Within the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, DIY band Wednesday is making new waves within shoegaze and country.
Wednesday, a five-piece band, released their latest album, ‘Twin Plagues’, back in August. In it, frontwoman Karly Hartzman confronts lingering memories and anxieties throughout life.
‘Twin Plagues’s’ closing song, “Ghost of a Dog”, is a genuine cover of an Edie Brickell song, which doubles as a recollected memory. Hartzman sings it the same way her father did to her growing up, intentionally leaving out some of the original lyrics.
This type of personal and captivating subject matter is consistent throughout the record. But Hartzman was also upfront about how there were a number of subjects she couldn’t fully remember.
“There was a new perspective gained that added new emotions to what I thought were moments frozen in time,” said Hartzman.
A prime example of this was the track “Birthday Song”, where a group of high schoolers drop acid in a random living room. The trip dramatically peaked with a friend jumping out of a window, breaking his foot.
“It became a traumatic memory in more aspects than just, ‘My friend broke his foot’,” Hartzman said. “When you’re 24 looking back on high school memories, you realize that there are so many things you didn’t realize were really wrong and scary just because you didn’t have the experience yet to know.”
It’s hard to handle monumental topics like that in song. For Hartzman, however, there is a formula she follows that helps her process her thoughts.
“I like when the music crescendos at the climax of the story. It adds to the narrative so much when the music follows the lyrics instead of vice versa, in my opinion,” Hartzman said.
Instrumentally, Hartzman is complimented by guitarist Jake Lenderman, bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller and lap steel player Xandy Chelmis.
Chelmis’s lap steel is a unique choice for an instrument, as primarily seen in country genres, not the noise-oriented shoegaze. It wasn’t his first choice, either. Chelmis said that, when he jammed with Wednesday for the first time, he played guitar and synth. However, when he tried his hand at a lap steel laying on the floor, he fell in love with the sound.
“I put it through [the] pedals for the first time and it sounded so, so crazy,” said Chelmis. “Putting it through distortion and other effects makes for this awesome hybrid sound between guitar and synth.”
Wednesday makes really good use of that sound for its music, too. “One More Last One”, written by Chelmis, is a well-crafted song following the blueprints of shoegaze. Chelmis’s lap steel twirls behind his haunting voice, harmonizing with Hartzman’s. Add to that Miller’s kick drum, and the song becomes so rhythmically catchy that the listener’s foot cannot help but tap along.
To support the kind and talented members of Wednesday, visit their Bandcamp merch page at wednesdayband.bandcamp.com/merch and consider buying their shirts, handman by Hartzman. You should also be on the lookout for the band’s third album, which the group has already started recording. If ‘Twin Plagues’ is any indication, there will be a lot more sonic imagery to explore in it.
In the meantime, you can listen to the various Asheville side projects the band members are involved in, such as MJ Lenderman, Nash to Stoudemire, Colin Miller and Lavender Blue. If you’re passing through Asheville, you can find a lot of records from these bands and other DIY acts in Static Age Records, which doubles as a local record store and venue.
