When Jason Flom, CEO of LAVA Records noticed rock foursome South of Eden, formerly known as Black Coffee, he took note of their distinguished but unfiltered sound that beckoned the guitar work of Jimmy Page, with vocal stylings brother to Robert Plant and Axl Rose. A sound that the twenty-somethings in South of Eden tried not to overthink on and instead just played what they knew they could always duplicate live.
Videos by American Songwriter
The group that includes vocalist Ehab Omran, guitarist Justin Young, drummer Tom McCullough and bassist Nick Frantianne, brings in individual fashion and ability that blends together flawlessly for a modern rock and roll sound full of youth and ferocity. That tenacity and hunger is well displayed on their latest single “Dancing with Fire” from their EP The Talk, out today on LAVA Records.
The musical preferences that set the mood for South of Eden all started with classic rock greats like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Cream and Van Halen and grunge supersedes like Alice in Chains and Nirvana, the members also found some influence in unlikely artists like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. Omran who grew up in Jordan said his influences were even more varied and looked to ‘80s pop music that dominated the Middle-East during that time in addition to the drum patterns vibrating through his childhood home where his father would often play.
“Initially when I came over [to America], I wasn’t so privy to what I was listening to in terms of what American music was,” Omran said about his first immersion into popular music. “I didn’t know what blues or rock meant. I just knew the biggest artists that made it over to Jordan like Michael Jackson, James Brown, Phil Collins and George Michael, all these pop-centric people, and I knew that I loved it. With people like Michael Jackson I loved him because he used lots of world beats, I heard a lot of Arabic drum beats in his music. My father was a hand drummer and my mom would dance around the house, those were my earliest memories from Jordan and music.”
Other bandmates like guitarist Justin Young were more impacted by the grunge movement and his individual experience as a Berklee School of Music dropout, something he now laughs about, which ultimately led him to join together with Omran and McCullough for South of Eden. But even as a prestigious music school student, Young did not often write from a theory driven perspective.
“I don’t really play music from a theory point,” Young said. “We understand it but at the end of the day, the writing, the playing comes from our hearts and souls. What ultimately drove me back to Columbus instead of staying at Berklee was everyone there was so focused on putting their hours in that no one had time to really develop a band and play shows. I was playing a lot but wasn’t performing as much. And being in Boston, watching Tommy and Ehab play in Electric Dream Machine that they had before we started Black Coffee, our former band name, is what drew me back to play shows. It took just one or two jams with them for me to realize this was the most fun I’ve had playing in years and I wanted to chase that feeling and I’m glad I did.”
Not garnering the resources to record a lot of their material as a young band starting out, South of Eden made their way by playing live shows and picked up amazing momentum, sharing tickets with bands like Puddle of Mudd, System of a Down and Foo Fighters before their official LAVA/Republic Records introduction with “Dancing With Fire.” A song the band correlates to their always uncertain dive into music and the juggling act it takes to chase that along with attempting to feed themselves and take the ultimate risk to abandon everything.
“Lyrically that song is just about feeling a conflict within yourself, between your dreams and whatever might be holding you back,” Omran said about ‘Dancing With Fire.’” “It can be a loved one, family or just money. I think the song is that dance with the fire of following your dream but having commitments, relationships and it was very privy to our situation of going to LA for a few months and having to leave everything behind to make the best record we could.”
South of Eden took that chance with producer Greg Wells, who they worked with on “Dancing With Fire” and The Talk. From the get-go in Los Angeles with Wells, the band expressed their desire to play closest to their authentic selves as possible, eliminating modern production concepts like playing with a click-track, while Wells offered a mentor/mentee relationship for South of Eden in a place where many of their favorite idols have recorded.
“We meshed because Greg likes working with acts that let their freak flags fly, if nothing else we know how to do that,” Young said. “He just made it really comfortable for us and he was able to bring out things we wouldn’t have been able to ourselves while experiencing recording at Sunset Sound where some of our favorite records were done, by Van Halen, Prince and The Doors. It was like being on hallowed grounds in that room.”
Wells also recorded The Talk using tape, to uphold the band’s wish to only record what they could perform in a live setting, scrapping any digital effects or assets and gifting a truly un-condensed list of songs that represent South of Eden in their most original form.
“We don’t like recording anything we can’t duplicate live, if you can’t pull it off live why record it?” Young said. “We like the warts and all to be in our music because it makes it human and real.”
Unresolved about what the music landscape would be like this year as the pandemic still gains traction across the US, South of Eden was on the edge about whether or not to share any of the songs created with Greg Wells on The Talk, but the focus on their fans became a deciding factor in the decision to release music and LAVA/Republic stood by their decision and leveraged the single and EP. Lacking the live setting, South of Eden flourishes in, they are on the path to release some videos and are considering live-stream opportunities.
“One of the biggest reasons to go with LAVA was they are a newer label and we wholeheartedly believe they have the ability to have an almost Geffen like impact on the rock scene,” Young said. “And being label mates with Greta Van Fleet is huge, they have opened the door to this kind of classic rock scene. It’s awesome to be with a label that supports us in a way that allows up to bring it back. If you would have asked us when were teenagers, do you think rock bands get record contacts these days, we would’ve said no. It’s awesome that they have given us that opportunity.”
“We want to make the radio listenable again,” Omran laughed. “The pressure is on to deliver in the climate we are in. But we are super happy to report we have been afforded to play some festivals as they’re rescheduled for 2021. So as soon as were allowed to go out expect us to be coming to your town.”
The Talk EP is out today on LAVA/Republic Records and you can expect some more new music from South of Eden sooner rather than later. Follow them here to get the most current info on what’s next for these rock revivalists.
