First of all here is the music of my band Emerald Edge. The songs from our demo "The Mirror Speaks" are 30 second samples. To download a song choose "Download this song" from the right button menu.
Musicplayer by Fabricio Zuardi
Here is the trailer for our new DVD out on November 1st.
Videoplayer by Jeroen Wijering
Playing guitar for almost 25 years I have always loved the progessive music by bands like Dream Theater, Marillion, Fish, Neal Morse, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Ayreon. Being influenced by their music (and of course their guitarists) I got a chance to express musically and lyrically what I feel.
I got in touch with music for the first time at the age of six starting with elementary musical education. After two years of learning the theory it was time to play an instrument. Being fascinated by what Jimi Hendrix gets out of six strings it was no question that I had to play guitar. I spend another two years with learing the classical guitar style and then it was time to rock. At first I didn't want to play the solo guitar so I always took the rhythm parts, but as you all know that changed later.
I joined my first band when I was twelve years old. Supported by the music school I was in, we wrote our own songs. That music already had a slight progressive style, because we were very much influenced by Marillion and Pink Floyd, but our teacher also added a lot of rhythm things (here I try to avoid the word funky music). During the six years we spend together we won a local band contest and played a lot of gigs. Most of them were at school parties, but hey that's pretty good for a band only playing originals.
I discovered Metal for the first time at the age of thirteen, when a friend of mine gave me the „Master Of Puppets“ Album. This record changed my mind completely. From now on I started practicing guitar like a madman and I bet that my neighbours know the Puppets better than I did. Until the age of eighteen I played in several metalbands, but most of them were just covering Metallica and that wasn't enough for me.
When I finished school I went to the army for about one year and when I returned I wanted to continue with making music. During the next year I got several studio jobs from my former guitar teacher and I played a lot of concerts throughout Germany with a metalband called „Pro Line“. Still having the need to write originals I formed my own band „Sound & Fury“. That was a kind of mixture between grunge and metal. We professionally recorded a CD called „The silent garden“ and at least stayed together for almost nine years and played lots of gigs (I mean what else should a band do?).
The new millenium brought me back to the more progressive music as I joined the band Gereon. Alice Aschauer (here you can find him as Lysithea) really impressed me with his compositions and it was an honour for me to play with him. Too bad the band broke up after three years.
In 2003 I formed my current band Emerald Edge together with my longtime friend and bassplayer Martin Wendler to create a mixture of progressive metal and gotic rock. The first demo CD "The Mirror Speaks" was recorded and produced by myself in 2004 and features Andreas Christ on Drums and Tanja Maul on vocals. I wrote all the lyrics and most of the music.
I always wanted to do a concept album and with Emerald Edge I got the chance to do it. "The Mirror Speaks" tells the story about a guy that gets into an addiction and later finds the way out of it. The title track was the last one we wrote, because our drummer Andreas had the idea to add a reflection to what had happened in the previous songs and this is the reason why the song features smalls parts from each of the previous parts.
By the beginning of 2006 we were joined by keyboardplayer Alessio Nocita. I really like his contributions to our music, because he only adds what the song needs and he really feels the music.
Currently we are looking for a new voice, because Tanja left the band in April, but I am shure that we will find somebody that fits perfectly.
No. songs on iPod: 4669
Favourite drink: Desperados, Caipirinha
Whiskey: Lagavulin aged 16 years
Food: Chinese, Thai, Steaks
Sport: Tabletennis
First album: Carlos Santana - Abraxas
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Top 5 albums: 1. Metallica - Master Of Puppets
2. Marillion - Fugazi
3. Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast
4. Pink Floyd - The Wall
5. Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory
Likes: Open minded people
Dislikes: Narrow minded people
Camera: Canon EOS 350D
Lens: Canon EF-S 28-55mm
Canon EF 55-200mm
Guitars: Music Man John Petrucci 6-String
Music Man John Petrucci 7-String
OLP Baritone 6-String tuned to dropped A
Ovation Celebrity Acoustic
Amps: Marshall JMP-1
Marshall 9100
Effects: T.C. Electronics G-Major
T.C. Electronics D-Two
www.emeraldedge.de
Emerald Edge @ MySpace
