“I WRITE a lot of songs on my front porch,” says Karly Hartzman, singer and guitarist for the North Carolina band Wednesday. That porch overlooks a couple of grassy acres called Haw Creek, a small village of misfits just outside the city of Asheville. “We’re surrounded by mountains here. It gives the illusion of being way out in the country, but I’m five minutes away from the mall.”
The setting has informed much of Wednesday’s thunderous, country-inflected indie-rock – including their terrific 2023 album Rat Saw God. “Any line about Mandy fighting with her boyfriend in the yard, that’s all stuff I’ve observed from my porch.”
Wednesday formed in Asheville in 2017, largely as a songwriting vehicle for Kartzman, but it quickly became a North Carolina band, with members scattered across the Tarheel State: drummer Alan Miller lives in Durham, while pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis runs a farm out in the middle of nowhere. They quickly built a regional following that remains extremely loyal and sometimes disarmingly intense. “People show the fuck out at our shows here,” says Hartzman. “We love our sports teams here, we love anything that represents this place we love. So if we’re a source of pride for anyone in North Carolina, I love that.”
Hartzman shares a small house in Haw Creek with Jake Lenderman, who plays guitar in Wednesday and also records under the name MJ Lenderman. “We have to squeeze in songwriting where we can,” she says. “He usually stays up until 3 or 4 in the morning, and I wake up early.” The house also serves as a workshop where Hartzman makes sculptures and collages, paints, and sews homemade Wednesday merch. “I get really antsy when I’m home, so I like to constantly be doing stuff with my hands. It’s really therapeutic for me.”
With the band touring heavily behind Rat Saw God, she’s had to put the art on the backburner. “This year has been absolutely insane. We had a lot of very special shows. Our show with Guided By Voices in Dayton, Ohio, was definitely an alltimer. And we got to see Built To Spill, which is one of our favourite bands.” Another big moment was touring with their heroes The Drive-By Truckers and playing the last night of their annual HeAthens Homecoming. “It’s good when your heroes acknowledge you. The thing I get the most value from is the respect of musicians who changed my life and made music that’s been so important to me.”
For Hartzman, success means sustainability. “That’s why I love those bands. There are so many things that can completely derail you, but they’ve kept going because they love music so much. They figured it out. I want to be playing music when I’m their age, and I want to still be writing good music like they do.”
Wednesday’s story is about to turn a page. After her landlord died last year, Hartzman realised she would have to say goodbye to Haw Creek, a development that was chronicled in the new band documentary Rat Bastards Of Haw Creek. “You get really attached to whatever space you have a lot of history in,” she says. “But the move is timely. We’re two musicians who need a lot of creative space and that can be hard work in this house. It’s bittersweet, but I think we need to move on.”
Rat Saw God is out now on Dead Oceans