EDEN discusses Dark, his status as a industry veteran, and his creative process
EDEN
Stylist: Phoebe Butterworth
You’d forgive EDEN for feeling bittersweet about the release of his fourth album, Dark (released 22 August). After all, its release was precipitated by some of the most significant challenges of his decade-long career as an artist.
Instead, you could argue that the way the polymathic Irish artist (real name Jonathan Ng) dealt with the leak of his entire musical archive of over 12 years and 900 tracks, plus breakdowns in relationships with his management team and his record label, reveals a lot about his approach to creativity. Where others would’ve seen a smouldering wreck (and, to be fair, he tips a wink to that with Dark‘s album art), EDEN saw an opportunity to build again.
Like many innovators, EDEN has the underrated quality of being able to assess an idea, event, or ongoing situation, run with it for a bit, then decide to keep and improve or discard and try again. It’s an approach that’s served him well on Dark, a roiling surge of creativity in a tightly-packed (40min) album form that’s captured the imagination of his fandom – despite their familiarity with some of the leaked tracks. While the jury’s still out on whether Dark will be as popular as previous album and runaway success ICYMI, one thing’s for sure: EDEN doesn’t plan on looking back or standing still for long…
FAULT: Dark dropped on 22nd August – congrats! Given everything that happened in the run-up to this moment – the issues with your former management team, the leaks, getting dropped so abruptly by TH3RD BRAIN – how do you feel about its release? I expect whatever happiness and excitement that usually comes from releasing new material is somewhat tempered by the circumstances surrounding it… is this more a case of putting things behind you and moving on to the next project?
EDEN: I thought it would feel like that. It’s been extremely complicated. But I have fallen back in love with this music after all of the chaos. I’m ready for the album to live and breathe. It’s something I’ve been waiting for for maybe 18 months, and although the feeling maybe got fucked with in the middle there, I feel relieved to be at the finish line, finally.
I’m sure there are all sorts of contractual restrictions in place in terms of what you can and can’t say – plus I can’t imagine you want to relive all that negativity in too much detail – but is there anything you want to say (beyond what you’ve already mentioned on your socials) about what’s been happening behind the scenes, or what the next steps will look like for you and MCMXCV?
I feel like myself again as an artist. That’s the main thing in terms of next steps. I’m so excited to keep it moving. I’ve never been one for grudges, I dealt with what happened, and aired what I needed to air.
On a more positive note, is there a track on the album that you’re particularly proud of?
It’s impossible to really pick one – but right now, ‘Pocket (montreal)’.
You’ve said that much of Dark came together over a period of several months between 2022-23. Reading between the lines, it sounds like you were inspired to create something that encapsulates that loss of control and sense of uncertainty that comes from falling in love, or of being brave enough to care when so much is out of your hands. Was there something specific that precipitated that creative direction?
I think there was a number of things. That was my first time really back in the swing of things since COVID (my previous album dropped in 2022, and then I went on tour in 2023). I had been through so much personal change in the period before. Loss, heartbreak, solitude, whatever. I was figuring myself out after spending half a decade only really considering work. Suddenly after a few years ICYMI came out and I felt like an artist again. And then, later in that time frame, the rush of falling for someone was so new again.
It sounds like your writing process on this album – you describe creating a lot of music, then abandoning it, then creating again – reflects that almost fatalistic theme: something being born in chaos before twisting and reshaping itself as part of a bigger picture that is, in itself, still only in the early stages of being firmly defined. Is that your typical approach to creating? Or do you usually tend to have a clear idea and write with that intention in mind?
In the early days I was very intentional. I think I am a lot more open to letting the work lead the way now. If there was something I wanted to do, but it doesn’t quite fit, I’m not going to force it in. And if there’s something I didn’t expect that keeps knocking at the door, then I’ll follow that. I definitely allowed things to be stepping stones. And in the end, if it really is a special idea, it won’t let you leave it behind. That’s true for this project and for other things in future.
You published a multimedia book – Danger: Class IV Laser Radiation – last year. Would you consider doing something like that again or was it always going to be a one-off?
I loved creating that. And I loved that I got to share some of that writing that would otherwise never have seen the light of day. I would like to do it again, but it also took so much work. I think we started putting it together a full year before it went up for sale. So maybe that format will be an infrequent thing – falling in reverse, Danger: Class IV Laser Radiation, … Maybe a reprint could be nice at some point.
This year, you’re celebrating a decade as a recording artist. How does it feel to be an industry veteran? And what message would you want to give to yourself as a young artist starting out in 2015?
In one of the first meetings I ever had with Spotify, in maybe 2016 or 2017, my then-manager pitched it as an opportunity for them “to support a career artist” who will still be here in a decade. That really struck me at the time. I couldn’t imagine a future that far down the line. And things have only become more disposable since then, so I feel so lucky to be where I am now. In 2025, I feel like a veteran and a teenager at the same time.
No message for myself in 2015. He figures it out anyway.
Who would you most like to collaborate with and why?
What is your FAULT?
The death of Queen Elizabeth II