Lisa: I want to start off by saying I’m so glad you’re up for another interview with us. I always love talking to you and you’ve been with Paragon from the beginning, so I want to thank you, first and foremost, for your time and your constant support of us.

Ed: We certainly appreciate your support of us over the years. I’m excited about your move into the digital realm and look forward to seeing your exposure and readership continue to grow. Best of luck in 2007!

L: You have young children at home. How do you go from singing Sesame Street songs to creating the music for Midnight Syndicate? I’m a proud aunt of a 1-year-old and 2-year-old, and their parents sing the “little kid songs” out of nowhere lately, just because they’re exposed to it all day. Do you find yourself doing the same?

E: I’m very happy to be able to say “not really.” Fortunately, my studio is purposely in a completely separate part of the house and our final mixing is done offsite. Actually, our mixing is done in a restored Victorian (haunted?) house. The house was the basis for our The 13th Hour CD. As far as my children go, I try and expose them to as much different music as I can. I figure they get enough of the “kids music” from television shows like Dragon Tales and Sesame Street so when we’re in the car or when we’re hanging out it’s always “wock-n-woll!” (as my 3-year old calls it), Classical, Classic Alternative, or Vintage Metal. When the kids visit me in the studio they play with my KISS bobble-heads. My earliest memories of music were listening to my parents’ Beatles records. We also did a lot of traveling and I ended up listening to a lot of radio. I’ve always been really glad for that since it exposed me to a lot of great music at an early age. I do feel it’s my responsibility to teach my children that Black Sabbath is both an awesome band and a classic horror film; that Sister of Mercy is more than a charity organization; and that Christopher Lee was Dracula long before he was in Star Wars.

L: Based on your work, I’m assuming that you believe in spirits and the paranormal (but I could be wrong, and this could just be fantasy for you). Sum up for me your personal beliefs about what you believe to be true about what exists beyond this life. Do you take a religious stance or are you more of a spiritual person? From Numerology and Astrology to all the world religions and belief systems, which, from your perspective, seems to hit the mark most closely?

E: My faith includes a strong belief in an afterlife, so spirits and the paranormal are things that I definitely do not dismiss off-hand. I don’t like to evaluate religion, since it’s such a personal experience. I can say, though, that the more you study all the religions and belief systems, the more you realize that they have a lot in common. For Midnight Syndicate though, and our work, it is all about escapism. It is all about allowing the music to take you away to another place. Maybe that place is a world of your own imagination, or a yet-to-be-made movie. Maybe it’s a place inside yourself where you can find time to reflect or focus. It’s different for everyone.

L: Have you ever experienced a haunting or some sort of tapping in from the other side? If so, could you describe what it was like?

E: Gavin, our resident ghost hunter, has a lot of stories he’s shared with me over the years. I’ve also always been fascinated by true ghost stories since I was a kid, so I’ve done a lot of reading for inspiration throughout my life. Some of the best manifestations I’ve been exposed to personally are the audio and video tapings from Gavin’s overnight expeditions to the Mansfield Reformatory in Ohio (where Shawshank Redemption was filmed). It is a very haunted place. He also has shown me a very mysterious photo from Gettysburg where there is clearly a strange, blue figure-like glow in the background by one of the battlefields that is very convincing. I had my first real quasi-paranormal experience while I was visiting a haunted inn in Painesville, Ohio. I remember going into one of the rooms and feeling an overwhelming sense of dread. I exited the room feeling quite strange. I found out later that that particular room had a very dark history and a long record of paranormal activity.

L: In our last interview with you, you told me that you and Gavin use your imaginations, as well as ideas inspired by horror films, to write the music. Does your imagination ever get the best of you while your writing, causing you to kind of spook yourself out? It’s got to get a little creepy after a while. I’d probably end up sleeping with the light on if I did what you do. ::laughs::

E: When my imagination gets the best of me, that’s when I’m most creative musically. It’s hard to be creeped out by something I’ve done because it’s a sound that has come from within me. It’s a creative expression of myself, so I think it’s not the same as it would be for a listener. I will admit that, when listening to the final mix of the track “Last Breaths” from The 13th Hour in headphones for the first time, it did make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. That was due in large part to the wonderful vocal performance of Lily Lane. I think “Last Breaths” is a very effective interpretation of a common “audio experience” that many mediums and paranormal investigators have recorded.

Rob: I was wondering how King Diamond approached you to have your music used as his exclusive pre-show music for his world tour…

E: That, for me, is still one of the best moments in Midnight Syndicate history. Gavin and I are big King Diamond fans. His music plays a big influence in what we do. We really liked the House of God CD, so [we] were already really psyched for the tour to come to Cleveland. At the concert, while we were there waiting for them to go on, we suddenly heard “Born of the Night” on the loudspeakers. When the first song was over they went on to the next track on the CD, and the next… We assumed that since it was a local show that the soundman had just picked out some appropriate music from his own collection. When we found out that the band were the ones that had selected the music and their soundman asked us to autograph the copies for THEM, we were blown away. To get an unsolicited nod from one of your major musical influences is just really cool.

R: Come Halloween, do you get a lot of trick-or-treaters or do people stay away because they think you’re the spookiest family in town? ::laughs::

E: Our house is done up well, but not nearly as much as some of the talented “home haunters” out there. We get a lot of email from people saying that they blast Midnight Syndicate music from the windows and the kids are too scared to come up the driveway. We take that as a compliment.

L: Rob and I first met you at Chiller Theatre here in NJ about 3 years ago. Do you plan on coming back to our area soon?

E: We try to be regulars at the Chiller Theatre Convention. It’s a great opportunity to meet people and talk with fans. We’ll definitely have a booth there this October and again next summer. It’s a great convention.

L: Which instrument, in your opinion, creates the most sinister sound?

E: If we’re sticking with purely organic instruments, it would have to be the piano. Maybe not when it’s used the way we are typically accustomed to hearing it, but when you take the strings inside and scrape them with a metal brush, or detune the whole thing. That’s when I think you can get the more sinister side of the instrument.

R: Your music is very popular at haunted house attractions during the Halloween season. What’s the scariest attraction you’ve been to?

E: Because we are so busy this time of year, we do not get out to see nearly as many attractions as we’d like to. What I can comment on, though, are the ones in our immediate area (Northeastern Ohio). We’re lucky to have a few really good ones there. One of my favorites is the Bloodview Haunted House in Broadview Heights, Ohio. It’s located right next to the old asylum that Haverghast Asylum was based on (well, it used to be anyway…they unfortunately just tore the asylum down). The haunt itself is very cool, but it’s the Legion of Terror actors and their passion that takes it to the next level - that and some really good makeup jobs.

R: Have you ever played around with the idea of making a movie in the vein of those old silent vampire films, like Nosferatu for example? 

E: Well, actually my next major project looks to be directing a horror film I co-wrote called “The Dead Matter.” Before Midnight Syndicate, I studied film and theatre. Entity Productions actually started as a film company. Our first major project was this horror-suspense feature film called “The Dead Matter.” We had $2000 and a dream of using that version of the movie to get funding for a larger-budget version of the film later on. Well, it took 10 years and Midnight Syndicate making its way into Hollywood before that could become a reality. To do this film is definitely a dream come true. By the time this interview is published we’ll probably have a lot more details on the production. The official site for “The Dead Matter” movie is www.TheDeadMatter.com


R: Have you ever thought of shocking people by putting out something that is the opposite of what you’re famous for, such as a score for a childrens’ movie or an upbeat instrumental album? 

E: I don’t know about a score for a children’s movie, but our musical tastes and influences are diverse enough that I think it’s inevitable that we will try different things. It’s just that horror and the dark side of the supernatural play such big roles for us creatively that most of our work is in that vein. The first, self-titled Midnight Syndicate CD (out of print) is a bit of a head spin for fans and an interesting look at some other sides to what we’ve done musically.

L: Anything we didn’t discuss in this interview that you want to mention?

E: Only to invite people to check out our site www.MidnightSyndicate.com. Between the movie scores to “The Rage” and “Sin-Jin Smyth,” “The Dead Matter” film, and another “under wraps” CD that Gavin is working on, 2007 is going to be a really interesting year with lots of good stuff going on. Rob and Lisa, once again, thank you for the support and best wishes to both of you on this next step for Paragon!