● We are delighted to have the chance to speak with you. You’ve been in the music business for quite some time. What was the start of this adventure?
Thank you so kindly for having me today and it’s an absolute pleasure to be able to speak with you. Yes I guess you might say the music business has been in my DNA since my molecular structure began. I always felt music had the power to heal in times of the most apocryphal moments of sorrow and times of exquisite elation. The metaphors in the messages and the memories in the music are a testament to who we are in our living moment. It has a divine connection to anthropology and is filled with a tapestry of emotion. I figured it was a real cool job.
● What do you enjoy the most while working on a new album?
“It comes in all these little pods. Words and broken phrases. Hey Mr. Tesla! You ain’t got nothing on me.” Electric Beauty “Distant Gods” from the album Letter From High Latitudes
Ideas are always coming. Little scratches in bits and pieces of information floating through the atmospheric conscience. Scribbled and jumbled over, on scraps of paper and litanies of journals. The framework starts to unfold on an old cherry hardwood chair, comfortable arm chairs and couches and in front of the fire when the night is present. Those frameworks are organized and make their way into the studio where in the very same fashion a wonderful pursuit of asking what the information requires of us in order to create a palatable musical piece. It’s an adventure. It’s a circus. It is trial and error and it is the gathering of wonderful minds to see a project through. I think that’s pretty cool. No?
● What song of yours would you recommend to someone who has never heard you before?
I love the question and it is bigger than most apartment buildings so shall I start by saying we are also different and our emotional barometer’s are never the same nor should they be. Music has a progressive aspect as we move forward in our age with the things that we associate with at different points in our lives. A song or grouping of lyrics could take on many emotional confrontations depending on the subject matter of the moment. I myself know some music as simple as “ you are my sunshine” has had both a happy and intense sorrowful capacity for me. I sang it as a child but I also sang it on my grandmothers grave side as it was her favourite song. It represents and exemplifies the dialectic of what I’m trying to explain. I’ve made a lot of music in my life with some pretty amazing people. The song “I found God” From my album “Letters From High Latitudes” features some very special friends like Dave Patel and. Mike Freedman. Fellow Canadian composers and musicians that I have been making music with for over 30 years. This particular track is something I would suggest to somebody because it offers a wider spectrum to where you may be going on a path of thinking and feeling while listening to the music.
● Most of your songs have a social sarcastic tone; would you ever write in a different style?
The great Greek philosopher, poet and lawgiver Sarcasticus said this about sarcasm. Without the dissident language of the comedic tongue no society can truly find fecundity or a robust embrace of the truth.
Sorry I had to pull on your leg.. lolol
There are other numbers in the past that I have written they definitely offer less of a tongue-in-cheek approach such as “Lay One Down” Which was part of a fundraising campaign for veterans through “Heart Songs For Veterans” is Maurice song about placidity love and peace.
● For the rest of your career, you can only play one style of music. Which one would you pick?
In a Brooklyn accent.. Ya killin me here.. Again your question has a towering freestanding structure like overtone to it. Perhaps desert island. I love so many different kinds of music so as I mentioned the question is difficult to answer. I love a lot of funk, reggae, old R&B, Afro Cuban and jazz music. So maybe the genre would be something like FunkRoJah BeeBee..
● If it’s not you, who do you prefer to sing the music you write?
Tom Waites
● How do you prepare for your performances on a regular basis? And can you tell us about any amusing incidents that occurred during one of your live performances?
What I’m always looking for a flow of songs. Not necessarily something new, borrowed or even blue but the formation of sets for live performances are almost like putting lyrics together because you are inspired by the moment. The next is just mechanical making sure gear is working and fingers are happy. What I find humourous others may find repulsive and vice versa. I’ve seen everything from nudity to expulsions of various kinds of bodily fluids. I’ve heard language uttered that I’ve never seen in any literary passage and mumblings and gibbers from mind altering intoxicants of all genres. At the same time I’ve also received so many wonderful moments while playing for audiences. People dancing, smiles on faces, turning whimsy magical shuffles that move the soul through the night.
Review – Happiness by Ed Roman
● Where did you get the inspiration for “Happiness”?
From a negative to a positive. From a positive to a negative. The choice is ultimately up to us. I’ve cried so many times in my life. I’m not afraid to cry. It’s a beautiful expression of your human compass. It points to empathy when most important. Crying sometimes is the exemplification of knowing that we are loved or perhaps that love has been lost. There are moments were elation brings me to tears because of an act of kindness or kind word that stays with me more like the beautiful fragrance of a summer day. Ultimately they can be the gateway to the realization of so many things… including happiness. They can be a reminder of our passing through our miss doings and the remorse or guilt we may feel. They are a healing mechanism in order to help you better understand your true path of enlightenment.
We are all human beings passing through the litmus test of our own lives. The important thing is we feel and engage with those emotions knowing when they are right and when they are wrong.
● We relished every second of “Happiness” and fantasised about how it would look in a wonderful music video. Do you have any plans to make a video for it soon?
This past summer I had shot a number of things involving a large size jumpy castle and I am in the process of correlating some other video in the next little while in order to bring about a visual vignette for public consumption. Num Num Num..
● What is life like for another wonderful Ed Roman in a parallel universe who isn’t a musician?
I actually visited one day. Back in the 80’s. He and his wife run an immense watermelon farm on the island of Okinawa Japan. His wife is actually a watermelon superhero Princess and is one of Japan’s national treasures. Hand in hand they supply most of the Pan-Asian theatre with robust supply of spherical gold year after year.
● With the new year nearing, what advice would you provide to people?
Romans countrymen lend me your ears… All I know is right now the most important thing is to love one another. Period. The mechanism of fear is everywhere. It produces continual subliminal unsatisfying feelings. It produces a range and array of chemicals that can fog our thinking and lead us to personal destruction. There were these cats back in the 60s eh. Sir Lennon of John & Sir Paul of McCartney.
They wrote a tune “All You Need Is Love”
● Thank you for letting us take some of your time! Would you care to give us a last word?
I must say thank you so kindly to you for having me as a guest in your wonderful publication. Absolutely wonderful questions and I’m glad you offered me allowance for some humour, sarcasm and sincerity. I wanna wish everybody around the world peace, love and happiness in their every day lives. Not just for certain days of the year but as food for their daily existence.
Follow Ed Roman on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Amazon.
Viola Karmy
