Edge Of Dawn - "Intelligent Emotions & Disordered Minds"

If you're looking for an album that will make you dance one moment, think the next and then stir your emotions then Edge Of Dawn's debut album 'Enjoy The Fall' will prove a veritable treasure trove. The combination of Frank M. Spinath's vocals and Mario Schumacher's intelligent soundscapes makes this one of the year's top releases that no lover of 'intelligent electro' should be without. Frank told us more.... (By Carl Jenkinson)

SL. Frank, having made your name as one half of Seaboundb you've now unleashed this new project, Edge Of Dawn upon us. Were there any particular factors that prompted you to start working with EOD?

F. Mario, my partner in Edge Of Dawn, approached me after a Seabound gig Frankfurt in late 2004 and asked me whether I’d be willing to listen to an instrumental demo he had recorded. He had been making music as Edge Of Dawn for some time by then and I very much enjoyed what I heard. I wrote lyrics and a vocal line for the song and it eventually became Losing Ground, the opener track for our The Flight EP. The fact that we got along so well and enjoyed making music together was the basis for our decision to continue as Edge Of Dawn as a joint full project.

SL. Mario had started the project years before with the aim of making 'organic electro'. Has this aim changed at all and, if so, how does the current incarnation fulfill this aim?

F. I would say that over the last two years Mario has come a long way and has continuously gotten closer to this aim: The album Enjoy The Fall is purely made of electronic ingredients. There is not a single sound from a natural source, yet many times listeners feel that they detect real instruments through the layers of electrosound. His musical open-mindedness is another reason why Enjoy The Fall includes eclectic soundscapes (e.g., Persian influences or sampled ocean waves) that you might not find in other bands’ work.

SL. On the face of it, it seems that the sounds of Seabound and EOD are basically quite similar, mixing a polished but potent 'future pop' sound with sometimes darker moods and themes, but are there any particular ways that you personally feel the two bands differ?

F. I feel that EOD is more straightforward, both soundwise and with regard to lyrical content and vocal style. Seabound on the other hand often play with a certain detachment and anemia in my vocal presentations, the whole feel is cleaner in an almost clinical sense. Emotions are wrapped up and most of the time can only be anticipated behind the curtain. EOD on the other hand give me the opportunity to express more of my inner feelings in a direct and powerful manner. The album even includes German lyrics for the first time (in Black Heart) because when we recorded the track I felt the need to present certain thoughts without a safety net.

SL. ''Beauty Lies Within' & 'Pray For Love' are, I think, two of the most emotional tracks you've ever been involved in. Do you yourself share this opinion or are there other highlights of which you're particularly proud?

F. I do share this opinion, and I am very pleased that especially Beauty Lies Within receives so much positive feedback. Our Polish distributor Vision Music even decided to release a promotional CD with Beauty Lies Within as the title track. My understanding is that many people in electro scene love a good and honest emotional song with undistorted vocals in contrast to upbeat tracks and powerful sounds. I personally don’t get it when I come across albums that consist only of harsh or seemingly angry tracks because they are simply one dimensional and bore me easily.

SL. Another imaginative move were Firoozeh Aryaie-Koenig's vocals, sung in Persian on 'Chamber Six' which certainly fits in with the mood of the music which is dramatic, exotic & almost forbidding in some ways.

F. Firoozeh is a student of mine and when Mario and I recorded Chamber Six we felt that the story required an exotic ingredient. The lyrics revolve around the idea that we will have to face a jury at the end of our life, similar to traditional religious beliefs. Writing the words, I also had G. Orwell’s 1984 in mind featuring the infamous Room 101 where the main character is tortured and confronted with is ultimate fears. Mario’s programming had this underlying oriental touch from the beginning, so we decided to have part of the lyrics translated and read by a native speaker. It’s funny that you mention the connotation of forbidden fruit because I had a very similar feeling when Chamber Six finally took shape. Suddenly I remembered reading a book called “Derriere La Porte”, a collection of short erotic stories linked through different doors. At the end of each story you can choose between two doors, so that no two people read the book in the same way.

(...)

To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 59 !

Side-Line issue 59
Edge Of Dawn CDs

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