?
No, rather as the soundtrack to this ballet, Blush. At first I didn't even know I would release it on CD. That came to pass later, more or less by chance. I then altered the music somewhat, shortened some pieces a bit, when I thought they were too long, to make listening to them easier for those who don't see the dancers perform. In my opinion it is very important to see the dancing when you hear the music, to find out what it is all about ...

It is an adaptation of the Orpheus theme ...
Yes, that is where it is based on, but actually it illustrates a great many aspects of life. It's about love and loss, sorrow, grief that may people have to deal with. But I find it important that people listen to it as a soundtrack, and not as a "regular" album.

For me it is hard to imagine how you can dance to this music at all. What does it look like?
At first I had that problem too when I was asked to make music for a ballet. "Why", I asked, "the music I make is not suitable for this at all!" I never really took an interest in dance, because I thought I couldn't do anything with it. But when I looked at what they we're doing, all of a sudden it was very close to what moves me, and above all I liked doing it a lot. It is not slick or polished at all. The dancers are dirty and sweaty. It is very bodily, but not in an artificial way, they don't try to attain a smudgy street-image. It is very natural and intensive. The dancers simply don't bother about things that are normally done in dance. And that has radical consequences: the emotions are raw, sometimes very aggressive. Often the dancers end up in hospital!

The majority of the album consists of reworkings of songs from the first Woven Hand album. Were the three new pieces written especially for the dance production?
In the beginning there were only instrumental tracks for the ballet. I wrote some lyrics and recorded vocals when it was clear that it would be released as an album.

Is tradition of great value to you?
I don't know ... "Tradition" really is not the right word. There simply are thing in which I see beauty and I think that they are worth preserving. So many things are lost in our so-called "progress" and that is a great shame. People have put their love, their life, everything into it, and it becomes meaningless to us because we only make music with computers.

And tradition is always laden with negative aspects. Is it not about giving new contents to what you consider to be worth preserving, and to place it in a topical context?
Yes, I think that is the only way to deal with it. You can't simply adopt everything. There are only certain elements that speak to you, certain element you would like to carry on. Carry on whithersoever. I can only understand these matters from my own background. The background of my history and that of my family and other people I come from. Generally speaking the past too is connected with negative aspects. Individually speaking, but also when it concerns the past of a nation or whatever. That is simply because we are people and that will never change or improve. We only have developed smarter strategies, ... to be selfish ... [laughs] no, let's put it this way: to get what we want to get!

When I listen to the Woven Hand records, and the latest 16hp album too, then I always have this clichéd image in the back of my head of you living on an old ranch with a lot of animals somewhere on the prairie in Colorado. Is that image right?
No, it's completely different! I live like most people. I have a wife and two children and we live in south Denver, where the kids go to school nearby, not quite in the city centre, but somewhat outside. Once that was a neighbourhood with coalmines. A quarter that was settled about a hundred years ago, small houses, rather close together, very neat.

On all your albums there is a distinct very strong religious (frame of) reference. If you don't think it is too private, could you tell something about that, about your beliefs?
I simply believe everything that is in the bible. From the first till the last word. All my faith and all of my hope are built on that. In the bible I find the reason why I am here. From God I received the gift of making music. That's why I make music for Him... I always try to be "truthful" in my music and my influences and I try to convey that in which I believe, instead of copying someone.

Besides religious and musical influences, are there other impressions that are important for your creativeness?
A lot, but it is very hard for me to disentangle them. I can't separate spiritual influences from others. When I am reading a book that has absolutely nothing to do with religion, I do interpret it from my standpoint and my faith. There are a lot of things that impress me, but for me they are always spiritually coloured.