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Their first CD was sold all the way to Japan, their newest video "Star"
was refused on MTV since it contained too much blood and one of the frontwomen
of the band is a VJ on TMF. In short, Eden has a new CD out, called "Seafood".
It is a much "deeper" album than its predecessor "Morning Bear"
on the textual level that is, since on the musical side the band keeps with the
recepy of nice popsongs. The promotion packet of the newest album that went to
the press contained a waterpistol in the form of a fish, the cd itself and two
little plastic goldfish to top it off. The location of our interview with Roos
Van Acker and Philip Madou is just as strange : a Chinese restaurant. On our arrival
neither Roos nor Philip are present. Turns out later that they had lost their
way in Brussels. A bit later Roos arrives in a ex-Spice Geri "Look at me"
T-shirt. EMI sure knows how to cross-promote their bands, it seems ...
FM: What is your relationship with the sea?
Philip: That's all a coïncidence : both Roos and Sofie had put a lot
of wordplays in the lyrics that "Seafood" a perfect title. It's all
part of the double meaning you already had on our first album "Morning Bear".
And .. there are a lot of fish in the see, and there are a lot of songs on our
album.
Roos: You can give a meaning to that Seafood yourself. Same thing with the
cover, everybody makes their own story out of it, and that was the purpose. At
first sight the lyrics may look a little bit shallow, but if you look a bit closer,
there's a lot more there than it seems.
FM: You've really taken your time with this album.
Roos: For the first album the songs were completely finished before we went
into the studio, but now we had only drums, bass, guitar and vocals and some synths
ready, even though we had been working on the songs for almost a full year. In
the end we had 25 songs and then we went a week to Dinant to finish them. With
the 12 best tracks we went into the studio for three months. There we kept on
working on the songs, by adding samples etcetera.
Philip: We didn't have a tight deadline for the summer festivals. No, we just
wanted to deliver an album that was really "ready", whether that was
in april or may.
Roos: That right, we had to be 200% satisfied with this album. In September
there will be a club-tour and afterwards we'll see, maybe also Marktrock is interested.
At the end of the day a lot of concert promotors wait for the full cd the hear
how well/bad we've done. (at this point Roos starts coughing vehemently). Sorry
for that, but yesterday we have done a photo-shoot for P-magazine dressed in them
stupid short minidresses and now I have a supercold.
FM: According to me this cd is not a very "daring" one ... that's
no reproach ...
Roos: What do you mean, no reproach ?! (laughs) We didn't want to make an
experimental CD as dEUS wanted to make. We're not ready for that yet. We just
want to make short pop songs that are really appealing.
Philip: ... and that don't drag on for 5 or 6 minutes. It's just better to
have a short and catchy song. But on the other hand, there are a lot of lyrics
in there that are really "daring", such as "Goodbye".
Roos: That right, that song is about bi-sexuality where Sofie and I are being
seduced by a women. That lyric also shows there'sa lot more behind what we see.
Whether that is autobiographical, I'm not gonna tell you (laughs). You know, on
"Morning Bear" we just wanted to sing beautifully, now we have really
put a lot of emotions into the vocals.
FM: Roos, you have become a VJ for TMF recently. Did you manage to boost
your own video there?
Roos: (laughs) Maybe that plays a part, but they really liked the videoclip.
That was quite an expensive clip for EMI by the way, but they want to aim internationally
with it. At MTV in London they tought that clip contained too much blood, but
they are gonna work on that. It's a pity they censor so much at MTV.
Philip: We'll end up being the second Cardigans...
FM: There are not a lot of band that make it all the way to Japan, with
the exception of Praga Khan and Dive. Tell
me, why the sudden trip to the East?
Roos: It was sort of a test of the record company that didn't know in what
direction our sound would evolve. That's why there are quite a number of styles
on "Morning Bear". In the end that CD was released in Japan, Scandinavia
and even in Yougoslavia. Although there wasn't any real promotion, we managed
to sell a few thousand copies there.
Philip: The first CD was kind of an introduction, to make sure that the people
would know who and what we are.
Roos: We do aim at selling also our new album over there. We're lucky to be
backed very well by our A&R-manager that supports us completely. For this
album he even helped us find samples. Did you notice that there's a toy piano
in there, and ping pong balls ??
FM: Do you think that there still room enough in Begium for a rock scene?
Roos: We know all too well that rock in Belgium is dying out. It's all dance
these days, but if that will last ... But even our CD is quite a bit more electronic
than the first one.
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