eden's curse michael, paul, thorsten & alessandro

Interview by: Lynn Wyeth

Date: 16 August 2009

Venue: Bloodstock Open Air, Derby, UK

Photos by: Eden's Curse / Mary Evans

Michael Eden (vocals) and Paul Logue (bass) who are the creative hub of melodic metal band Eden’s Curse found the time to talk to MusicXtra at this year’s Bloodstock festival. Band members Thorsten Koehne (guitars) and Alessandro Del Vecchio (keyboards) joined in too.

OK, let’s go straight for the throat. I have a quote from a review for you… “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Sorry, still asleep from a boring performance, balding old men playing balding old men metal that could only be liked by balding old men. 2/10” How do you respond to personal abuse like that?

Michael: Sounds like a guy in the past pissed in his pond and he’s fresh out of charm. Look, let’s put it this way… good review, bad review… so maybe he’ll sell a couple of issues. It doesn’t matter to Paul and I. We create music for us first. If he’s never picked up a guitar and never spent 1000’s of hours to learn how to play…

Paul: I only spent 100!

Michael: What gives him the right to criticise? He probably bases his remarks on things he doesn’t know about. Then who’s the bigger asshole? We’re still a recording band, we’ll still sell t-shirts. It won’t stop the band. Those are the people that make us go further. If it’s art, not everyone will like it.

Paul: One review was 1 out of 100. It was f***ing abysmal! It was shocking.

Michael: 1 out of 100… I mean, c’mon, is he even listening? He said the worst thing about Eden’s Curse is the singer. Well if I’m not there, there IS no Eden’s Curse.

Paul: He also said there was an awful cover on it… when we didn’t even cover it!

You’re always described as melodic metal. Who do you think the top five bands in that genre are?

Paul: It covers a large spectrum. There’s Europe, Journey etc. It depends how you define melodic. There’s Queensrÿche of course.

Michael: Firewind.

P: Whitesnake.

Thorsten: But they’re labels, just that. We don’t really think in terms of melodic metal, we think in terms of bands. It’s Ozzy music or Queen music. It’s magazines that try and put you in a niche.

Paul: We’ve never been a band that stuck to one particular style. We can do heavy like Masquerade Ball then lighter…

Michael: Like Signs of Your Life.

Paul: If we like it, we record it.

You completed a recent tour with Firewind and Stratovarius. How did that go?

Paul: Well, we know how to behave so we’re not gonna name people, but some were aloof…

Michael: Firewind were great and some others were pretty unapproachable. But Stratovarius are a great band and Timo Kotipelto is a great singer, regardless of personalities. We had a great time, it was a great triple bill.

Did you pick up any useful Greek or Finnish phrases from the other bands?

Thorsten: Moloko! Greek for asshole!

Paul: I taught the singer of Firewind some Scottish! Unknown to these guys I was teaching him “pish” and’ big mon’ and ‘wee mon’. When the drummer came in, he’d say “Big mon!”

Eden’s Curse certainly have a lot of experience in the business… what should bands today look out for to make sure they don’t get crewed over by the more unscrupulous folk in the music business? Any advice for them?

Michael: Always be polite, kind, hard and strong, the four rules. Be faithful to the music. Be straight, be OK and cool. Be rocking.

Thorsten: Practice and practice and practice.

Paul: Be realistic. You need a fair opinion of your worth…. Don’t sell the keys to your car.

Michael: Unless you’re desperate. You do what you have to do when you’re desperate.

Thorsten: Keep care of your wallet.

Alessandro: And don’t lose your passport!

Michael once stole a Twisted Sister cassette once. Do you see downloading music off the Internet as stealing?

Michael: It’s a two edged sword. I was a bad child. I was sixteen years old and I had a run in with the police. I learnt quickly that that kind of crime doesn’t pay. As far as downloading music goes, it cannot be stopped. The labels should have had a plan. Eden’s Curse have lost €100,000 in sales but it was inevitable. Now they don’t have the money to put a band on tour, they’re not paying bands. They nickel and dime the band. Maybe Masquerade Ball is about a few of them. A lot of hard work has gone into making the albums. But you can’t stop what has been started by modern technology. It’s pretty much destroyed the business. I will quote Dee Snider “If you can’t afford the album and you truly love the band, go and rip it off”. I went and told him and he said “Good for you if you’re gonna come to the show”.

Bloodstock question… We have Europe headlining here tonight… have you ever had a Joey Tempest 80s style poodle perm?

Michael: No.

Alessandro: (looking at his long curly hair) It’s a wig!

Paul: (looking at his skinhead) I’m naturally curly! Not as bad as you (looking at Alessandro). I cut it off. But no poodle perms.