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Sabine Edelsbacher - Vokal Arne «Lanvall» Stockhammer | 1998 | Sunrise in Eden (2000) Arcana (2001) Aphelion (2002) A Livetime In Eden (2004) Shine (2004) Shine (Single) (2004) For your eyes only (Single) (2006) The Grand Design (2006) MyEarthDream (2008) | http://www.edenbridge.org/ |
Journalist: Magnus H. Blystad
Photographer: Stine Anette Brøndbo
We meet up with Edenbridge at their hotel. At first they were late, but when we came back later Lanvall and Sabine were sitting there eating actually. We tell them that we are in no rush, and they they should finish their dinner before we began, but they usher us on and so we begin.
First we had a little chat about last time Edenbridge was touring in Norway and Lanvall was more than happy to guide us down memory lane and talk about last time.
L: We have visited Norway. In 2002 we did a show on the tour with Metallium in John Dee in Oslo, this small venue right near the Rockefeller. It was great fun six years ago, but six years ago is a long time and it’s great to be back here.
IMM: Edenbridge, that name, does it have a special meaning or something?
L: Yeah, I think the special meaning is this bridge to paradise, what we actually wanted to form musically from the very beginning on. Edenbridge always stood for positive energy, positive feelings from the beginning on and so I think it was and is the perfect name for the band.
S: But nowadays we are more to the earth and the new album brings more earth feeling into it, and now its more the bridge between earth and sky or paradise. So the idea is to open the mind for higher energy but staying on earth.
After that short explanation I dive into their music, more specific: their latest album, the 2008 release MyEarthDream.
IMM: Your new album, MyEarthDream, what’s the concept behind that?
L: Well, as Sabine said before, if the earth is opening up for higher energies it can reach salvation through consciousness so I think that it the basic concept of the album. But I wouldn’t say that it is really a concept album. There is some kind of red line throughout all the album, but of course the songs can stand for themselves. The titletrack, “MyEarthDream”, deals with the pollution of the environment and on the other hand also the beauty of nature so it’s this ambivalence: On one hand the beauty of nature and on the other hand that mankind is constantly destroying this mother earth. That is a basic thing about it. And we have a lot of other songs of course which have different and other meanings, coming from movies or directly inspired by nature like “Paramount”. Then we have the song “Shadowplay” which is about en episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9, by the same name. We have a song called “Whale Rider”, that is dealing with this famous New Zealand movie, “Fallen From Grace” is dealing with the movie Artificial Intelligence, also a very popular movie, so the themes are coming from here and there.
IMM: Wikipedia classify your music as symphonic or neo-classical but how would you classify your own music if you were to do that?
L: Well, in the beginning I invented this term Angelic Bombast Metal, because it’s always good to have a strange kind of style when you are presenting yourself to record labels and I think this style also fit for a long time but I think with this new album with this real symphonic orchestra the term symphonic metal really hits it. I couldn’t find any other classification for the music we play. I mean, so many bands are called symphonic metal even if they are not really symphonic: your not a symphonic metal band when you just have one stringline which is going through the song. That is not symphonic, that is bullshit. So I mean, symphonic is something that really has a real orchestra, I would say this (red. MyEarthDream) is symphonic, everything else is kindergarten.
IMM: How was it to record with the Czech Film Orchestra?
L: On the one hand it was big dream come true, on the other hand it was a very stressful day. We were prepared to the very end, everything was prepared perfectly but never the less, if there is a small failure, a small mistake in one of the lines everything is standing for three minutes and the studio clock is running. We had to record all the orchestra parts within eight hours. Its forty minutes with orchestral material and we had just eight hours for the whole orchestra with sixty five people playing. It was great feeling to listen to an orchestra playing your own music though. That was fantastic.
S: He grew up with classical music and when he got older he came into metal and it was always his idea to bring those styles together.
L: That’s right.
Since Edenbridge are one of those female fronted symphonic metal band, I thought it would be interesting to get their view on what may follow with that genre.
IMM: This question is directed at you Sabine. There are several bands now specially in the late nineties and early two thousand, that have emerged with female singers in the more symphonic metalbands. But the heavymetal culture is still predominately masculine, do you feel any effect of that when you are out touring or performing or elsewhere?
S: It’s up to the people. If they like the music and don’t have problems with the singer onstage; it’s the perfect scene for me. Sometimes there are people that I can feel have problem with women but I don’t make it my problem. Most people are very charming to female singers.
IMM: You are a female fronted symphonic metalband and as I said, there are loads of bands nowadays that play like this, and the most popular one is probably Nightwish. People usually compare bands like you to Nightwish because they are envisioned as the biggest one.. Do you feel that it is fair for Edenbridge to be compared with them?
S: It’s up to how famous band is. There are a lot of bands I wouldn’t like to be compared with, but I think we have a long history as a band now. When we began we didn’t know other bands with female singers so it was the idea to bring something new or something we feel with music and we are still going this way since then. We always try to go our own way and if people say it sounds like this or that, that can be, but we always try to do our own thing. And a lot of people realise that now.
For 10 years now Edenbridge have been playing together. They have a total of 7 albums behind them and a countless amount of shows all over the world. How would they describe some of the aspects that come with being such a big band?
IMM: You’ve had a lot of concerts all over the world are the fans any different from country to country or perhaps from continent to continent?
L: Definitely. I mean fans in Russia are completely different than fans in Germany. Germany is overfilled with concerts and German people are most of the time standing like this and watching. People from Korea are totally freaking out, we just played in Korea again and they are really crazy. Same goes for countries like Taiwan and China.
S: Its also up to the landscape and to the culture of the country. Sometimes you think they are very reserved, they don’t go along with the music. But after the song they are crying and going to the merchandize booth. You can see that; okay they really liked it, but they didn’t freak out. Like people in south Europe, or in Korea for example.
L: Most of the time I think it is the mentality of people and the different mentality when you come to countries like Spain; they are totally different from the people in Germany.
S: It’s up to the culture.
IMM: But which would you say is the most recognizable moment on tour for you? Which concert would you say created the greatest impression? It doesn’t have to be a good one.
L: Well for me I would say two shows. It was the show on the Busan Rock Festival in 2002 in Korea, where we played in front of twenty thousand people. It was unbelievable and we just played for forty minutes and it was sad that it was over so fast. I would also say the show in Moscow was very special because really the whole venue knew the songs and sang with us, and I had these goose bumps at the end of the concert and I think Sabine felt the same. It was something special. And also the Club Show in Seoul, we did in 2002 was something similar. These three concerts I would say are the best memories so far.
IMM: And you?
S: Yeah, same at me, I also liked the festival last week, a female metal voice festival in Holland.
L: *whispers* Belgium.
S: Ah, Belgium, sorry, we had two other concerts in Holland. They really like female singers in Belgium and I felt it. It’s a good feeling, to get something back.
But no artist stands alone. And its always interesting to figure out what shapes the music of international acclaimed artists, what may or may not influence them, so I thought now would be the time to bring that subject up.
IMM: On that site where you write about what sort of artists you like you also write what influences you, but what would you say influences Edenbridge as a band?
L: That’s difficult to say because all the musicians have different influences but I think we have bands we all like.
IMM: And which band would that be?
L: Which band would that be?
S: You mean for all of us? Oh, that’s difficult. The others wouldn’t say the same as us, I think. Its really Edenbridge where we came together because Edenbridge brings so many influences together. When Lanvall is writing his music, he always tries to be like in a mediation so he tries to not listen to other music at that time. Its important to bring that out, what he has inside. And so it wouldn’t make sense to listen to other kinds of music to copy something because we want to make something different.
L: Therefore its always good to have a break, after an album when the tour is finished to just relax a bit and let new influences in. When you just start writing album by album and have no break in between, its also the possibility that maybe some albums are sounding too much the same. Therefore its always good to have a bit of break in between to let new influences in and think about everything.
S: Both personally and as a musician together makes it so that every album sounds a bit different but you can also realize it’s Edenbridge. That’s the most important thing I think.
IMM: Do you feel the evolution of Edenbridge is going in the right direction?
L: Yeah absolutely, I mean, what is the wrong direction, would be counter question. It’s simply the music I want to write, it’s nothing I plan on some kind of sketch board or something. The music that’s coming out and of course my goal was also to bring Edenbridge in a bit heavier direction. Also because of the orchestra, you need to do something with the guitars, and bring the guitars lower so the orchestra has its place in everything. Edenbridge was always a band that was developing from album to album in that and this direction, but not without losing the style. I think, even if you listen to “Sunrise In Eden” (red. The first release), and you listen to the new album, you would recognise us as a band and the style, but the difference is 8 years and we were completely different persons. Or not completely different persons but we were other persons 8 years ago. So, when we develop personally we also develop musically of course, and this is gonna be heard in our music.
IMM: You released MyEarthDream in early this year, have you started to begin to think about the next release?
L: To be honest, not really.
S: The label is thinking about it, hehe.
L: Yeah, the label would like to have an album ready for next year in spring or something but it is impossible. I was busy writing the album (red. MyEarthDream) for one year, then we started the recordings and did the recordings for three months, to bring everything together. Then the mix, at the beginning of this year, then we had the long tour with Rage which lasted over six weeks. And then I was pretty much done, the batteries were empty and everything. I decided to take a break for a month or one and a half month, but then ideas came flowing again. We had a lot of concerts in the last weeks and so I couldn’t do very much about song writing, but two new songs are ready and I am currently working on four other ones. I think till Christmas I am pretty confident that maybe five songs are done, and the rest of the songs next year then. And we can be ready for the studio in September, which means a release in early 2010 or something.
At last it was time to bring up the classic questiones. Questions answered a thousand times before, but that are still interesting to get an answer to.
IMM: Are you excited about tonights show?
L: Absolutely. I don’t know what will await us, or how many people are coming because I didn’t hear anything about presales. The organisation team is so great, the High Voltage Rockeclub. We have a great time with those lovely people, and so, I also hope for them that the show will be a success. We have to wait and see, hehe.
IMM: Have you gotten to see any of the sights in Trondheim, gotten to visit any of the tourist attractions?
L: Absolutely, we went a small round yesterday and today we visited the cathedral and I think we both have to say it’s the most beautiful church we have ever seen in the world. It’s simply astonishing.
M: That makes us really happy you know.
L: It’s absolutely unbelieavable.
IMM: I only have one question left now, and that is if you have any messages you would like to convey to the readers of Icon Music Mag and the listeners of Hammartid?
L: Yeah, I wanna say thank you all, to all our fans here in Norway, for being so lovely to us and of course buying our albums and writing us, and hopefully showing up today at the concert and yeah, keep supporting us over the next years.
S: Yes, thank you for the support and I hope to see many Norwegians tonight.
IMM: Great, thank you so much.
And with those words, and more, of gratitude we head out back into the night, and await the beginning of tonight’s show, hoping it will mirror their career and their professionalism.