Eden’s Crush – Interview

What happens to five girls who go into a competition as unknowns only to come out as Pop Stars? Find out as we dive behind the scenes and into the lives of Eden’s Crush.

How has life been?

Everyone: Great!

When did you actually begin the process?

Ivette: The audition process for some of us started in August, but for me it was in September. We were all living with one an other since October 30th and started actually recording October 31st.

When the call came to be auditioned did you just have to leave everything and just go?

Everyone: Yeah.

Maile: We all had different stories. I could give you a rough breakdown of what everybody was doing. I know that Nicole had just gotten off tour with Days Of The New. Rosanna was just finishing up her masters at Ohio State in Dance Studies. Ivette was working in a show in Milan at the La Scalla Opera House and was getting ready to go on Broadway to do Rent. Ana Maria was in a band with her family that she had to give up and I was in a band with my father and acting professionally. So we all had to give up our lives with three days notice. So we had to turn down and quit jobs, leave our family, school and loved ones.

Each of you have had varying degrees of experience as professionals, what was your knowledge of the music industry before getting into this?

Nicole: My background is musical theater so I didn’t personally have a lot of knowledge of the business side of the music industry.

Maile: I know the performance aspect is something I’m used to, but I only know the acting side in the entertainment industry. I don’t know a lot about the music business. I’m learning every day and luckily we have each other. Some of us know more about certain things so we basically can feed off of each other.

Rosanna: As far as the entertainment industry I knew nothing. So its all new to me. As far as performing goes I’ve had tons of experience, but as far as the inner workings its all fresh.

Does it help because you have each other to lean on?

Everyone: Yes, definitely.

Nicole: We all grew with each other and are there for each other through this new learning process. We’ve formed our own family, we are like five sisters now.

Maile: Somebody might know something about the business and then and we’ll talk about it, but there is someone else in the band that might be able to articulate that better to everyone else in the group. We all have our strong points.

Have you watched “Making The Band”?

Everyone: We’ve seen like one episode.

Did you know that this was going to be as big of a production as it was?

Rosanna: We anticipated it. We went to the auditions and the cameras were there.

I think the biggest question is how real is it? Since the cameras are there did you or anyone else play up to the cameras?

Ivette: There is no acting involved. It was a new experience to have the cameras all around, but we did get used to them. There is no acting up to the camera for dramatic purposes.

With Making The Band everyone got the feeling there was a lot of playing up to the camera so everyone assumed this would be the same.

Maile: That is what makes this so different.

How did your families react?

Everyone: They were so supportive. (Everyone starts to talk at once) They were so proud. They couldn’t have been happier. All of our families were like that.

When you went to the audition from that point and until you got the cut downs were you bouncing back and forth with your lives?

Ana Maria: I was still singing with my family’s band. So I had to fly back to Arizona between every call back. During the workshop week they flew us out to LA it was a crazy and emotional week for all of us.

What was the final days like before you found out you were chosen?

Maile: That was really funny becausae you go to this audition, mine was different since it was only one day, and then I got called the next morning and told that I had contracts coming and that I had to go to a meeting. All this stuff was really my first experience with the record industry. That was bizarre having lunch with London-Sire Records and then going back to my waitressing job at night because I couldn’t tell anyone about it.

How was it for everyone else?

Ana Maria: It was nervewrecking for a while because I hadn’t told my family yet and I didn’t know if I was going to be doing it. And I didn’t want to be like ‘I’m leaving the band” and then “I’m not leaving the band” and all that. So I just kept playing the gigs and tried not to think about it too much. I just tried to take it one day at a time.

Rosanna: Half of me was consumed by getting ready for my MSA project and writing proposals and other student work. The other half of me was consumed with the thought of leaving that and joining a pop band which was so far from what I was doing. I just felt like I was in space floating.

Ivette: My life continued. This was just another gig I was trying to book. I was at the same time in the final stages of my auditions for Rent on Broadway. After the workshop I was offered the jobs and had to let one go. My life has been as crazy as ever and I toyed with the thought since I’ve done musical theater my whole life that it would be fun to do pop. It was something new, a new adventure that I wanted to take.

When you first auditioned and went back did any of you think that maybe you wouldn’t make it?

Rosanna: When I first started to audition I think my confidence jumped more because I looked at it as more of a challenge rather than thinking whether I was or wasn’t going to make it. It was an experiment for me. Of course there was doubt when I got in the room with twenty other beautiful and talented women, but I kept trying to tap into my confidence. I knew nothing about those people who were watching me and that actually helped.

Did you feel like you had to just give it your best and go with the flow?

Everyone: Yeah!

Nicole: After I got off tour I was actually working on a solo demo and I was planning on moving out here (to LA) to shop it so I saw that all the doors where open so why not go for it. I had nothing to lose. It’s just an amazing wave that I’ve caught and I’m going with the flow.

Where you wondering what they wanted out of you?

Nicole: We had no idea what they were looking for. We didn’t know if they wanted the next Spice Girls or what. We had no idea that they were going to pick three Latinas and two Hawaiians. What I always say is that everything happens for a reason and what is meant to be is meant to be.

(We are interrupted and told we only had time for one last question. So I scrambled and found the one question that I always wondered about as I watched the TV show evolve)

About the show editing, do you feel that its cut and edited to be juicier, more of a cliffhanger and that sacrifices a lot of the experience that you really went through?

Rosanna: We do watch it. We have a lot of confidence in the production company, but at the same time there are things that are used in places from five months ago with things from one month ago to two weeks ago. So sometimes things are out of context, but that is what happens when you have a show to put together. So we have to deal with that. So they have to keep us real and keep us true to our experience.

+ Charlie Craine