Picture courtesy of Studio Brussel

Interviewer: ... in the meantime I have two members of 16 Horsepower in the studio.

I: Welcome.
David Eugene Edwards: Hello.

I: It's amazing to see that at the festival this year there's a lot of very young rock 'n' roll bands, a lot of punk rock, and then suddenly 16 Horsepower again right in the middle somewhere of that line-up. Do you feel comfortable in between all those different bands?
DEE: Sure, yeah.

I: Yeah, It doesn't matter … who's playing before or after you?
DEE: No. It's a festival, eh.

I: Sure, sure. You've been to Belgium quite a few times. Do you feel that you already have a personal relation with the audience here? Do you see people coming back?
DEE: Oh Yeah.
Jean-Yves Tola: Definitely, yeah.
DEE: That's one of our favourite places to be and to play. We know a lot of people here. It's a nice experience for us every time, yeah.

I: You had another album out this year with the band Woven Hand. I was wondering at the time what it meant for 16 Horsepower, but apparently … not so much because you're here again with this band.
DEE: Right.

I: But maybe it influenced what you're doing with 16 Horsepower as well?
DEE: No, it's just, you know, the music that we're making right now is the music that we're making right now. I mean, we took a year off to do all sorts of things and … I just took that time to keep recording, and then ... We move along together as far as the music for the most part I think. Yeah, the Woven Hand thing was nothing different, it was just me, you know. But the music we make is just where we are at the time, you know what I mean. There's not too much else that dictates our music.

I: Yeah, why was it the right time to take some time off?
DEE: We'd just been touring for, I don't know …
JYT: A long time.
DEE: … seven years … [laughing] straight or something. We needed time off.

I: But right now you're back …
JYT: We're back at it.
DEE: We're back to work, yeah. [laughing]

I: For how long again? [laughing]
DEE: Well, we'll be on the road for four or five weeks … something like that. And then some in America I'm sure when we get back.

I: What about a new 16 Horsepower album? How far are you with that?
DEE: It's done. Is it out? I don't even know …
JYT: Yes, it's out.
DEE: It's out already?

I: The Folklore album?
JYT: Folklore, yeah. The one after that? Soon?

I: Really?
JYT: Yeah, why not. [laughing]

I: Yeah? You have a lot of inspiration at the moment?
DEE: Yeah [laughing]
JYT: Yeah.

I: Any idea why, or have you always been that productive?
DEE: I think we've been pretty … whatever you want to call it, blessed or lucky or whatever to have a good source to draw from I guess.
JYT: Yeah, everybody's got a lot of ideas … we work well together and it just seems easy.

I:Yeah?
JYT: Yeah … yeah. [laughing]
DEE: But not too easy.
JYT: Not too easy.

I: Do you have your own working space where you come together to write these songs? Or how does it work?
JYT: No.
DEE: Not really, it could be in my living room or my garage or … hum … when we get together, you know … No we don't have any specific place really, no.

I: I've heard that Wim Vandekeybus, a Belgian choreographer, approached you to make music for a new production ... Are you going to do it?
DEE: Yeah, I've done that.

I: You've done it?
DEE: For the most part it's done. I'm meeting with him when I'm over here. And we're finishing up just putting the kind of finishing touches on it, arranging it properly for the … thing. But yeah, it's basically done.

I: Did you know his work beforehand?
DEE: No, I didn't at all.

I: And had you done anything similar to this?
DEE: No, a-a.

I: What convinced you to accept?
DEE: Well, he's a mutual friend with Tom Barman from dEUS and that's how I was introduced to him. Anybody that Tom would introduce to me I would trust that they were going to do something good, you know. So.

I: And how does it look so far?
DEE: It's really cool. No, it's a great experience to work with him. Yeah.

I: He has a very strong personality.
DEE: Yeah, he does.

I: [laughing] It's no problem for you? You have a strong personality too.
DEE: No, I don't know.

I: No clashes, or did it work organically ...
DEE: Oh yeah, we fight like cats and dogs with him… No I don't, no.

I: We're going to play the song "Blessed Persistence". Can you tell us anything about that song in particular?
DEE: It's basically a song that Jean-Yves wrote and I just put the lyrics on it, you know. It's such a great song, the melody line, everything … I really, really enjoy it.

I: Are we going to hear it live today as well?
DEE: Yes, we will.

I: Okay. This is "Blessed Persistence" by 16 Horsepower. Thank you very much for talking to us.
DEE: Thank You.

song: Blessed Persistence