Edison Glass

A spiritual rock band? Or simply a rock band with members who are aware of their spirituality? The members of Edison Glass are tuned in to the differences in questions like these as they chart their musical journey. Of course, they’d much rather be able to create music and perform without all the complexities and controversies created by blending religion with it all, but they deal with it all the same.

For those interested in the music, Edison Glass is a four-piece out of Long Island, NY that create sonic textures built upon The Police influenced childhoods combined with indie rock sensibilities from today. Most songs would live comfortably in the neighborhoods of Jimmy Eat World or The Get Up Kids, but then again, Edison Glass has managed to create their own sound within two albums. Specifically their latest, Time is Fiction, showcases a band coming into their cliched own.

The band originally worked with the well established Brad Wood on their debut, A Burn or a Shiver, so it’s surprising this new effort sounds so mature since they decided to co-produce with the less distinguished Nathan Dantzler (Chasing Victory). Then again, that’s just a testament to a band that knows what they’re aiming for.

Recently, we caught up with James Usher and Joshua Silverberg from the band to discuss the new album, the themes they’re dealing with and even the, er, touchy religious subject.

SSv: What is the statement you are making with the title Time is Fiction?

Silverberg: Well, the lyrics are about a guy sitting on a mountain road, sitting out on top of his van one night and feeling like he wanted to hear God. Then he started to hear birds sing in a musical way and leaves rustling. So a lot of the lyrics are about seeing another level of depth, how everything opened up to him as in “woah, this is all a part of something. There aren’t things that matter and things that don’t matter. They’re all part of a bigger song.”

SSv: Were you aiming for that theme through the whole album or did it come down to picking that song as an album title?

Silverberg: No we hit that theme on a couple of the songs. That was a big “Time is Fiction” thing. There are lots of other stories on there, but a lot of them come back to life as a story or life as a song.

SSv: Can we hit back for a second to the whole name Edison Glass and where that comes from?

James Usher: It’s from Thomas Edison, the inventor, and Philip Glass, a composer. They’re two geniuses and we stole their names.

SSv: You guys were previously Edison…

Silverberg: Yeah, we didn’t want to get sued.

SSv: Was there some cease-and-desist letter out there?

Silverberg: No, but there was a band out there who had put out CDs under that name. They could have pulled our discs off the shelves if they wanted to, so we didn’t want to risk that.

SSv: Was it easy to come up with the new name?

Silverberg: There were some other names in the running. There was always Edison with something else attached to it, but we went with two that fit well. It was two last names and two people who were amazing in their field and we tried to put those together.

SSv: When it comes to Credential Recordings, where do you think they are able to place you in the music scene? Why them?

Usher: It’s not a high pressure thing as far as they’re not depending on us to make a million dollars from a radio single. We like the people there. There’s a lot of artistic freedom. They really like our music, so that’s really important to us. I don’t know. They’re in the act of defining themselves with us and a lot of the other artists. There are similar tastes with everyone at the label. But they’re super supportive of us and they love our music, which is important to us.

SSv: What’s the plan with the new album as far as getting it out there?

Silverberg: Are you talking about us rocking it out every night or marketing?

SSv: Both, actually.

Silverberg: Well, then we will be out there rockin’ it every night that we can on tour, hopefully with a lot of bands who are much bigger than us. Marketing-wise, although this is probably boring for a lot of people… [Laughs] But we have a press company called Musebox and they’re basically generating a lot of mainstream opportunities for us that we didn’t have with our first record, like AP magazine and a lot of good stuff they’re moving on. We will have that advantage over our first record, so that’s neat. Also since we’ve been touring on our first record for a year to a year and a half, we’ve developed a fanbase which gives us a little more leverage in places like Best Buy and stuff.

SSv: Was it frustrating to not have that leverage on the first album?

Silverberg: Yeah, it’s hard. It feels like you’re not really releasing a record, you’re just putting it out there. But this one, it feels like we have more going for us at least so we have more to work with. Our label has grown as well, so there’s that, too.

SSv: You didn’t work with Brad Wood again, did you?

Silverberg: No, we actually co-produced with a guy in Nashville named Nathan Dantzler. He’s done Chasing Victory and a bunch of other good ones. It was really neat this time around, because we got to co-produce. Everyone was a lot more involved and we were a lot more focused getting into the tones we want. Overall, we’re really excited about this record and how it came out.

SSv: You mentioned the tour plans from earlier, do you have those cemented?

Silverberg: We’re doing some dates with Mae in January and then after that, it’s anything goes, but we’ll be on tour from February on.

SSv: How much does your spirituality play a role in the music you create?

Usher: A lot of the themes on Time is Fiction is about everything being spiritual. Whether we’re writing a song directly about “here are my thoughts on God” or whether it’s a story or whatever, it’s all connected. It’s an important part of a person and it’s something you can’t disconnect when you’re writing music. I think it’s something that affects everything you do. That’s what spirituality is about. Sure, it’s a big part of us. Some people get that. Some don’t. But I would like to think that it comes across some way or another.

SSv: It seems like it can be a touchy subject. Do you feel it shouldn’t be?

Usher: It is a touchy subject for a rock band, especially for a band that doesn’t label themselves as a Christian rock band. As Christians we feel one way, but it’s also easy to be misrepresented by that label. So I think we express through our lyrics very personally who we are, although we try very hard not to jump into any cliches musically or spiritually that would easily group us into some certain boat or some certain camp versus another one. This is us. This is who we are as people. And I think we’re sensitive to everybody and we think it should be the same way back.

But surprisingly in the music industry, we have gotten a lot more resistance than I had anticipated just being Christians…

SSv: In what way?Usher: Well, you figure in the past few years, so many bands have “crossed over” and there’s a lot of Christian bands that are popular in mainstream circles and vice versa. I kinda thought that the big line that labels what is Christian and what is not was disintegrating, which felt really good to me. That’s a hard thing to label – the spirituality of a piece of art.

But surprisingly, the most we’ve been affected is getting tours with bands. Once they catch a whiff that our first CD was in Christian bookstores as well as all the other places, for some reason that’s a big turnoff. It’s “we don’t want to be known as touring with a Christian band.” That really sucks a lot.

SSv: Sure, that’s a lost opportunity.

Usher: Yes, it’s that, and you’re also grouped in with that stereotype. We’ve had bands turn us down because we’re too Christian for them. And that hurts because there are so many things about that label that hurt and that I disagree with. Sometimes it’s hard to call yourself a Christian because it’s such a broad thing. So many people on so many different fronts of arguments all under that same label that you definitely feel mispresented when they use it. So it’s definitely a touchy subject and I wish it wasn’t. And the touchiness only seems to stay on the specific Christian side. There’s not controversy about Buddhist bands or whatever.

Silverberg: And we’ll get it from both Christian bands and non-Christian bands.

Usher: I think that bands that play in Christian circles are a lot more sensitive to it than anyone else, because they’re all trying to prove how non-Christian they are. Like if there is a band that is slightly Christian, it will ruin their bad-boy image or something. [Laughs] It’s something we try to stay light-hearted about because it’s actually a serious… well, anyways.

SSv: What’s the level of anticipation for you now, since the album has been done for a long time?

Silverberg: Half of the album has been done for two years and the other half has been finished a year ago or maybe a year and a half.

SSv: Is it hard to sit on those songs for that long?

Silverberg: Yeah, we started playing them live and I’m really, really enjoying that. We’re really excited about it. I think our fans that like our first record will really like this one and for people that were iffy about our first record, I think they’ll also like this one because I think we stepped it up production-wise and how we we want to sound. I feel it’s more cohesive and it’s just gonna be a great album overall. I think people will really, really dig it.

No related posts.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.