Well, I am intrigued by the band's name. Tell me how you chose it?
Dan: "We have always been fans of the English Romantic poets, and John Keats' self-selected epitaph is "Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water." On our first album we included a number of subtle references to Keats and his contemporaries."
Jeff: "I was reading a lot of Romantic poetry at the time that we were starting the band, particularly Keats and Coleridge. I was especially intrigued by the life of Percy Bysshe Shelley's first wife, Harriet Westbrook, and 'Sylph' is essentially dedicated to her, nearly two centuries removed."
How would you describe your sound?
Dan: "Hmm. That's a tough one for any band. I'm not very good at genre labels anymore; it's entirely possible that one exists that describes us. Our sound has always been characterized by a dense guitar texture. We enjoy treating guitars until they sound like a non-stringed instrument. I guess you'd say that our sound tends to be a blend of ambient and the classic late-80's/early-90's 4AD sound."
Jeff: "We like to experiment with instrumentation and guitar sounds, and the songs more often than not emerge from experimentation or just little riffs/themes that occur in my head. But as to what sound that is...I guess you might call it introspective textural music, which falls somewhere in the region between dream-pop, space-rock and post-punk."
Who are you biggest influences?
Jeff: "I think our mutual appreciation of orchestral music has affected our approach to songwriting, frequently moving away from the standard pop structure. That was simultaneously influenced by the minimalist approach employed in the early New Order albums and the more linear approach of bands like The Wolfgang Press and early PIL that disregarded the need for verse/chorus/verse/chorus. Steve Kilbey and David Sylvian have been major influences on my approach to both song construction and texture as well."
Dan: "Our sound is largely informed by what we listened to in our early twenties, rather than what we listen to today (though of course there's some of that too). We have been influenced primarily by British bands of the 80's and 90's. We listened quite a bit to Joy Division and early New Order. David Sylvian's post-Japan work inspired us to experiment with creating atmosphere, though I don't think we've really listened to much of his material since Dead Bees On A Cake. We thought Julian Swales's swirling guitar treatments on Kitchens of Distinction's albums showed what directions we could push the guitar's sound. We've also been fans of mid-period Cocteau Twins (from, say, Victorialand up to Heaven Or Las Vegas), the Church, Brian Eno, mid-period Pat Metheny Group, Gavin Friday, later Talk Talk, and Prefab Sprout."
What are the band planning for 2009?
Dan: "For the first time in a very long time, we are looking into the possibility of live performance. This will be difficult, since Jeff and I now live in different cities, but I think it is possible. We also have a few songs for a new album in the works which we should begin recording this year."
Jeff: "We're in the process of putting together a 5-piece lineup, and I'm looking forward to getting Writ on Water back on stage after a ~15 year hiatus from live performance. The majority of our songs have never been performed outside the studio. As Dan mentioned, we've got some new material to start working on as well, along with some older songs that are overdue for being recorded."
What have been the highlights for WoW since the bands inception?
Jeff: "As a musician, there's nothing that I appreciate more than when something we've written/recorded resonates with the listener. Having been essentially a studio project for the majority of Writ on Water's history, it is nice to know that our audience "gets" what we're trying to do."
What bands are you currently listening to?
Jeff: "Lately, I've been listening to a lot of '70s Bowie, the new David Byrne/Brian Eno recording, Joy Division and James. I am a fan of more recent bands like Sigur Ros and Radiohead, as well as Trespassers William, the Walkmen, Hammock, the Radio Dept. I also listen to quite a bit of orchestral music and opera, where I'm especially fond of the works of Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Britten, (Richard) Strauss and Barber. "
Dan: "Nowadays, we listen to a great deal of classical music; I'm a big fan of Sibelius's symphonies and John Adams's large-orchestra works. I've also expanded my collection of world music, with an emphasis on Spanish-language postpunk, ska and neo-flamenco: Mano Negra, Macaco, and Mártires del Compás, for example. Other than those off-the-beaten-track obsessions, I haven't really kept current with what's going on in the music world.
I have dedicated quite a bit of my spare time to the study of neo-Byzantine microtonal chant and pre-revolutionary Russian choral music. I've been working on re-engraving old scores from the Tchaikovsky edition of Dmitri Bortniansky's concertos for double-choir.
For several years I have been singing in community choruses. The high point of that endeavour was two performances of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with the Choral Society of Durham, North Carolina, last spring."
Many thanks.
Nicky