David Eugene Edwards (aka Woven Hand) is one of the most unique artists that I’ve heard, and is by far one of my favourites. His musical influences vary from Joy Division to American and European traditional folk music with lyrics heavily drawn from his Christian faith and the Bible. He is a fascinating character.
His interviews are always interesting to read, and Holiday at the Sea’s remains my favourite. Here’s some highlights from that interview:
As a Christian playing music, what do you think of that distinction many people make between “sacred” or “Christian” and “secular” music?
I think the way most people approach it is more from a business sense than anything else. You have the CCM music and then “secular” pop and it’s just another corporation basically. One is supposedly Christian, but I don’t know, and the other is supposedly secular whereas I never thought of music in those terms. Music is music. Certain people, whether its an architect or a painter, or anybody else, there’s certain people who are not believers but they make fantastic art and they’re created by God and given an ability to create whether they use it for Him or not. That doesn’t negate the fact that they’re talented and make beautiful things.
I’ve always thought of music in that way. I listen to music that maybe I don’t agree with but I can definitely appreciate the art and the musicality. There are just things that appeal to me outside of religion.
What, if any authors have been an influence on you?
I read a lot of Doestoyesky, probably more of him than anybody else. Cormac McCarthy is my favorite modern author. I’ve read everything he’s written. Of course, growing up in the church, you read C.S. Lewis and Tolkein. I read a lot of theology and different preachers that I hear that I think have an interesting message.I’ve read Spurgeon and Edwards and the old-timers and gotten good stuff out of that. More modern-day, R.C. Sproul I like. I don’t read a lot of pop culture type of books. I guess I read a lot of Russian stuff like Pushkin. For some reason I’ve always been attracted to Russian authors. I like weighty, heavy stuff. I like Kafka, things that are a bit abstract and you don’t know where it’s coming from.
Woven Hand will be releasing their latest album The Laughing Stalk on September 7th. Here’s a new song, Glistening Black.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/54821958″ iframe=”true”/]
The Threshing Floor remains one of my favourite tracks.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml2azfGQ7ac&w=560&h=315]
To find out more, Christ and Pop Culture has just posted a helpful overview of his music.
