Interview with Musician Ed Roman

We welcome Ed Roman today who cannot be easily defined or labelled into one specific type of musical genre… which we welcome and encourage. Thank you so much for your time today Ed!

 It's absolutely my pleasure. Thank you so kindly for having me today and I'm looking forward to our conversation.

Ed, I wanted to ask you first up, you write your songs so well.  I’ve known so many bands that struggle to fit into a specific genre of music, and end up suffering for it.  Not only has this not seemed to hurt you but you’ve seemed to flourish in fusing genres. Where did all of this come from?

 I appreciate your accolades and I'd have to say my tenacity stubborn headedness and passion for the eccentric has allowed me to follow a path that doesn't exist.

I am so often asked about the songwriting process and how ideas are forged into reality. What I've learned over the years is to follow the passion behind the message. It is what is leading you into new territory and without sounding overly contrived, things seem to fall into place as they're supposed to. Lately my job has been more like the gatekeeper at an ancient Buddhist site where pilgrims place leaves of gold upon a rock ever so slightly balanced in a precarious fashion that one would question its safety. A top is a tabernacle and it's only enclosure happens to be one single hair of the Buddha himself. Remove the hair and the rock will fall. I tend to tempt fate in the moment when it arises and push myself further into those moments of elation and darkness which actually pulls me through the process. This is what makes the song writing experience always new and innovative. It's something I try to never question and took me a long time to understand.. 

You released your latest album Red Omen a couple of months ago, and I’ve seen nothing but good reviews for it, have you been happy with it’s reception thus far?

Extremely happy about the reception and I can't thank supporters, radio stations magazines and so many Ed Heads all over this sphere of beauty. I am currently in the process of looking for a graphic computer company and or production video group to help me put together a cartoon version of the title track of the record Red Omen.

What does Red Omen mean to you?

Of course Red Omen is an anagram of my own name. I'm fascinated by words and language as a result of not only struggling with dyslexia all of my life but at the same time learning more and more about the clandestine energy behind certain words and our misunderstanding of their true meaning. One of the classic misunderstandings or lost understanding of words I like to point out is the word mortgage. Coming from two separate Latin words morta meaning death...like mortuary or mortician and gauge.. to hold and or grip.  Consequently we have the word death-grip.. as I struggled for many years with dyslexia the problem itself was a teacher in terms of learning more about what words meant as opposed to just wheeled in them. This album is a word album. Not just stories but mantras and language that is coloured by an active life living in the 21st-century.

Your Twitter feed (@specialEdRoman) is full of podcasts and radio shows discussing your album, obviously releasing an album these days is a very different process to when you released your very first album.  Do you enjoy these more in depth interviews and discussions?

Information is like gold and I find that talking about the process and or philosophy behind why art exists is what attracts people to what I do and I think is the key for anything as far as the moment and day and age we live in. I am myself greatly fascinated by history culture and an abundance of different kinds of art forms. What I've noticed about all of these things is that the passions that we relate to one another are the catalyst for that electric spark that exists inside of idea, conversation and invention. Music still allows that character to relay information which sometimes has more potency in the information itself. It's a fascinating process and it is ever-changing. C'est la vie..

Thank you so much for your time, where should people reach you if they want your some Ed Roman genre-surpassing sweet guitars in their life?

You can reach me at www.edroman.net and check me out all over the Internet. Pick up my latest album Red Omen and play it loud out of your garage on a 1000 watt PA system every afternoon till the police come. You can say.. it's OK we know Ed.. thank you so kindly for having me today and it's been a pleasure to be able to speak with you. Stay Golden pony people..