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DARK, SOULFUL & TIMELESS
David Eugene Edwards has been a unique voice in this humongous world of music. First with 16 Hor Wovenhand. A rhythm-based rock sound that incorporates a myriad of elements ranging from coun Americana, etc. We talked with David to know more about his course as a musician and Wovenhan Words: Tiago Moreira // Photo: Joni Hietanen
A
s with almost everything in life our relation with something and someone changes through time, and sometimes we can even say it evolves. How did your relationship with music start and how it has changed throughout the years? It started basically in the home with my mother. My mother who basically was a really good singer and she played guitar and then with the music of the Church, which was the next thing. And then just at home just with my family with whatever my grandparents were listening to, which was country basically. Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and... mostly Johnny Cash. The typical American stuff. Did you end up singing in the choir of the Church? Was it any helpful for what you’re doing now with Wovenhand? Yeah, I did sing in the choir. I’m sure it helped me to figure out what my
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voice was. I remember it fairly well and I enjoyed it. I didn’t do it very long, only for a short period of time, but I really liked it. I also started playing drums. I played the drums, for eight years or something like that, while I was in the school marching band. Drums was what I wanted to do, but then someone just ended up giving me a guitar or something – I don’t remember exactly how it happened. I just started teaching myself how to play the guitar and I kind of left the drums behind after that. All the instruments that I play, I play them in a rhythmical fashion. Yeah, that’s very transparent listening to your playing guitar. Yeah, exactly. Still very rhythm-oriented rather than melody per se. The rhythm was the motivation to do all the different instruments. How it has evolved, your relation with music throughout the years? Well, music is very elusive to me.
[laughs] It’s hard for me to create what I want to just because of my lack of ability, but I do it at the best of my abilities to create the music that comes out of me. I’m fairly limited in it, but I’ve gotten comfortable with this limitation. It’s something I learned to live with and I’ve managed to work within this framework that I have that I can be somewhat happy with. You’ve once said that “The longer I make music, the more I realize that music is not sacred.” What did you mean by that? I’m not sure what I was saying at the time [laughs] but... there’s different things people think about music. When people think about sacred music they think about maybe the music in the big church with the choir, the specific words, and this kind of solemn experience. I don’t believe it to be sacred in that way. It’s between you and God and doesn’t matter what it sounds like.