Before Sydney band Edenfall bring their heavy, alternative progressive rock tunes to the stage at The Factory Theatre, the band sits down to tell us about how the first round went and what they’ve been doing to get in shape for the semi-finals. Come down to The Factory Theatre tomorrow night, Friday, October 24th, to see them rock out. And in the meantime, check out what the band had to say in their own words.

FOR THOSE WHO DIDN’T GET TO SEE YOU IN THE FIRST ROUND, CAN YOU INTRODUCE US TO YOUR BAND EDENFALL?
Your typical five-piece band, but not in a conventional way. We do have our preferences, but we don’t really pin ourselves down to any particular genre, if anything, we just want to make meaningful sound. There are photo albums of highlights from previous shows on our Facebook page and general info of the line-up.

WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE FIRST ROUND FOR YOU?
Before the show, we were somewhat concerned after we found out that our music could be a little bit too much on the heavy side compared to the other bands that night. However, we were pleased to see the reaction of the local audience, and it was so good to know our efforts were well received. We were so glad to know the message we were trying to convey got through and reached them even when all the lyrics were in a different language.

OUT OF ALL THE SONGS YOU PLAYED, WHICH ONE GOT THE BIGGEST REACTION OUT OF THE CROWD AND WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS?
It has been a while since that amazing night. We actually went back and watched some of the footage. But it was quite difficult for us to point out one particular song with a “bigger” reaction than the other. The song list was calculated and we were able to control the dynamic of our set and took the audience on the journey as a whole. What actually surprised us was after we got off the stage, we weren’t expecting to be surrounded by friendly faces that we’ve never met before, shaking hands with us and telling us they’ve enjoyed our show. It was one satisfying moment for all of us.

CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE IN THE FIRST ROUND AND WHAT YOU LEARNED FROM IT?
There were some technical difficulties we had to overcome. Under certain circumstances, we were unable to use some of our equipment in order to create all the sound effects required for the songs. Fortunately, thanks to Emergenza’s professionalism, PA was really helpful and we were able to come up with similar sound effects to complete our set. That was one good learning experience. But most significantly, unlike what we anticipated before the show, we learned that it wasn’t extremely challenging for us to overcome the language barriers to get our message across. In fact, body language played a huge part in it, instead of just standing on the stage and playing our instruments, we were actually “performing”.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO BETWEEN GIGS AND WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING TO PREPARE FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF THE COMPETITION?
All members of the band are working as professionals in different fields, busy pursuing our career goals just like most people do. In our free time we play our part as a band. We travel together, read, and write thoughts down to inspire each other, experience life beyond our own. But that’s only when we have a lot of free time. Most of the time, we are not too close, yet not too distant. We are five people who come together on a weekly basis simply to make music. We barely know what everybody does with their free time outside of the band. We don’t know much about eachother’s private lives in great details. When we meet it’s all about the band, it’s all about the music. It’s all we talk about. We put it all into the music, and that’s what’s kept us together for so long.

SO HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE EMERGENZA FINALS?
For all we know, we were the only Asian metal band with every song written in anything but English and still made it to the semis. Something tells us that we must’ve done something right on that stage and actually managed to reach out to the audiences. Honestly, knowing that does make us feel motivated.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR UPCOMING CONCERT AT THE FACTORY THEATRE?
A couple of more hostages would be nice (laughs)! A figure of speech of course. We just simply wish to “capture” the audience and connect with them. That’s all that matters to us right now.

For more details on the show at The Factory Theatre in Sydney on October 24th, click here.