Our Play Irish artist this week is EDEN.
Hailing from Dublin, 20-year-old vocalist/producer/multi-instrumentalist EDEN releases his much anticipated EP "i think you think too much of me" this week. In the early stages of finding his voice as an artist EDEN, otherwise known as Jonathan Ng, made only one rule for himself, “make something you’d be proud of even if no one ever hears it.” With his new EP, he channels that passion for innovation into a guitar-heavy take on electronic pop and proves himself an artist of uncompromising originality. On i think you think too much of me, his raw emotionality imbues the heartsick urgency on “sex,” the woozy desperation on “drugs,” and stark fragility on “and.” On “rock & roll,” EDEN brilliantly merges jagged guitar riffs, heady beats, and feverish meditations on ambition or lack thereof (“I got ten weeks of talking bullshit on repeat ‘til I’m burnt out and disappear”), before the song sweetly dissolves into distorted movie dialogue.
Ng learned to play violin at age seven at the urging of his parents and through classical training, discovered his natural musicality. He then began learning new instruments on his own and discovered a passion for songwriting. From the bedroom of his childhood home he began to cultivate a large online following, and establish in his own mind the vision for EDEN's future. In August 2015 EDEN made his debut with End Credits and—despite making zero effort to promote it—soon found the EP gaining major attention and ultimately amassing more than 30 million streams as well as selling out his first US tour. That momentum continued to build as EDEN released a cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” in November 2015, a soulfully cinematic track that hit #1 on HypeM's popular chart and racked up a million cumulative streams in one week.
EDEN is signed to Scooter Braun's management agency (Bieber, Usher, etc), and huge things are expected for him. He plays The Academy in Dublin on November 18th.
