| Quote: |
Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros perform at Trustees Theater Sunday Alex Ebert and his band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will perform at the Trustees Theater on Sunday Posted: July 7, 2010 - 5:03pm | Updated: July 7, 2010 - 5:32pm Alex Ebert and his band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will perform at the Trustees Theater Sunday. (Courtesy of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) By Arek Sarkissian II Alex Ebert grew up exploring the facets of death while listening to hip-hop. And after some soul searching and an excruciating crawl through the murky depths of addiction, a new outlook was cast.  On Sunday, when Ebert and his band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, perform at the Trustees Theater, he hopes to share an abundance of adulation, movement and joy. "The majority of it - no, the whole thing - it's a celebration," Ebert said of his band's performance. "It's love and it's great." The vocalist of the frenetic power pop group Ima Robot recently took time out of his day off from a grueling 52-city nationwide summer tour to explain over the phone how and why Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros was formed and what they plan to leave after performing here. Ebert said his band has used a bevy of genres to shuttle audiences toward euphoria since it formed two years ago. Musical categories like Motown, psychedelic funk, spaghetti Western and "jamboree celebration" were some of the moving parts Ebert said created an engine emanating a down-to-earth, positive energy. One strong correlation Ebert agreed upon to describe his music: a deep blue-sky framed by the wide vistas of a mountainous desert. "If there's anything my songs have in common, it's the open landscapes," he said. "It's open and adventuring." Still, Ebert says his music touches on the hip-hop he enjoyed in his younger years. But then there are soaring, heavenly strings and the marching bass drum, guitar and piano capturing the essence of a spaghetti Western. The name Edward Sharpe is actually a character he developed from a story where a debilitated boy develops into a powerful creature able to process infinite worlds of beautiful music. And the name Magnetic Zeros came from Ebert's love for mathematics. Ebert said he used the Edward Sharpe persona as a tabula rasa during his journey as a musician. He began fostering notions of the band by creating a MySpace page carrying the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros name where he posted music. It was a vehicle in which he could start off new, he said. "It was as fresh a pure place as I could reach back to where nobody knew my name," he said, adding that of the band members now, "We're all Edward Sharpe." The musical pieces Ebert composes are declarations and stories about where he has been or where he desires to go. Through his addiction years he realized the songs he created and constantly performed became mantras putting him in a self-destructive mindset. "I think for me, music is an expression of where I'm at or where I want to be. I'm cognizant of the danger in creating mantras," he said. "You write a song you perform every night, and if it's a negative mantra you're in ... you're basically in self-destruction." Ebert said the title track from their debut album, "Up from Below," is a fine example of his involvement with the idea of death, what pushed him toward drugs and his subsequent pledge to living life. "That's really my story of what drove me to do drugs and it doesn't explain what brought me out of it," he said. "It's about being constructive and living." Ebert said his favorite song to perform alternates from night to night but one prediction for Sunday was clear. "I think it can be expected of me to be present and reacting to the moment would be real and not as much of a performance as an example of just openness," he said. IF YOU GO What: Wagatail presents Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros When: 8 p.m. Sunday Where: Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St. Tickets: $22 in advance, $25 at the door Information: Call 912-525-5050 or go to wagatailpresents.com or scadboxoffice.com. |