In Conversation

 

With Sweet Wednesday

 

 

February 2007

 

A little background:

 

Doing all of these interviews at ‘Setting Sun’ can

Involve listening to an awful lot of music from

Sometimes all corners of the world and can

Frequently involve pain staking research

In particular previous to me setting myself

Up on myspace.com last year.

 

Since then, I must admit I must have had

Tons of invites from all kinds of bands – most

Of which are bloody terrible indie rock bands

Some of which make want to reach for the

Sick bucket.

 

On other occasions, the occasional gem can approach

Me, for example the wonderful ‘Sweet Wednesday’.

‘Sweet Wednesday’ are centred around two people

Lisa and Dave who both met at Natick, Massachusetts.

 

Perhaps similar to the recent ‘Travel By Sea’ interview

This is alternative country music but quality alternative

Country music – perhaps akin to Gillian Welch jamming

With Gram Parsons with the quality of writing of

Leonard Cohen or Townes Van Zandt.

 

On songs like ‘Pacific Shoes’ the effect is magical –

Certainly from a personal perspective one of the few songs

I have heard over the past 18 months where I can play

It five or six times on the trot and still not tire off it.

 

Of course, it made natural sense for me to contact

Them for a interview and Dave got back in touch

And the attached interview of course then soon

Followed.

 

Cheers to Dave for the interview and I hope

To perhaps see you play Manchester sometime

In the future.

 

For more information on ‘Sweet Wednesday’

Please visit them on their website on

 

http://www.myspace.com/sweetwednesday

 

Regards

 

Andy N

 

 

Setting Sun:

 

How are things and what's happening at the moment?

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

We're really excited for our upcoming tour, which we are calling the Wherever You Go Tour after our new album. We'll be hitting the Midwest in February and then moving out to the West Coast. We're also releasing a new CD of covers called Cover Me.

 

Setting Sun:

 

Can you next tell us a little bit about the history of 'Sweet Wednesday' i.e - how you met up or as I like to say who fired the starting pistol?

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

 

We met 7 years ago at an open stage in Natick, Massachusetts at a place called TCAN (the Natick Center for the Arts). I was impressed a lot with Lisa's songwriting, and she was doing a concert for kids at a Catholic School she was working at, and I thought it would be fun. I had just graduated from University and had not been playing out much, and the little kids called me Elvis and wanted my autograph. After that I had a two year residency at the Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at first I had Lisa open up with a few songs, and she would do harmonies on some of my songs in my set.

When we moved to Cambridge near the subway, we started busking together for the morning and evening rush hours and there we really honed our craft and started writing together, and harmonizing, and decided to form our band.

So originally Sweet Wednesday was the two of us. We were recording Wherever You Go and our producer thought our stuff would sound really good with the Swinging Steaks. They are a real awesome roots rock band that has toured with the Black Crowes and The Band, and were on Conan O'Brien and Mountain Stage. Rob gave us their CD that he produced and we loved it, so we decided to do the record with them. Rob also hooked us up with some other awesome local musicians like Steve Mayone and Steve Sadler who played with Kris Delmhorst and some other really awesome people.

We liked the band sound so much that mid recording we decided to form our own band. One day while shoveling we met our next door neighbor Sean, who turned out to be a slammin' bass player. His two best friends were a drummer and keyboard player, James Hayward and Tony Cabral. We played shows in Cambridge at Sally O'Brien's and T.T. the Bear's Place, and had a great CD Release in JP at the Milky Way. We also started playing in NYC, and Lisa and I have been touring as a duo across the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

 

Setting Sun:  

 

Music wise, what are your influences and what are you listening to at the moment?

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

 

I've always been a huge Dylan fan. Ever since I was 9 years old and my family got our first CD player and my brother brought home from the store Bob Dylan's greatest hits volume I. That album changed my life. Lisa has been a huge influence on me with her story telling style. She also got me into Leonard Cohen, Dar Williams, and Ani DiFranco. And we both got into Townes Van Zandt a lot. Our bass player introduced us to Gram Parsons, and we love his duets with Emmy Lou Harris, and we often cover Grievous Angel in shows. Of newer people, I like Ryan Adams' and Josh Ritter's music a lot.

 

Setting Sun:

 

Have been listening to your songs available on myspace.com a fair bit recently, and have really enjoyed them - I think so far my favourite of them has being 'Pacific Shoes' as I think the title alone creates some interesting images - can you tell us a little more about this song.

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

 

 

Pacific Shores I wrote when I lived in Northern California in a town called Palo Alto, about 40 minutes from San Francisco. I used to drive my motorcycle along the coast on Highway 1, and there was a beach there called Half Moon Bay, which I loved. I have a memory that sticks out in my mind of going there with a bunch of friends, drinking a lot of whiskey and the place was so magical. We walked down the sand and it looked like the craters of the moon at night. As we walked on the beach, the sand glowed, and our footprints lit up because of the phosphorus in the sand.

I had left my guitar in the sand, and when the tide came the waves started to play the strings. The song is about leaving California to come back out to the East coast, and the feelings I was having about leaving this new life I had out there, but of coming back to it someday. I was also experimenting with narratives when I wrote this song, and I had it start with the end and end with the beginning.

 

 

Setting Sun:

Also pleasing to see you are gigging regularly.. How do they compare to your album - is their one you prefer over the other?

 

Sweet Wednesday:

 

I love both recording and gigging. I feel that recording sometimes helps more with my writing process, and honing down things like harmonies and new licks. There is such an excitement in the studio of hearing the songs fleshed out in a way that you dreamed they could sound.

Gigging is great, too. I love the camaradery with the guys in the band, and I feel blessed to play with such excellent musicians. There is a real excitement of playing with everyone live for a live audience, and nights where we especially feel on are such a rush. There's also a cool ad lib freedom in a live show of you never know what's gonna happen, parts are improvised and songs have different feels each night.

 

Setting Sun:

 

Out of interest also - can you tell us a little more about your name 'Sweet Wednesday' as it is certainly a interesting choice for a name?

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

 

We got the name Sweet Wednesday from one of our favorite writers John Steinbeck. One of our favorite all time books is Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, and the sequel to the book which is also very good is called Sweet Thursday. Since Wednesday has always been a lucky day for us we decided to call ourselves Sweet Wednesday.

 

Setting Sun:

 

What's next for you? Do you have any recordings lined up - any chance of a possible gig or two in England?

 

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

 

We recently finished an acoustic album of covers of our favorite artists which we're releasing this spring. We're looking into doing some shows in London this summer, and doing a European tour. A good friend of ours from London is getting married, so we're hoping to be in London this summer. We're working on a couple new recording projects that we're really excited about that we're going to start recording before the tour and finish up after and we hope to release them by next fall.

 

Setting Sun:

 

Anyway, a few questions to wind down with - firstly, what would be your ideal job if you were not a rock and roll star?

Sweet Wednesday:

 

Originally when I was younger I wanted to be a doctor. I worked at Mass General Hospital for a long time in high school and college and after for a bit and even got a five year pin from there. I am terribly afraid of blood which did not help this career path though. I went to Latin school for a few years as a kid and loved all the classics. Maybe I'd teach classics or English. I've also done PR type stuff and web and graphic design for some different colleges and enjoy promotion and computer programming.

 

Setting Sun:

 

What would you like to be doing when you are 60?

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

 

If I live to be sixty, I would love to still be doing music and travelling.

 

 

Setting Sun:

 

What will you be doing when you are 60, lastly?

 

 

Sweet Wednesday:

When I'm sixty, I should have a couple of grandkids kicking around to entertain and teach guitar to.