Edison's Children formed in 2006 during the Marillion "Los Trios Marillos" tour.
Prior to soundcheck at the Birchmere in Alexandria Virginia, Marillion's sound
technicians Colin Price and Roderick Brunton, were having several issues with one
of Steven Rothery's guitars. They asked Eric Blackwood if he could go on stage
and play with Rothery's guitar for awhile, while they tweak the problem. While
Eric was playing one of his signature songs "Stranger In A Foreign Land", Pete
Trewavas came out from backstage to see Eric performing with Rothery's guitar
on stage. He jumped up and joined Eric for the next 10 minutes, playing along
on Steve Hogarth's keyboard. Afterwards, Pete Trewavas mentioned to Eric that
they should get together and do a project of some kind. Eric thought it would be
a great idea, but was very skeptical whether this "project" would ever come to
fruition, thinking it was meant in more of a "hey man, let's jam some time" sort
of thing. When Marillion released the album "Somewhere Else", Pete Trewavas
and Steve Rothery came to New York City to perform at the record release/listening
party at Kenny's Castaway's. After meeting with Eric Blackwood at the show,
Pete Trewavas and Steve Rothery met the following morning with Eric
Blackwood on the movie set of "Bourne Ultimatum" where Eric was working as one
of the Special FX technicians for the Matt Damon film. While on the Bourne
set, Pete Trewavas again broached the subject of doing a project together.
Eric re-iterated that it would be a great idea and as soon as Pete has some time,
they should start writing together. While the plans were starting to be laid
out for the project, Eric remained skeptical that this project would ever come
to fruition. After the 2009 Marillion Convention in Montreal Quebec, Pete Trewavas
went to Nashville Tennessee to record the new Whirlwind album with Transatlantic.
On the way back to England through New York City, Pete missed his flight
and was stranded in Newark New Jersey for 24 hours. Eric Blackwood and his wife
Wendy Farrell-Pastore, met up with Pete Trewavas and took him down to the Atlantic
Highlands and Sandy Hook. There, Pete again mentioned that they should
set plans to do a project together and at this time. Now the third time that Pete
had broached Eric about the project, Eric told Pete that Now... he was going
to hold him to it. Plans were made to do writing and recording sessions at Eric's
home at Black Dirt Studios. The barn and recording studio is owned by Absolute
A-Go Go records president Brad Morrision who had first signed Phish and Miracle
Legion and was the former tour manager for The Cure, Duran Duran, and was
closely associated with the Pixies. Eric now leases the studio for his full time
home. The album "In The Last Waking Moments" began its life in between
the United States and European legs of the Transatlantic Whirlwind tour. Eric Blackwood
joined up with Pete and the Transatlantic crew for their Eastern US /
Canadian dates and, after the Philadelphia show, they went back to the barn...
Eric's home at Black Dirt Studios to begin writing. 4 songs were written and recorded
during this period... Dusk, Stranger In A Foreign Land, Jammed Up and A
Cold Gray Morning. Work also began on a new concept, that Eric was developing...
a 12 string song (best described as similar to the haunting Steve Hackett like
guitar work in Cinema Show and Supper's Ready) named Silhouette. The song would
go on to become a 25 minute epic that was to be Edison's Children's "signature
song" ... or so they thought. When Eric and Pete secretly met again in the weeks
surrounding the Marillion Convention Weekend of 2011 in Montreal, Eric showed
Pete a new concept that he had been working on called "Fracture". Pete had
come to Quebec to finish Silhouette and the other material that they had started
in New York and finish the album. When he heard Fracture, he instead put all
of his concentration into this new "concept line" and before the first days of
the Marillion Convention began, and entirely new album had been wrtiten and recorded
based upon Fracture. The new concept included a new "epic song" entitled
"The Awakening" which would go on to feature Ian Mosley, Steve Hogarth and Mark
Kelly. While most of the song was recorded at the Chateau in Quebec. Eric Blackwood's
soaring guitar lead was actually recorded backstage at the La Olympia Theatre
in Montreal... after Mark Kelly's backstage 50th birthday party. Eric Blackwood
had been shuttling the Marillion boys back and forth all day to the gigs
and the hotels and the restaurants and assisting Lucy and Frenchie the way he
has on all American, Canadian and Mexican shows since 2005. Not wanting to make
the 1 1/2 hour ride back to the Chateau, Eric instead crashed on the couch backstage
at La Olympia. Sometime in the midle of the night, Eric Blackwood woke
up and feeling inspired, went on-stage and took the guitar pic off of Steve Hogarth's
mic stand that he had used during the 2nd night of the Marillion Convention
of 2011... and recorded the lead that you now hear throughout "The Awakening"...
summoning the intensity of h's performance that past evening. Back at The
Chateau in the Quebec ski resort of Mont Saint Sauveur (just south of Mont Treblant),
work continued on the songs and several favorties came to the forefront.
Out of them all, Pete and Eric are perhaps most proud of the floating "Spiraling",
which would feature Steve Rothery on Lead Guitar. Floating around a bit themselves...
Pete and Eric became so involved in the recording process (stopping
just to eat pasta and cheese) that they entered perhaps a moment of pure insanity.
Eric suggested that they do something "different", perhaps a bit syncopated...
that should be "written on the bass" showcasing some of Pete Trewavas' talents
yet agian. What Pete came up with ... well ... was either pure genius or
pure madness... and probably a whole lot of both. The "Other" Other Dimension would
be what Pete Trewavas would come to call... his most bizarre project ever...
The surreal account of our protaganist, waking up to find "doctors" of some
sort, standing over him... performing exploratory surgeries to see what makes him
tick. Eric began to write lyrics based around this "strange encounter"
that seemed to match the madness that Pete was creating. Even as Pete began to
put it all together, he kept looking over at Eric throught the entire recording
wondering over and over "Are You Sure"? After the recording was completed,
Pete handed the final mixes over to Mark Kelly who then took the song in yet
another whole new direction marking this song as pure madness. Had the boys actually
contacted some other-worldly being to create a song this bizarre or was
it simply a case of ingesting too many raviolis... we think it was perhaps, a
bit of both. Pete would return to the United States in August of 2011 to finish up the album and write 4 new songs. During the sessions, Mother Nature would pay the boys a visit at their Ocean City Maryland hideaway of "Ocean Pines". While Pete Trewavas was recording his outrageous lead vocals for Outerspaced, a 5.9 earthquake shook the entire eastern seaboard. Then while recording the title track "In The Last Waking Moments", the boys were again hit, this time by a Category 2 Hurricane named "Irene" which passed right over their luxury beach home causing the boys to write a silly little tune in her honor for the web *(not on album). With all of its bizarre weather and happenings... In The Last Waking Moments promises to be one of Pete Trewavas' most intreguing projects ever. EDISON'S CHILDREN uses GODIN guitars, ROLAND VG-99 Guitar modules |