Margarita Monet of Edge Of Paradise talks about the band’s quick formation, their debut album, and writing a triple-platinum song

Photo by Phil Fernandez

EDGE OF PARADISE
Interview with singer Margarita Monet
By Kelley Simms
Photos by Phil Fernandez
Website: www.edgeofparadiseband.com

Female-fronted LA metal band EDGE OF PARADISE is a new band, but a band on its way up. Formed in 2011, and with a highly-successful debut album out, things are starting to take off for the young musicians. EDGE OF PARADISE came together after guitarist Dave Bates’ brief stay in a band called BLEED with singer Robin McAuley (MSG, SURVIVOR), bassist Tony Franklin (THE FIRM, BLUE MURDER) and drummer Gregg Bissonette (DAVID LEE ROTH, JOE SATRIANI). Bates then hooked up with Margarita Monet, 21, a young Armenian-born actor/musician on a musical collaboration “for hire.” Soon after, the duo gathered up and reworked Bates’ previous material with his former band and released Mask, which also features the members of said former band. Speaking with the lovely Margarita, she filled me in on how quickly the band formed, their debut album and an upcoming new song that she hopes will propel EDGE OF PARADISE even further.

Were you aware of metal and rock back when you were living in Armenia and Moscow or did you discover this music and your voice after moving to the States?

I was born in Armenia, moved to Moscow, then Texas, New York and then LA. I was always into classical music because I was a classical pianist since I was four. That’s all I knew mostly. My dad was really into Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and he was playing this stuff on guitar. I didn’t really acknowledge what he was doing playing that music, and I wasn’t really drawn into it because I was just stuck into my classical music. I think I started to discover hard rock and metal probably when I moved to the States. I listened to Zeppelin more and more because my dad liked it so much and I grew to like it more and more. But I never in a million years thought that I would be a singer of a metal band (laughs).

How did EDGE OF PARADISE form?

Dave was in a band with Robin McAuley called Bleed, and they recorded a bunch of songs. They had an EP out and then Robin got a gig in Survivor and they parted ways. I was working on a pop-rock song, don’t ask how I got into that. But, we needed a guitar player to play this style of song and Dave was playing at a music store and we saw him and we asked him to play on the song. I wanted it to be a hard rock song and I got a very poppy song afterwards and it just wasn’t working because it wasn’t what I wanted to do. So Dave showed me the songs he was working on and we went right back into the studio and started recording the new stuff. Basically, we took a lot of the songs that were constructed that had Gregg Bissonette and Tony Franklin as the rhythm section. We didn’t want to waste the songs and we wanted to release them. So, we changed them up a little bit and evolved the sound.

The album sounds great. You’ve achieved a lot in a relative short period of time. How has things been going for the band? Is this what you expected to achieve?

Yeah, we’re kind of going like a 100 miles per hour. We only had to release the CD to solidify the band. You’re not really a band until you have something released and we already had a bunch of material to choose from that we could work with. We’re just very lucky to meet people to work with that are helping us build this thing. Things are going great and we’re doing a new song now and we’re going to be working with Michael Wagener, he’ll be mixing it. Our next song is more of a solid sound and it’s a different side of us. I think it’s the best track yet.

It’s great that you got such prominent musicians like Bissonette, Franklin and McAuley to participate on the album. Are you just soaking it all in? Is it a bit surreal for you or is this what you always dreamed about?

It is kind of surreal because I never thought that I’d be in this circle of this genre of music. When I was in new York, I was studying acting and I was still doing music. I was still playing classical piano. Then I moved to LA to pursue acting, and I had music, but I wasn’t really doing anything with music, and the opportunity came. I just go with the flow and take what life brings me. All those years I had in music helped me with what I’m doing now. It’s really cool also to see what I can do with my voice now a year later. I have evolved. I can do new things and my range keeps expanding. I’m really excited because I’ve never really sang, especially rock and metal.

There’s plenty of female-fronted metal bands out there, but I feel that you guys bring a slightly different edge with your sound. Although, I really can’t pin-point what sound you are, how would you describe it?

We don’t really classify ourselves in a certain genre because metal these days … there’s so many different “cores” and categories. We don’t want to fit into a certain category or a certain image. We have all kinds of influences. Our music is rooted in classic metal: BLACK SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST, METALLICA. Dave and his guitar playing pulls from jazz and classic metal and my major influence is Ronnie James Dio. I’ve listened to SABBATH and DIO songs over and over again and just learned their stuff. I think our influences are kind of mashed all together and has our own twist to it to get our sound. Wether you strive to create something new … but to create something that has the elements from the classic metal.

Your vocal style is melodic and edgy with a lot of multi-layered harmonies going on. You mentioned Dio as an influence, but who do you look up to as far as singers?

I’ve always looked up to Robert Plant. I love his singing because he sings high. My voice is very high, so I tried to find my own thing but I always pull from something that Robert Plant or Dio would do. I did say that I look up to Joan Jett, but I look up to her commanding presence on stage. Singing wise, I look up to male singers. I don’t think I have a female influence, singing wise. I think that’s where the edginess comes from.

You’ve mentioned a new song in the works, any more new material or an album to be released soon?

Yes, we have a new song that will be released in March. It’s a ballad, but it’s sort of a different sound than what’s on our CD. It’s really evolved a lot. You’ll be hearing a different side of me as well. We plan to have a video for that as well and hopefully we start to tour right away and hopefully record another album.

The last three songs on the CD are all instrumentals, even though I think the band is rippin’ and on fire, I want to hear more of you! Will you be on more songs next time?

It was one of those really hard decisions to make. We wanted to just release the album and be a band and start to solidify our existence. Honestly, it was just a matter of, do we use the money to record three more songs or use the money for promotion. Because these days promotion is so important. Who’s going to hear your music if you’re not promoting it right. “Shredenstein”… people really seem to like that track so we decided to put the instrumentals on there, release the CD and see what it brings us. We work on new songs all the time so we have a bunch of songs ready to go so when we go into the studio to record a new album, we’ll go right in there and record our songs. The way the industry is these days, we have to be very selective and careful with what we select and keep going.

As far as touring/gigs/shows go, what’s your schedule?

We’re trying to hook up with a bigger act to be their supporting act. We have our opportunities but it’s a matter of getting the budget to be on the road for 40 or more shows. We’re playing shows around our area. We want to release the song. We really want the song to be “the” song. We have great people working on it and we believe that the song will bring us something and enable us to go on the road for a few months or a year and stay out there. That’s what we want to do, play as much as possible.

What’s next for EDGE OF PARADISE? What do you hope to achieve?

We hope that our next song will go triple platinum! (laughs) Hopefully we’ll get out on the road and bring our music to the masses. We hope to expand internationally. We have a lot of interest in Europe, South America, Australia. So, we want to get out there and play for people. So, hopefully that is in the near future for us, getting out there and playing a lot.

Photo by Phil Fernandez