'Every band has its expiration date. It starts naturally when band members find each other and it ends in an equally natural way when interests change. A band is a process and to every process there is an end.'

Patiently David Eugene Edwards explains why an end came to his successful group 16 Horsepower. One day on the sober website the cold announcement appeared stating the group had dissolved itself. 'Political and spiritual differences' between band members were mentioned as causes. “I never had the illusion 16 Horsepower would have eternal life. The people, who reacted shocked when the band stopped, probably didn't know I had played in many other bands before 16 Horsepower. To me every band is a new phase, and more will follow. That's just the way it goes.”

The fans' sorrow was somewhat softened by the knowledge Edwards had been working on a side project for quite some time already. When drummer Jean-Yves Tola was rather breeding horses and Pascal Humbert preferred building a house to playing bass, Edwards dissolved the band and went on solo with Woven Hand (hands folded for prayer).

It wasn't a stylistic break. Whatever the name of the group, David Eugene Edwards will always make the same music. Even though Woven Hand has a more acoustic nature than 16 Horsepower, it still is alternative country-folkrock of the most intense, dark kind. Rendered with an enormous passion, a passion that has its roots in Edwards' deep religious beliefs. He is the grandson of a Nazarene priest who raised him and with who he spread the gospel through the southern states of the US. Edwards doesn't sound as happy and optimistic as the Nazarene creed profiles itself within Protestantism. For that the lead weight of preachers preaching hell and damnation made too much of an impression on him.

Darkness
If you take in the lyrics of Mosaic, Woven Hand's new CD, you will be slapped in the face with darkness, with only sporadic rays of light. The mood is apocalyptic. After a threatening instrumental intro, Winter Shaker is the first song. 'The circle is vicious of thoughts altogether vain, haunted by battles lost.' Edwards starts. Also because of the rolling rhythm Woven Hand here reminds us of Joy Division, the darkest new-wave band. “Joy Division? That wasn't the intention.”

Even though he doesn't deny that the English band formed around Ian Curtis has been an influence on his music, like the Gun Club, with Jeffrey Lee Pierce wielding the sceptre. This is where extremes meet. Where Edwards makes music for the Lord, Pierce rather made music for the devil. Intense and with the same intention. “I make music out of faith.”

Edwards' shows are intense sermons about faith and love - 'All His glory'. Guitar, banjo and sweat. There's no escape. Critiques sometimes say he lets in too little light. “This is me.”

Edwards says he goes into the studio without clearly outlined ideas, his studio at home, that is. He leads a hermit's life in Denver. “That's where it comes into existence, and becomes music. I can see myself one day trying a different medium, but what I do ends up as music. Films are an option, or writing poetry, but I don't see it happening yet. Music is what I do best.”

Mosaic, the title of the new Woven Hand CD, must be taken literally. “It's a collection of songs that can all stand on their own, of course. It's not a concept album, I keep far from that. In that respect, I don't have a story I want to spread. But the songs get extra meaning through mutual relations they enter into.

Actually, the same happens on stage, where they also start conversations with the 16 Horsepower songs. “Because I will keep playing those. In that way a band is nothing more then a passing vehicle to spread the music I have been making my entire life.”