“I just don’t think any of us were really all involved in a project with this kind of feeling to it before, but it was something that we were all searching for.”
Even Eden is a little more rock-oriented than most bands we typically feature here at Darkness Calling, but there’s an irresistible moodiness to their music.
On their four-track EP A Ghost, Zachary Smith’s bass lines cut through like a knife, and they’re complimented perfectly by the flawless playing of Even Eden’s drummer, “MR.” This guy knows how to service each song: his playing is delicate when it needs to be — and ferocious when the track calls for it.
Leading this band is Madeleine St. Jacques, who provides melodic guitars and an eerily beautiful vocal that never ceases to surprise. As the curators of the Darkness Calling playlist, we hear all of these tracks on rotation daily. But when Even Eden comes on and Madeleine’s voice fills the room, our arms get goosebumps.
Every. Single. Time.
Obviously, we had to learn more about this post-punk trio from New Jersey.
DARKNESS CALLING: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. Your 4-track EP A Ghost certainly qualifies as great, dark indie music. What can you tell me about your group and its members?
ZACHARY: We’re all NJ scene veterans in some way or another [Laughs]. I just don’t think any of us were really all involved in a project with this kind of feeling to it before, but it was something that we were all searching for. I think we were all really lucky in finally finding other people with a shared musical interest.
Madeleine is on guitar, I’m on bass, MR is on drums, and we all sing… but there’s a lot of crossover as well during the songwriting process. MR will bust out a killer bassline, I (arguably) know my way around guitar, and we’ve all been messing around with programming drum tracks, so creatively there’s a lot more cross-pollination when someone brings a song idea in.
DARKNESS CALLING: What are the origins of your project, and how long have you been together?
ZACHARY: We’ve been together since 2018. Madeleine and MR met when their respective bands were on the same bill. They discovered a shared affinity for dark music and soon began to collaborate on new original material. Madeleine knew me through mutual friends, and she invited me to join.
DARKNESS CALLING: What's the post-punk scene like in New Jersey?
ZACHARY: There are a lot of really cool bands kicking around right now, but honestly I don’t know if there’s enough of any one thing to call it a “scene,” at least nowhere near the way I think about, say, the punk/hardcore scene in this area in the 90’s to early 2000’s. I’m really kind of hopeful that once we’re all able to start playing shows again, all the pent-up energy from the past few months will really kick-start things.
DARKNESS CALLING: Madeleine, you have such a unique voice. It has a cool sort of detachment to it, while also being instantly engaging. It's a soft voice but it compliments the harder edge of your music perfectly. I guess there should be a question in here somewhere [Laughs]. Do you have anything to say about the evolution to this approach? Or it just came naturally, I imagine?
MADELEINE: Thank you! The quality and the tone of my voice emerged organically, honestly. I sing from a very emotional place and I’m not trying to achieve anything in particular. My sole intention is that whoever’s listening feels something.
“My sole intention is that whoever’s listening feels something.”
DARKNESS CALLING: What's in store for Even Eden? I know your EP just came out last year and that takes a lot of work, but is there any new music on the horizon?
ZACHARY: Well, much like everyone else right now, playing live anywhere is completely on hold. We had been working on quite a bit of new material and had planned to release at least a single and b-side, but then global pandemic, massive political unrest, economic collapse, etc.
We’ve all done a little bit of home recording to pass back-and-forth, although nothing feels the same as working together in person. I do think that as soon as we’re able though, we’re going to get some new songs out into the world.
MADELEINE: I am very eager to release some new music. There were so many things in progress pre-quarantine. We had each written new songs. Between the three of us, we probably have an album’s worth of material, but our plan was to release singles, one of which we’re working on now.
I’m excited to see what manifests next — our sound is really evolving, I think. MR has changed up his kit over the past few months, Zac has been working on an industrial noise project, and I’ve been experimenting with some new sonic layering, different pedal combos, etc. All of this will impact what comes next, and I really can’t wait to see where that goes.
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