Celestial music with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is definitely one of the more buzzed about underground bands to come to Colorado this summer and deservedly so. With a briskly selling headliner show at the Planet Bluegrass Wildflower Pavillions on Friday September 11th up the road in Lyons and a hotly anticipated appearance at Red Rocks for the Monolith Festival the very next day on Saturday September 12th, this band is unquestionably on an upward trajectory. Picture in your mind’s eye a musical romance between indie rock darlings Arcade Fire and the ’60’s folk favorites the Mamas & the Papas with a dash of Pink Floyd tossed into the mix and you end up with a supernatant brew of 60’s love-fest era vocal harmonies seamlessly woven with threads of psychedelic instrumental textures. I had a chance to fire a couple of questions to frontman and bandleader Alex Ebert on the mystical origins of the band name and the positively celestial music the band creates after the jump. Oh yeah, make sure you check out the Youtube video at the bottom – it’s pretty far out.

Dutch: Where did the band name come from?

Alex: Not sure yet but, it came to me many years ago. A story of a man named Edward Sharpe sent down to earth to help mankind ascend from the dark. I have not finished writing the book. Magnetic Zeros came to me one day as a form of addition where zero is magnetic and pulls on the numbers, constantly affecting the number’s value – but now it seems the imagery of zeros collecting, forming things like the flower of life and the Genesis pattern are more relevant to the meaning of the name…

Dutch: So which came first? The band recording it’s debut album or playing live shows?

Alex: The Recordings. I recorded the demos as a vision of a larger thing…like building the blueprint of a house for a family to be.

Dutch: With so many musicians onstage playing different instruments, does the music change drastically from show to show? Or is the music well rehearsed and more or less the same each show?

Alex: We rarely rehearse. We mostly hang out and talk, eat, laugh, play around…

Dutch: There seems to be strong themes of spirituality in the band’s music and lyrics. Is the band trying to convey some sort of religious or spirituality message to it’s listeners?

Alex: Well, I would say I am convinced of the importance of authenticity and infinite courage, and that I hope the things that are inspired by these states – expansion, love, strength, etc, come thru in our music. Community and celebration are two things that I know all humans desire, openly or secretly; certainly we in the band openly do. If our community and celebrations inspire others to joy and join, we are fulfilling all of our wildest dreams.