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An Interview with Eden’s Poets
Blocktoberfest, DC
3 October 1998

One of DC’s finest offerings, EDEN’S POETS can’t easily be classified under a particular genre. They’re not a "chick band," though they sport a female lead vocalist and a keyboardist. They’re not punk, they’re not grunge, they’re not pop, but they do rock!

They returned to Blocktoberfest this year with a longer set and a larger audience. Outside the venue, Indie Press caught up with 5 of the 6 members to find out just what makes them tick…

In order of appearance:
Kellie Malone — lead vocals
Craig Tambascio — bass
Kim Hall — backing vocals and keyboards
Darryl Bair — lead guitar
Scott Malone — drums

Indie Press: You all are Blocktoberfest alumnists, how does it feel to be back?

Kellie Malone: Great… great… we like these outdoor things.

Craig Tambascio?: This is my first Blocktoberfest. I’m the new guy… did I do alright?

Kim Hall: It’s great that you play and they ask you to come back.

KM: Yes, we’ve done stuff before for Shack Events… "Freedom Fest" and things like that. We did this last year and it’s been great.

KH: It let’s us know that they like us.

KM: We reach a lot of new people out here, too… a lot of the kids and people who don’t get to see us all the time…

IP: The under 21s that can’t come out to clubs.

KH: Yeah, you reach a different audience out here than you do at clubs, which is very cool. People who’ve never seen you before that don’t normally come out to clubs come out to these events, and we do really well selling CDs and that sort of stuff.

IP: It’s a little smaller this year than it was last year.

Darryl Bair: I think the weather is keeping people away probably. If it was sunny day everybody would be out here drinking beer and having fun.

Scott Malone: Last year they had LOCAL H and GOLDFINGER and OUR LADY PEACE, so we expected it to be a bit smaller this year. JIMMY’S CHICKEN SHACK is the only big-time, signed, national band.

IP: So how did you all come together?

KM: Oh gees, that was ages ago. Well, he [Scott] and I are married and our former guitarist is his brother and we kind of got together and decided to start a band in the basement. Let’s see… our rhythm guitarist came along and then decided to join in the fun. We just hoped to get together and jam and maybe one day play in front of people. Then Kim came along, because she was finishing up school, so we got her to sing and play keyboards with us. And we picked up these two along the way.

KH: It seems like ages ago when we started.

IP: So with a large band how does the song writing process work?

DB: Actually, it all comes together. I think somebody comes with an idea, feeds it to the band… like Craig brought some ideas for new songs… it didn’t sound anything like a song, but after we heard it and everybody threw in their 2 cents it came together.

SM: It’s definitely a group thing. We write as a group and all put our 2 cents in and whatever comes out.

DB: Somebody will have an idea and start it and everybody feeds off of it.

KM: A chord progression or a riff or something, and then some people will add lyrics or something and say: "Hey, what do you think of this?" Kim and I try to come up with some melodies and stuff like that. And it’s worked so far.

SM: The four of them will come up with something on the guitar or piano or whatnot, if the melody sounds good and the singers can go with it… then we’ll start trying to put the rest of it together. Till then it’s just scratch material.

KH: Some never make it out of the starting block.

IP: So where are you all drawing your influences from musically?

DB: I think everyone’s influenced by something else… it makes it so versatile, everybody has different influences. Like my influences are different from everyone else’s. If you look on the web site and look at everyone’s influences, I don’t think anyone’s the same. These guys are influenced by the "chick" singers, like Sarah McLachlan and Natalie Merchant and stuff like that. I’m like the blues kind of guitar player, Craig’s like out of control funk…

SM: I’m worshipping RUSH and the POLICE…

IP: Worshipping at the alter of Neil Peart?

SM: And Stuart Copeland…

DB: Kelly’s got a lot of the 70s stuff, Kim’s a little more modern… Kelly’s got a lot of Jefferson Airplane…

KM: Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young… James Taylor… that sort of thing…

SM: She actually worships Courtney Love…

KM: Courtney rules!

IP: So are you all producing yourself right now?

KM: Yep…

IP: So, do you all have aspirations toward coaxing in one of the "big time" producers?

CT: It’s a matter of finding one and getting one that’s willing to work with us… but that would be fantastic. We’re actually hoping that a record company will be able to help us with that, but no luck so far… so we’re kind of doing it on our own…

SM: We have some people who help us, I mean… usually there’s the sound engineer in the studio… We find someone who’s willing to work with us and they help out.

IP: If there was anybody who you could work with as a producer who would it be?

DB: Rick Ruben or Steve Lilliwhite…

SM: I like Jerry Collins, he worked with the INDIGO GIRLS and RUSH, so…

IP: So what’s been you’re most frustrating experience as a band?

DB: The elusive record contracts…

SM: We’ve been working our ass off… it seems like for a long time… and we’re really looking to get that… we’re really hoping… You know, we’re doing really well locally, we hoping to expand it.

KM: One of our frustrations at the beginning was trying to get in.

SM: Trying to get in and get gigs, basically, and trying to play cool gigs rather than dives.

IP: Frat parties…

DB: Yeah, we played a couple of those… You know, that was our initial goal, just to be playing regularly. And we’re to the point now where we can play as much as we want or as little as we want. But it’s only this area, we really want to expand it and we hope that we can have that kind of networking capability. But we really need a record label or somebody to do that. That’s what we’re hoping for.

SM: When we first started playing this I don’t think that EMMET SWIMMING or FIGHTING GRAVITY or EVERYTHING had any of their contracts. We’ve just been patiently waiting for that, you know…

DB: My frustration is all the no-talent bands that you see that are so much further than us and if you listen to these two sing here… you know you can just hear, they’re golden… and there are so many bands out there that suck, who are getting somewhere… I think we’re a decent band and we’re not getting the recognition that we deserve. There are a zillion bands out there…

KM: …that say the same thing…

SM: Yeah, that say, "We should be playing…"

IP: Is the lack of independent radio stations in the area now that ‘HFS was bought out and they’re not really supporting local bands the way they used to… do you feel abandon by this?

DB: They’re still kind of supporting local bands, I mean putting this on…

SM: We actually have a good relationship with a lot of the radio stations around here… they’ll do promotions and things like that and when they come to our gigs they talk to us, they’re real supportive. But they don’t give us any spins, that’s really what you need.

KH: We’ve been on the local shows…

DB: 98Rock does really cool stuff for us. We’re real good friends with them and a lot of the people there.

CT: 98Rock’s been really good to us and we have no idea why…

DB: A lot of them have been very supportive. We’ve played a couple where the guys from 99.1 have come out, some of the DJs, and they’ve been really cool. They’ve been really supportive, they’re just not willing to give us the spins. I guess they make more money giving it to someone else than the local bands. That’s a shame.

SM: We are a bit envious, though. I have a friend in Dallas and they heard the TOADIES before they had their contract. There are other areas, I think that maybe it’s the general public, but they do do very well here with trying to sponsor events. But helping you reach the general public, it’s a little rough around here.

IP: We’re based in New York now, and you see a lot of smaller stations like Seton Hall and there is one out of Long Branch, NJ that really go out of their way to support local bands.

SM: I think that the best thing is 98Rock has that local music thing on Sunday nights and they’ve played some stuff off the CDs. That’s cool. I think more stations need to set aside time for local bands. You know, there’s a zillion bands out there struggling… give us some air time, don’t play the same stuff all the time…

CT: You know, they really do mention our name, they mention a lot of band names, but we get a lot of people, guys I’ve just come up to me today that say, "I’ve heard your name, but I’ve never heard your music." So, they’re hearing the name, which is a plus, but they’re not really hearing our music, so…

DB: It’s like when DC101 sponsored this last year, they listed our name in the bands playing. You know, after GOLDFINGER, LOCAL H, and EMMET SWIMMING, there’s no need to mention EDEN’S POETS. They still do help us a little.

CT: Which is very cool, but the spins are what really helps. And it helps not only the masses hear it, but the record people. You know, they’re driving down 95 and they hear it. It kind of sucks, but it’s not terrible. They don’t ignore us. They don’t ignore the band.

IP: What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened onstage?

KM: Maybe Craig’s first gig.

CT: It wasn’t my first gig.

KM: Okay, your first home gig in your hometown.

CT: Okay, yeah, you know… I don’t remember very much, so you might want to give them the microphone and they can explain it.

KM: Oh, all his old buddies showed up and his twin brother and they were all just cheering him on and all so happy he was playing in a band again. So they started buying him shots of Jaegermeister. Craig’s a big knife and fork beer drinker, but he doesn’t really do a whole lot of Jaegermeister. He, needless to say, fell o his can right into the drum set and continued to play laying there. Laying there in the bass drum.

SM: In between the cymbals and stuff, and kept playing.

KM: A true professional, that’s when we said: "This guy’s the man."

DB: We had a cool one last week. We played a festival in Federal Hill and the power cut out on the beat. We’re playing de de de uhn, and we’re all looking around. Right on the beat! It couldn’t have timed it better. It couldn’t have planned it better.

SM: Since we’re talking about the Book festival, we have to mention the mime. We were attacked by a mime.

CT: A gay mime.

IP: A rabid, gay mime.

CT: It was unbelievable… we’re watching and I told Darrel, we’re sitting on the stage… and it’s the Book Festival, so they had Winnie The Pooh and Clifford The Big Red Dog walking around. But we’re on stage, we’re up there jamming, and I go to Darrel and it’s like, "Dude, there’s a mime over there like dancing to our music." And then the next thing you know he started bumping and grinding. And then it’s like, "Even worse, we got a gay mime over there." And the mime rushes the stage and starts freaking out. When could you legitimately say, out on stage… when could you say: "What’s the matter, mime boy? Cat got your tongue?" Once in a lifetime opportunity and I missed it!

SM: He was nuts… he was the gay mime from Hell…

CT: Attack of the Gay Mime From Hell, sounds like a b-movie.

IP: Get John Waters on the phone!

CT: He’s already on it…

IP: So, do you all have a favorite venue in the area?

DB: Nottingham’s my favorite. Nottingham’s in Columbia. They treat us like kings there, they love our music and we pack the house every time we play there. It’s like a hometown blast.

SM: It’s nice playing a bar that cleans the bar every night. The next day you go in and it doesn’t smell like bleach… like they just bleached the whole place down

KH: The bathrooms are clean.

KM: There are bathrooms…

DB: People don’t realize you sit in a bar for 7 or 8 hours, and it makes it pretty tough when bathrooms aren’t available.

IP: Do you all have a current mission?

DB: Get signed… do this for a day job…

CT: That’s really it. Because we all have our jobs during the day and we’d really like to do this full time.

KM: And we’d get paid to rock every night that would not be bad. I think even if we got the chance to be a one-hit-wonder, go on tour for a year, play our song to death…

CT: Get on MTV.

KM: Yeah, then one day we can tell our kids we were cool once.

SM: They’ll come out with those albums 20 years from now, "Best of the Late 90s" and we’ll be on it… like K-Tel.

DB: In 2018 we want to be on the K-Tel "Best of the 90s" album.

IP: Or they’re selling you on the compilation with People Magazine or Entertainment Weekly.

CT: Yeah, that would work!

SM: Buy RollingStone and get it free.

KM: What about looking out in the crowd and seeing a bunch of little girls all dressed like us?

KH: I want my own Barbie doll!

DB: Action figures, Craig! Craig with the hair!

CT: Or the little bobbing head things.

IP: So where do you all see yourselves in a year? Other than hopefully signed?

KH: I think traveling… with someone supporting us…

CT: On a big tour bus.

KH: Playing to a different crowd.

KM: Trying to spread ourselves out a little bit.

CT: Playing big concert halls like Merriweather [Post Pavillion] and stuff like that.

SM: I think that’s pretty far up there. I mean, if that doesn’t work…

CT: Set your goals high…

SM: Absolutely, but I see us spreading our gigging out a little more, more up and down the east coast. And trying to get, we’re doing a couple in NewYork and stuff and we wanna move down to Richmond, and just kind of expand our gigging area.

KM: Especially to colleges.

SM: Kind of a short-term goal, but if we get that…

KM: We seem to do real well with the college crowd. That would be a nice thing to go and play colleges up and down the east coast. Hey, it worked for REM and 10,000 MANIACS and bands like that.

SM: Actually, we already played Merriweather but you weren’t in the band…

KH: You missed our two big ones!

Indie Press would like to thank Shack Events and EDEN'S POETS...