Leaving Eden are a rock band based in New England, USA. The band consists of Eve on lead vocals, Alyssa Bailey White on keys and vocals, Jake Gynan on drums, Eric Gynan on guitar, Rich Chouinard on bass. Leaving Eden have been around for over a decade, co-founded by Eric and Eve.

aAh! Magazine caught up with Eric of Leaving Eden after the release of their latest single, ‘Dream With Me’, also the title of their soon-to-be released album that arrives on all streaming platforms on the 8th May, 2020.

The track listing features song titles, ‘Blood Runs Cold”, ‘Accuse Me’, title track – ‘Dream with Me’, ‘Chosen’, ‘4AM’, “Godless”, ‘Let Me In’, ‘House of the Rising Sun, ‘Un-Forbidden Pain’, ‘When I’m Stoned’.

How did you settle on the title of your latest single/ep/album?

“Great question. Alyssa and I wrote the title track ‘Dream with me’. We loved the song when it was finished. We felt it was a great title for the album.

“Dream With Me will be Leaving Eden’s seventh album to be released worldwide and distributed by Dark Star Records/Sony/Universal. In this album, we feel we got the best of both worlds, we were able to take all the time necessary to record and produce Dream With Me in our very own study.

“However, we also had one of the best rock music engineers in the world as far as we’re concerned, Grammy Award Winning Engineer Johnny K. (Disturbed, 3 Doors Down, Megadeath, Plain White T’s, Alien Ant Farm, and many more) to work on the final mix and mastering of our album. I love working with Johnny, he’s a genuine connoisseur of great music with so much talent, it’s such a pleasure to call him my friend. We’ve worked together on other albums but this one, to have the freedom to dig deep and experiment with our own unique recording techniques and then to have Johnny put his final touches on it was a real treat!

“Myself and Dana Anderson brainstormed album art concepts, agreeing on having all the titles to the songs kind of being hidden in plain sight throughout the album art.  It’s fun, some stuff is blatant, but some stuff is a little more difficult to pinpoint. It’s a very good reason to buy the CD instead of just streaming the music or downloading it. To me, having the physical CD in hand gives the listener more of a connection to Leaving Eden and when you come to a show, you get it signed by the whole band, a cool memento so to speak.”

What was your writing and process like behind the new music?

“Typically besides the song ‘Dream With Me’, I kind of get myself into a meditative state and listen. Sometimes it comes in dreams and I wake up. My job is really just to translate that into a recording. I always feel like it comes from somewhere else maybe somebody else who knows. But it is complete and it’s like I’m listening to a recording. Other times I will get some lyric ideas and then put the music to it.”

How have you found translating the single/ep/album to a live setting?

“Well, the album has not been released yet. We have not played any of the new songs live so we are definitely looking forward to that. We released two albums in 2019 so we’ve played quite a few of those songs and they go over well. It’s tight.”

Who are your biggest influences in music?

“Well there’s a lot! And many of them we got the humbling privilege to share the stage with. We have toured the USA, UK & Canada sharing the stage with hundreds of the biggest national bands in the world including; Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Avenged Sevenfold, Blackstone Cherry, Disturbed, Halestorm, Killswitch Engage, Lamb Of God, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marilyn Manson, Napalm Death, Papa Roach, Sebastian Bach, Nickelback, Skillet and many more.”

What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned while being in the music industry?

“Beware of the snakes! There’s certain people that I paid good money to that didn’t earn it. You try to have faith in people, and you try to believe in what they have to sell. You put your best foot forward and you trust. When you get screwed it hurts. I’ve learned to accept it as a lesson and move on.

What would you say was your favourite moment so far?

“I think sharing the stage with musicians such as Sabbath w/ Dio, or Dimebag and his Brother Vinnie Paul or Scott Weiland is surreal in terms of, nobody can ever share the stage with them again.  I feel very humbled and privileged to do so.”

What is in store for you next?

“Tracks from Leaving Eden albums will be featured in Massimiliano Cerchi’s movies: Painkiller, Mayday, Lockdown and Penthouse starring Michael Pare (The Philadelphia Experiment, Eddie and the Cruisers). We are excited about this new album also, because the entire album and lots of tunes from our previous albums will also be featured in a new fake reality comedy movie titled The Nitwit.”

“Originally, I had written the Nitwit movie script loosely based on real life events with the intention of having Leaving Eden’s music throughout the movie and procuring other pros to make the movie. Where Leaving Eden has been involved with having our music placed in different movies and TV series this simply made sense.

“While in Iowa after wrapping up on a shoot, I sat down with Nitwit movie producer, Ray Van Blarcom and actor, Matt Moody over a scotch and threw the script down on the table. They started reading it, thought it was hilarious so we decided, let’s make the movie. For me being the director of several music videos it was a very simple transition to direct the Nitwit movie.

“Finally, I was intrigued by Matt Moody’s experience not only in production but as an actor. Ironically, Matt fit the leading role as the Nitwit perfectly.  He then brought in Jordan Smith as his costar and Nitwit movie producer, Fran Huges, the rest is history. We expect the movie to be released in 2020 by SGL Entertainment.”

“Many concerts have been re-scheduled so we’re hoping that things start to shape up around here. Being isolated during COVID-19 is a very tough thing for most people so we definitely do wish for everyone’s safety.”

“On our website, you will find everything you need to know about Leaving Eden. Thanks so much man, it was a pleasure chatting with you here and I wish you peace and safety.”

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