We discovered Eden on NTS Pop Patrol and were blown away by her amazing voice and unique style. She’s released some amazing solo music and also with the likes of Loraine James, and has plans to release more in the coming months. We managed to sit down with Eden and are absolutely thrilled to showcase her talents in one of the most unique mixes in our series to date!
Hi Eden, do you want to introduce yourself and maybe explain what it is you do as your profession?
Hi James! Thanks for having me. I’m a singer/writer/fledgling producer from Canada, and in terms of profession I juggle a number of different things.
Thanks so much for putting the mix together for us! Can you tell us a bit about your ideas and themes behind it?
The best mixes for me feel personal, so if there was something to take away from this mix it’s that I want you to feel like you’ve gotten to know me a bit. It’s a journey mix that just sort of explores my mind and emotions of late. I made it fully in Ableton because it’s easier for me to deal with all the vocals that way, you’ll hear my voice weaving in and out at times acting as the narrator. The opening track is an unreleased collab with Irish producer Lighght, whom I met on the internet and is lovely. The last track is a short instrumental piece in progress that I’m working on. I’m enamoured with Caroline Polachek, so I took one of her CEP tracks to make ‘Caroline’s interlude’. The words spoken over Loraine’s track are Cecile Believe lyrics. I also wanted to include a moment to pay respect to DJ Rashad, who’s music is a massive source of inspiration and comfort.
Can you tell us a bit about some of your favourite music and bands growing up, and also what led to your discovery of electronic music?
Well I’ve always loved pop music as long as I can remember. One of the first CDs I ever bought myself was Much Dance 2001 – it was part of a compilation series put out by the Canadian equivalent of MTV and had people like Destiny’s Child, Mariah and Britney on it. During my teens I listened to India Arie, Jurassic 5, Elliott Smith, Death Cab and Radiohead, but also went to a lot of raves in rural BC that were a formative part of my childhood. Around this time I was also experimenting with writing folk pop and recording myself in GarageBand. After high school I moved from BC to Toronto to study performing arts, and dabbled in helping out a promoting collective called Mansion who were responsible for the majority of Toronto’s scene during the early 2010’s. I also drifted in and out of singing in a few bands, but back then I was focused on pursuing an acting career. It wasn’t until my mid twenties when I felt myself pulled in the direction of raving again. I visited European clubs for the first time, and had the cliche transformative experience at Berghain that so many before me have had. But you know, I wouldn’t be where I am now without it. I quit acting and threw myself headfirst into making music and leaning about dance music history.
That’s quite the journey! What brought about the move from Toronto to London?
Oh it was definitely the club scene in London, we don’t have anything comparable to that back home. My partner and I have a few friends who had already made the move, and they were very encouraging that we come over to check it out. When he was offered a job transfer, we decided to go for it.
That brings me nicely onto my next question! How does the music scene differ in Toronto to London, and what producers, clubs, record stores and parties would you like to shout out?
Toronto’s club scene has been having a tough time even pre-covid – which is a big reason why we wanted to try living abroad. The city had already shut down most of our spaces, and zoning/licensing restrictions, along with the housing crisis have made it almost impossible to open new ones. Alcohol can’t be consumed past 2am, so most venues close at that time. It’s not a city that is interested in supporting club culture, but I hope to help change that one day. Another big factor is that promotors are more focused on booking international headliners instead of building up local artists, but I also understand that this ensures they’ll have a better chance of making a return and being able to throw more parties. All that aside, there are some amazing people whose music and spirit are keeping things alive.
My dear friend Marcus aka Comfort Zone has been making insanely good jungle and house for a while now, he is one of my absolute favourite producers. I had to include a track here from his recent collab EP with Tim Reaper on Banoffee Pies because I’ve been obsessively listening to it. Keep an eye on Raf Reza and Emissive…Ciel and Dan Only put out a great EP as Cloudsteppers this summer. And a big shout out to my partner Ryan Pierre who is a remarkable producer and DJ in his own right, as well as a pillar of support to many in the community. Another group of friends started a cool livestream platform on Twitch called Onaire. Invisible City and Cosmos are where to go for vinyl when you’re in town. In terms of parties, we’ll have to see what emerges from the dust of covid but I hear rumblings that some very interesting diy shit is going down.
You touched on it briefly, but can you explain how did you get into music production?
I first started playing around with GarageBand as a teenager, just with a guitar and singing into the built-in computer mic. That progressed to using Logic, and now to Ableton which I use for everything. I’m not really big on plug-ins and sample packs except I do use Little Alter Boy a lot. I just use the free shit from Ableton and a lot of samples from freesound.org or things I recorded on my iphone.
I loved your vocals on ‘Running Like That’ – how did the collaboration with Loraine James come about?
I met Loraine by coincidence at a production workshop three days after I moved to London. We chatted briefly, and when she put out a call for collaborators on twitter I reached out. She sent me the beat for RLT and I genuinely had no idea it might end up on her album. I used an sm58 and a broken laptop at home to record my vocals, and then her and Gu (TSVI) worked their magic on them. It was a good reminder that you don’t need anything fancy to make something cool. To have it come out on Hyperdub was a dream, the entire album is amazing. Loraine is a genius.
I checked out your ‘DAYS EP’ straight after listening to your Pop Patrol show on NTS and absolutely loved it. When can we expect some more solo music from you?
That’s so nice to hear. DAYS was an experiment to see if I could get a publishing deal writing for mainstream artists, so that I could quit my restaurant job (it didn’t work). But it did help me to figure out where I’d like to fit into the industry instead, and what kind of music I’d rather be making. After I put that EP out, I realized that if I was going to release music under my own name it needed to properly represent me rather than the artists I wanted to pitch tracks to.There’s a new body of work coming that feels much more aligned with that, and will hopefully be released sometime next year. I also wrote and sang on a fun track called ‘Skaters World’ for Parris’ forthcoming album that was announced today, definitely go check that out!
What plans do you have for the remainder of 2021 and 2022?
Finishing more music so I can release it and finally start playing some shows next year. Teaching myself to DJ. And more projects and collaborations in the works that I’ll keep under wraps for now. I just want to keep making art with my friends and staying inspired.
Interview By: James Acquaye Nortey-Glover