FUNERAL BIRTH ZINE
Interview done with Allan Ginther.
1. Can you give us some band history?
Back in early '94, three geeks and one cool guy(I don't think I have to say who the cool one was. Now that I think of it though , if a cool dude hangs out with people who aren't cool, what does that make him? Not very cool obviously! Anyway...) decided to pick up some instruments and jam. Having no musical talent what-so-ever we start covering simple songs for fun. Getting no were with that we decided to just write our own songs, that way we could make them as simple as we wanted and could actually play an entire song. Being happy and content with that, we jammed for a year and a half solely for the purpose of fun. Somewhere along the line we decided to get serious....and Edenrot was born. Now after two Cd releases, an Iron Maiden comp, a demo and a couple of line-up changes, the "fun" in writing our own material is still the main emphasis, caring not to cater our music to anyone's wishes but our own. This philosophy is still the driving force behind our unique sound. The current line-up is Scott Hoffman(guitar/vocals), Allan Ginther(guitar/vocals), and Rose Mraz(bass/vocals).
2. The Hammer, drummer of Dawnbringer/Pharoah, played drums on your two new tracks. Will he be playing on the next album? Is he going to become a permanent member?
He is one of many names on a long list that have desired to be in this great band but unfortunately didn't make the grade. Men like Gene Hoglan, Sean Reinert, and that chick that drums for Lenny Kravitz, all who have failed the entrance exam which is an Edenrot flash card test. For real though, the hammer is a great guy and an amazing drummer but the distance factor and his other projects leave him little time to play for this sorry excuse for a band. There is a possibility that he may lay down some more drum tracks for us in the future, but that's about it. The drummer situation is really up in the air as of right now.
3. What do the lyrics deal with? From the name Edenrot, you sound like you're a very anti-christian band but in your bio it states that Edenrot means "the decay of all worlds (social, political, moral, religious, personal.)"
Our lyrics have little to do with religion or the lack there of. None of us feel that there is really any merit in such an old and circumstantial topic. We do incorporate religious imagery but that's only because we like that certain part of religion and feel it's part of our trademark. Mostly they deal with personal experiences and thoughts about subjects which we've come in contact with or that intrigue us.
4. You guys don't seem to play live that much. Have you played at any fests? Do you foresee a time when you'll be touring?
Sum it up as laziness. The fact that anyone categories us as a real band is still a shock to me. At the time when we were doing shows, we had too many personal things going on in our lives to really dedicate ourselves to it. The only festival we ever played was the first annual Maryland Death Fest at Phantasmagoria back in February of 1998. We would love to become a more active live band and do tours and fests but that will have to wait for better circumstances.
5. Will Edenrot be staying with Twilight Record or are you looking for a deal with a bigger label?
The deal we made with Twilight was just for one release. We're really happy with what they did but they're just too small of a label to really get our name out. Right now we are currently pushing a demo out to labels to hopefully get some help for our next release.
6. Do you classify Edenrot as a Doom band? Was this the style that the band started out playing or did the music just mature to this level?
I wouldn't classify us as a doom band even though we do have some doom influence in our sound. Edenrot is really the SLUT of METAL if I had to sum it up. We have so many styles of music in our sound that it's pretty much impossible to categorize us. Death, Black, Doom, Thrash, Atmospheric, Traditional, European....Is that all of them? Hell, I don't even know! We started out playing a melodic yet semi-thrashy Death Metal and evolved into what we are today.(a bastard's son of METAL music)
7. Does Scott's involvement with Dawnbringer ever interfere with Edenrot?
Ya, because the son-of-a-bitch gets more exposure than the rest of us! On a professional level NO. The most Dawnbringer ever asks of Scott is a couple of days of studio time to record his guitar tracks. I know for a fact that if there ever was a clash for commitment between the two bands as far as Scott is concerned, Dawnbringer would lose.
8. Well thank's for the interview. Any last words?
Well, if the members of this band haven't separated to go do Polka side-projects by the time of this printing, then I say to anyone interested to please get in touch. Thanks for the interview, it was a pleasure! METAL!!!!!