Singled Out: Edge Of Paradise's Mask

The title of our single "Mask" represents the song's meaning, literally and figuratively speaking. The song was written by Dave Bates and Ryan Jones, while coming to terms with the tragic departure of a former drummer, who took his own life. However, the song depicts different scenarios of desperation and the feeling of hopelessness. I know, Ryan's motivation for "Mask" was his prior battle with his own demons, while Dave's inspiration came from trying to understand how a person, with no noticeable signs of depression, in fact, completely opposite, had such dark thoughts that lead to this tragic ending.

The song was initially called "To Believe", and as I came into the picture, I was figuring out what the song meant to me, drawing from Ryan's lyrics, which really translated his message and emotion. Unfortunately, I never got to meet the drummer, and will never know what drove him to such a dark end, but these events, cause us to reflect inwards and examine our own battles within our minds. At the end, we all try to find something that might free us of this struggle. This is a huge part of the song as the opening lyrics begin with "If you ever find me, could you, untie me. I'm battling my mind, depression, suicide�" And the chorus really takes it further with "�to taste the rain, and have no pain�"

There is a line in the song "�It seems that every time when I wake, I'm always wearing this miserable face�" To us, it means that we all have our own masks, which we hide behind to deal with the cards we were dealt. Especially, living in this day and age, there are very few people who actually open up and reveal their face. So the lyrics "�this miserable face�" changed to "�this miserable mask�". And from this point forward the song kind of evolved into what you hear and see on the video. We even rethought our whole record as it was initially, going to be titled "Back To The Ground", lyrics from the first track on the CD, "Falling Down". It was definitely a choice that felt right. And recording the song was really cool and exciting, as we were solidifying the sound of the band.

We really want listeners to take away from this song, that it is possible to "breath the night, to feel alive". We heard various interpretations of what the song means to different people, and we want them to take something different from it as well! Something that will make them look inside and relate to things in their own way and maybe even give them some sort of a positive outlook!