PHOSPHENES

Getting in touch with EDEN is a little hard at first. Our phone connection keeps getting interrupted every three seconds, with the call just dropping entirely at one point. After asking Jonathan Ng, who goes professionally by EDEN, if we can just talk once he gets to a landline, he informs me that he just started a four hour journey that will have him sitting in the back of a car to his destination. 

Hearing that he is on the road a lot lately is nothing unusual of a new artist with a debut album to promote. Having recently wrapped up the North American leg of his sold out tour, Jonathan finds himself bouncing from meeting to meeting quickly putting the final touches on his upcoming European tour. He excitedly talks to me about how he now feels that his latest project, vertigo is out and what he has planned for his next releases.

jacket VERSACE. shirt JOHNSON.

ISRAEL MEJIA: Last we spoke you were getting ready to drop vertigo, and you mentioned a lot of anticipation. Now that the album is out and the North American leg of your tour is complete, how do you feel?
EDEN: I think I fee a lot better. Before the album came out I felt I had made what I wanted to make. I feel like it is a weird weight off my shoulders, I can just move on to different things. It’s nice to have it out and not have that weight of a debut in the back of my mind.

IM: Creatively, vertigo had been completed a year or two ago. Now you are just presenting that finished body of work. Have you mentally moved on to what is next?
E: I think so, vertigo has kind of passed off whatever stage of my life I kind of moved on from. As we spoke last time all those songs had been ideas and in some cases had been finished for years. Writing music for me has always been a kind of way to figure out things in my life; untangling how I feel about everything. I guess having written and released it, in my mind it’s been dealt with. It’s cathartic.

IM: Back in February you had posted a statement on Instagram about your thoughts on vertigo being released. There is a line where you said, “I knew the way I was feeling about the release was wrong, but couldnt [sic] help myself.” What did you mean by that?
E: I’ve been releasing music for years, so it’s something that can be quite unhealthy when you are so dependent, when you put so much weight on other people’s opinions and how they react to things. Something I’ve learned from releasing music for a long time and having strangers listen, it boils down to releasing whatever you want. If people like it, that’s great, and if they don’t, ok cool. With vertigo being the debut album I kind of forgot about all that, I felt the need – not validation, but for people to like it and I was putting a lot of…I really hoped people would like it and I really hoped it would be a success. A major factor of what makes music is the ability of being momentary with it a little bit. The fleeting moments are the best ones. As soon as you’re like, “this needs to be the best one, this needs to be amazing” it can kind of take away from that and lead to a weird stagnation. It was something I needed to relearn again.

IM: vertigo was influenced by events you’ve experienced before your new found fame. Is your new music influenced by your current lifestyle?
E: Definitely. I am influenced by everything I experience whether that is me going to a museum or me playing a live show. For me I can only sing about what I know and what I’ve been through, that is what’s going to come out in the end. Touring wise I’ve gotten to a much better place in terms to being able to enjoy myself. The more you let go of yourself the better everything turns out. 

jacket and pants SOS STEVE SMITH. top (throughout) TOPMAN.

IM: You have charted on iTunes and a lot your success was with little airplay, heavily relying on your dedicated fan base. You’ve mentioned to me that you do sometimes read online comments. Have your fans reacted to your album the way you thought they would?
E: That was weird because I knew it’s not he most accessible piece of music I’ve ever put out, it’s something I thought would take multiple listens for people to get. Having released it and seeing people’s reaction from day one and seeing the people come to the shows, it’s been really reassuring. It’s really special. 

shirt WILLIAM DILL-RUSSELL.

IM: What’s the next step, not for EDEN, but for Jonathan.
E: I just moved to England so I’ve just spent about a week, two weeks getting everything together. I’m looking forward to being in one place. I really want to create things, that’s what I love doing. I feel like I am in a good place.

IM: Are you working on new music?
E: I’m always working on new music, whether it’s good or not is a different question. I think things are heading in the right direction. I have toyed with the idea of only doing one album, so I don’t know. For some reason before the album came out I felt like this was like the be all end all of what I would do music wise, now that it’s out and the tour is ongoing it kind of feels like a really cool beginning.  

vest vintage. shirt JOHNSON.

Hair and Makeup by Gareth Harris

Photo Assistant: Maciej Siennicki

Styling Assistant: Anastasia Xirouchakis

For the full story and more content, get your copy of Phosphenes #5 – “Freedom.”