indie rock Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Indie Rock Band Wednesday Carries The Torch For Mountain South

Wednesday made big waves with Rat Saw God when it came out in April. The music site Pitchfork gave it 8.8 out of 10 and named it Best New Music. Before Wednesday set out on a big European tour, Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams caught up with Karly Hartzman.

This conversation originally aired in the Nov. 19, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Asheville indie rock band Wednesday has had an eventful 2023 so far, releasing an acclaimed album and touring the U.S. and Europe.

Wednesday is based in Asheville, North Carolina, and consists of singer Karly Hartzman and her partner Jake Lenderman on guitar, Xandy Chelmis on lap steel, Margo Schultz on bass and Alan Miller playing drums.

Wednesday made big waves with Rat Saw God when it came out in April. The music site Pitchfork gave it 8.8 out of 10 and named it Best New Music.

Before Wednesday set out on a big European tour, Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams caught up with Karly Hartzman.

Wednesday’s 2023 album, *Rat Saw God*.

*Courtesy*

Adams: When I saw y’all play at Cat’s Cradle this summer, you talked about the importance of remaining in the South and staying where you’re at. So what compels you to stay in Western North Carolina there in Asheville?

Hartzman: The more places I see, the more I’m convinced that it’s the most beautiful place on the earth, and my favorite place on the earth. The more I travel, the more I’m affirmed in that. So I genuinely do just love the surroundings. I like the culture. I think Southern culture is one of the most intact. That’s one of the things about people being conservative, is they want to retain a lot of historical things. There’s a lot of negative stuff that goes along with being conservative, but there’s also a preservation of culture in a way. When it’s not a negative thing, it’s actually an interesting thing.

I went into an antique store the other day in Burnsville, [when] I was getting my license renewed, and there’s this super old guy. This lady was talking to him about all the stuff that she needed fixing around her house. And he was like, “Yeah, I can fix literally all of that.” Antique lamps and antique this-and-that. I just feel like a lot of that stuff is still intact here. There’s a lot of people who can’t stay here for fear of their life, obviously, and I totally understand them feeling like they need to escape whether it’s because they’re queer or they’re Black, with the police violence here. But if you’re not scared for your life, and you’re willing to fight for those who can’t, I think it’s a really good place with a lot of room to be productive.

There’s a ton of grassroots organization and people who are so passionate about change. And yeah, just the best food, too. I mean, they don’t got Bojangles anywhere else. So why would I live anywhere else?

Adams: There’s so much about the band that resonates with me, from its sound to the apparent musical influences. But the songwriting is just so incredible. It’s impressionistic and visual and rooted in place — but it also feels universal. How do your surroundings and experiences make your way into your music and your songs?

Hartzman: With any writing, I just think I’m impressed with people that are able to describe their own life in a way that captures how original everyone’s life is. It’s harder than you would think to find the things that make you and your life what it is. It’s a muscle, and obviously I’ve really worked it since I was a high schooler writing. I did poetry for a really long time and tried to find the little things that were interesting to me, and it tended to be outside of myself.

I find it really easy to get bored with my own thoughts in my own brain, so I look outside myself. That’s the one thing that I feel like a lot of people bring up about my writing, is that it’s kind of like a spectator. I try to look really closely about what’s going on that is specific to where I’m sitting, or where I’m at, at that moment. And once you build that muscle, it just comes to you. I find writing is the easiest part of the whole process because it’s happening around you all the time. If you live in a place that you’re inspired by — that’s why I am so attached to North Carolina and Asheville.

Adams: There’s so many songs I love on this record, but I wanted to ask you about “Bath County,” partly because I’m from Clifton Forge, which is adjacent. “Bath County” sprawls between eastern Tennessee and western Virginia, and it’s got all these memorable lines and visual images. Can you tell us just a little bit more about that song?

Hartzman: Jake’s mom is from Bath County, and she likes to go every, like once a year, maybe once every two years, to visit and go around her old stomping grounds. They’ll rent a house and we’ll go out there, and a lot of the visuals from that are from the drive up there. I saw a high school football game going on. It was the kind of game that happens around here, where you can just walk in and watch. There was a kid drinking a Fanta or maybe a Gatorade, I can’t remember, but it was fluorescent red and “Fanta” sounded better. So I went with that.

The other kind of section of that song about the guy who overdosed in his car was about something me and Jake saw on our way to Dollywood. We were going to go run around and try to have a good fun time, but on our way there, we stopped at a Chik-Fil-A, and the guy was surrounded by cops. I thought I was seeing a dead body for the first time, but luckily he sat up, but it took him a really long time. I was just struck by those two things. They had a similar tone, and that put them into the same song. That’s how a lot of my stuff is written.

Asheville band Wednesday.

*Credit: Zachary Chick, courtesy of Wednesday*

Adams: So you all have just come off this long national tour and you’re getting ready to head to Europe. How’s traveling and going on the road affect your perspective on home and where you live?

Hartzman: I think we’re still figuring that out. I think in the long run, success to us is really gonna mean that we’re able to spend more time at home. Right now, we’re not really able to do that. But whenever I talk to my bandmates, their goals in a lot of ways — except our drummer Allen loves being out on the road, he’s a total road dog — but everyone else is, ideally we would be able to do a month’s worth of touring instead of six months of touring or eight months, whatever we’ve been doing, and be able to sustain a life that’s comfortable at home for most of our time. Xandy just built a farm on his property, and it’s really hard for him to be away right now. Of course, I’m lucky because I have Jake out there and he’s my romantic partner, but everyone else was away from their loved ones. It’s really hard. So I think our dream would be to be able to spend the majority of our time in the place we love the most, which is Asheville. We love playing shows, but like yeah, it’s a pretty intense lifestyle.

Adams: Y’all have had such a big year this year with the album coming out and the sold-out tours. What wisdom have you taken away from these experiences you’re having?

Hartzman: Gosh, I mean, I learn something every day. I’m a huge introvert, there’s no way I would have the type of human connection that I have with my bandmates, the kind that comes from spending 24 hours with a group of people a day. It really shows me that human connection, even though it’s really difficult for me, is probably the most nourishing and important thing of life. Another thing I’ve learned is a lot of self-care stuff. I’m still figuring that out, because I don’t drink at home or really at all, but on tour it’s kind of necessary for me to get on stage sometimes.

So I’m trying to figure out my relationship with that, and I go to the sauna a lot when I can on tour. A lot of musicians end up being workout people and run. When they are on a tour bus, they’ll run during the day. I think that’s something I’ll have to start implementing. I never really understood why so many older musicians were such juice heads, but I understood, yeah you feel like sh*t on tour if you don’t do that, because there’s so much exposure to not the best food and a lot of drugs and alcohol. Which are fun, and I like to partake, but you’ve also got to balance that out with taking care of yourself.

Adams: What are y’all working on next?

Hartzman: Well, Jake’s album is going to be coming out. And then, our next album is written. We haven’t really practiced it as a band yet, but all of my songs are ready. It’s mostly just about finding time to practice them and then record them. It takes forever for that kind of stuff. But yeah, that’s something I really want to reaffirm to our audience, because the thing I hate most is when a band is received well, and then pivots in another direction or breaks under the pressure and just doesn’t release anymore good music.

I’ve been so intense about not letting that really affect how I write, any good or bad press. But I just feel, really, all the songs still feel the same to me as before. I feel like I’m still the same person writing. That’s what I’ve been trying to keep intact. But yeah, next one’s written, we’re just trying to figure out when to get it all down.

——

Karly Hartzman is the singer and guitar player from the Asheville band Wednesday. Their newest album is Rat Saw God. Adams interviewed its producer, Alex Farrer, in June. You can find that show here.

How Drop Of Sun Studios Turned Asheville Into An Indie Rock Hotspot

Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, is in the midst of an indie rock hot streak. Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams contacted Drop of Sun co-founder Alex Farrar to find out how he got into making music, and what’s the secret behind making buzzworthy music albums.

This conversation originally aired in the June 4, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, is in the midst of an indie rock hot streak.

Singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza released “All of This Will End” to critical acclaim in May, just one month after Wednesday’s “Rat Saw God” was named “Best New Music” at Pitchfork. Both of these albums, along with recent records by Angel Olsen, Archers of Loaf and Snail Mail were recorded and produced at Drop of Sun Studios.

Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams contacted Drop of Sun co-founder Alex Farrar to find out how he got into making music, and what’s the secret behind making buzzworthy music albums.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Adams: How did you get started and get into this work?

Farrar: My dad had this little 4-track. He would use it to demo out songs and jam around by himself. He picked up on my interest and showed me how to use it. We’d record covers of songs together, and stuff like that. It just kept growing and growing, and I eventually moved to Asheville in 2010 to attend the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s music technology program. I was recording friends’ bands and it just snowballed and snowballed until eventually it became the only thing that I do.

Adams: You mentioned the UNCA connection. What brought you to the mountains and, more importantly, what’s kept you there?

Farrar: Asheville is a special place. It’s one of the smallest cities that I’ve lived in, but it’s just incredibly fertile. There’s so many creative people here. The community is definitely what’s kept me here. I love the people that live here. It just seems like it’s always growing and getting more exciting, and it’s also a beautiful place to live.

Adams: How would you describe the scene in Asheville right now and some of the music coming out of the city?

Farrar: Yeah, there’s always been a very heavy experimental music scene here, which I love. There’s always something going on in that world. There’s a great heavy music scene here, and punk and metal and stuff, and I love that sort of shade of Asheville.

There’s also Moog and Make Noise synthesizers, who are huge synth companies that are based in town. That attracts a lot of creative minded musicians. There’s a lot of really amazing indie rock bands that are killing it like Wednesday, Indigo [De Souza] and MJ [Lenderman].

Adams: Drop of Sun Studios has been attached to a lot of these really prominent records coming out of Asheville lately. How did that get started?

Farrar: Drop of Sun was founded by my studio partner, Adam McDaniel, in 2014. It started in his basement, and it was this tiny room with low ceilings. It’s a space that shouldn’t have worked, but we made a lot of really great music in that tiny room, and it continued to grow. As time went on, we kept working on more and more projects. In 2021, we opened up our new location on Haywood Road. The Asheville music scene continues to evolve, and we’ve sort of grown with it. We’re super thankful to be part of the music community here.

Adams: Y’all are associated with some really cool recordings from 2021. Do you want to start with Angel Olsen?

Farrar: Yeah, sure. Angel’s EP was great. That was actually one of the very last things that happened at the initial Drop of Sun location, which is kind of cool. Adam got together with Angel with the idea of doing some covers of ‘80s songs. This is such a rad, fun interpretation of all those songs. I could just watch them picking apart those songs that you might hear while you’re grocery shopping, but then reinterpreting through the lens of whacked-out synths. Like, how do you make these songs feel kind of fresh and fun?

Adams: Then also that year, “Twin Plagues” came out from Wednesday, which is the album that put that band on my radar. Tell me about some of your memories working on that record.

Farrar: That record was so much fun to work on. They’re the most fun people to be in the room with, which is kind of the best thing. You spend a lot of long hours in a studio with a band. It’s a huge plus if they’re all funny and kind.

Adams: When I listen to that record, tell me some of what I’m hearing so far as the Alex Farrar part.

Farrar: Jake Lenderman, one of the guitar players — there were so many songs where we would have a wall of guitar amps, and we’d be trying to like this riff for this part and this riff for that. We had so much fun figuring out the sounds to fit the songs, and he’s so down for that.

Adams: Do you feel something different when a band like that is working with you?

Farrar: Yeah, Wednesday is a great example of a band that I immediately connect with their influences and the sonics of what they’re interested in, musically. Like Karly’s a huge Unwound fan. Jake’s a huge Pavement guy. We’d go back and forth on these bands that we loved, and the sounds that we’re chasing together. It was an immediate connection.

Adams: Jake Lenderman is also MJ Lenderman the solo artist. How is it going from working with a band to working with a more individual project like the album “Boat Songs” from 2022?

Farrar: He is remarkably driven. He comes in with a plan. The book is open and we throw stuff at the wall, we find stuff. He came in, and we were just like, “Throw down like a scratch guitar.” And then like, throw some drums and kind of piecemeal together this song. It ends up being this very full band that’s coming through your speakers. But it’s great to work on each individual element with somebody, and put all these puzzle pieces on the table, and then figure out how to put them into what ends up being like this huge sounding song.

Adams: So when Jake Lenderman and Wednesday came back to do “Rat Saw God,” the new album, did it just feel like a continuation? Or does it feel different with each new recording that you work on with these groups?

Farrar: I think a little bit of both. But the more exciting part of it is, I think I could just totally see that. They just continue to get better. There’s growth in these artists. They’re just like always chasing. They’re not settling. Obviously, we had a record that was already established, which is rad, but it didn’t feel like the same record. It felt like we’re forging our own path here, and we’re kind of trying to grow as a band and make something new.

Adams: I would love to talk about Indigo De Souza a little bit.

Farrar: Indigo is a really incredible songwriter based in Asheville. She’s been making music, seems like all her life. I met her through the process of making “Any Shape You Take.” Adam McDaniel, along with producer Brad Cook, who is an incredible producer based in Durham, North Carolina — the three of us worked on that record together, and the sort of thing that tied it all together was she was just so driven. She’s one of those musicians who just doesn’t settle for anything. Like, this isn’t done until it’s like the best thing it can be. I love working with someone who has that drive and vision.

Adams: Who else do we want to talk about? What are some other records that you’ve worked on recently?

Farrar: Yeah, there’s a couple of bands I would love to shout out that are from North Carolina as well. They have releases that aren’t announced yet. Fust is a project primarily headed by this singer, Aaron Dowdy, who is from Abington and is an absolutely incredible lyricist and songwriter.

Secret Shame is an Asheville band, and I’ve worked on a record with them that came out earlier this year. They’re another great example of how wildly fertile and cool Asheville musicians are.

And then Truth Club is … I don’t know exactly how to describe them. Their guitar player described them as a slow core band that plays too fast. They’re this like whacked-out math rock, grungy indie madness, and they’re just so incredible.

The West Virginian Behind Beach House's Beats and Louisiana's Buildings

Let’s play a game of #WVmusic ‘Guess Who,’ shall we?

Who is from West Virginia, the son of a Mountain Stage band member, an architect living in Louisiana AND the drummer for seminal indie pop-rock band Beach House? It’s Graham Hill, and we chatted with him about all of that and more.

Beach House just released their fifth full-length Depression Cherry on Sub Pop Records. As for Graham Hill, you can catch his solo music as Roman Ruins and his architecture work with Concordia. To hear more of their music, tune in to ‘A Change of Tune,’ airing Saturdays at 10pm EST on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Parkersburg Indie Rocker on TWIABP, WV and TAL

If you take a second to look around, you can find hardworking West Virginians in the coolest places.

Case in point, Parkersburg native Dave Bello fronting the popular indie rock band The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die (also known as TWIABP). We sat down with the pepperoni roll-loving frontman to talk about TWIABP’s new record, his thoughts on the Mountain State (specifically his bromance with Martinsburg’s Rozwell Kid) and whether This American Life actually influenced his songwriting.

The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die will release their new LP Harmlessness September 25 via Epitaph and will be on tour this fall. Keep up with the band on Facebook and Twitter. To hear more of their music, tune in to ‘A Change of Tune,’ airing Saturdays at 10pm EST on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Travelin' Appalachian Tour Showcases Local Artists

A group of friends from all around West Virginia have come together to form the Travelin’ Appalachians Revue, a celebration of local writers, musicians and artists.

Co-founders Tyler Grady and Howard Parsons set out to show Appalachia in a different light with their tour, Tales of Tribulations and Turpitude. Grady and Parsons handpicked musicians, writers, poets and other artists to showcase in a series of events across the state.

When it came to choosing artists to showcase on their first tour, Grady said their friends were the first to come to mind.

“These are guys who have been honing songwriting as a craft,” Grady said.

The Travelin’ Appalachians Revue promoted their first major event in Elkins on Tuesday. However, it won’t be the last. Parsons said they plan to diversify the project even more.

“We hope to include more styles of writing and songwriting in the future,” Parsons said.

The five day tour kicked off in Elkins this week and concludes in Shepherdstown on Saturday.

'A Change of Tune' Interviews Ona

They’re earnest, they’re indie, they’re Ona, the five-piece rock outfit that found its start in a sliver of unincorporated Appalachia called Ona, West Virginia. If you’re a fan of deliciously mellow alt-rock bands that live by the motto “WWNYD” (that’s “What Would Neil Young Do”), this interview and music are recommended for you.

Ona just released “The Other Side of June” as a cassingle (cassette+single) through Twin Cousins Records, and you can expect their debut LP sometime this spring. Catch up with the band on social media and follow A Change of Tune for more West Virginia music news and interviews. Hear new music from Ona on A Change of Tune this Saturday at 10pm EST on West Virginia Public Radio.