Backstage Pass - Ed Roman - Interview

ATP

For the record, who's answering the interview?

ED ROMAN

For the record the artist that is answering the interview is Ed Roman and it's nice to be able to speak with you today.

ATP

What is your band's name? How did you come up with that name?

ED ROMAN

The band goes by the name Ed Roman. Many years ago the band went under the moniker of Special Ed and the Musically Challenged. At that time we were a four piece band with two bass players. That's a big bottom.

ATP

So who's in the band and what instruments do you each play?

ED ROMAN

I've been playing with a lot of musicians for a long time; and a tight-knit group of players that consists of Dave Patel on drums Mike Friedman on guitar and more recently Antony Cook on drums and Chris Taggart on guitars. Another close Corsican brother would have to be Tobias Tinker. I've been playing music with Tobias since I was five or six years old.

ATP

How would you describe your sound. What makes you unique?

ED ROMAN

How you describe the sound that we make would be music. As a writer I try not to follow blueprints and/or methodology in the writing process so as musical ideas approach me from whatever medium they seem to be calling, as an artist I try to follow those voices. The music takes on no uniformity from song to song. We’re more like a cross between William S Burroughs, Bob Dylan and the Mahavishnu Orchestra meets the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

ATP

What bands have influenced each of you?

ED ROMAN

I think speaking for all musicians that I played with we come from a very diverse and wide background of musical styles that collide more like colours on an Echtoplasm screen. It would be really hard just to pinpoint one band or group of bands that would have a great impact on all of us as musicians but I would say most of us have been greatly influenced by music from the 60’s 70’s and 80’s and lot of modern day progressive music. With that said you could say jazz, funk, pop, country, bluegrass, storytelling, singer-songwriter, jazz composition, jazz performance and really the whole kitchen sink.

ATP

How experienced are you on the stage, a virgin or whore?

ED ROMAN

Definitely whore on stage. You might not find me slinging my clothes across the mic stand but I'm definitely comfortable in front of an audience whether-by five or 500,000. I feel more comfortable in front of an audience of people than I do in a room of people at a party. There seems to be a conjuring mass and collective of electricity that builds before, during and after a performance has happened. It becomes more like a sacred electric religious experience.

ATP

How would you describe your shows?

ED ROMAN

My shows are more like a 57 Chevy blowing up in the kitchen while on the car radio, playing back tracks of Captain Kangaroo and the lost adventures of the Littlest Hobo. I consider myself to be more like a garbage man of the mass consciousness of everything. Finding wonderful anecdotes in the waste bins of people's lives, the spiritual bills and taxations that are fraught through our lives and in the sewers I find floating great human beauty and true human existence. We definitely entertain with the music and the subject matter is more likely to be like a George Carlin concert, where you are left feeling good but thinking harder than usual.

ATP

Tell us about your favorite show and why?

ED ROMAN

Benefit concerts are always a big soul pleaser for me. Every year I get involved with the relay for life that happens here in Aurora. The band and I play and send out love to all the wonderful people who donate their time and spend the entire 24 hours in a relay to help fight cancer. Seeing as I have a number of family members who are cancer survivors it's important for me to give back in the musical way I know how.

ATP

Tell us about your worst show and why?

ED ROMAN

There are a lot of things that happen on shows good and bad but when the bad stuff happens it can really put a damper on the night for everybody. We had a three night stand up in Grand Bend playing for the long weekend; and during the first night, on the second set the plumbing in the upstairs area of the hotel gave way, broke through the ceiling and started pouring water all over our gear, and us. I’ve also come pretty close a couple times to getting electrocuted; on a number of gigs when there was so much beer on the floor that you wondered if anybody had actually been drinking it or just pouring it directly out of their cups.

ATP

Tell Us About Your Dream Show, who you'd like to play with and where?

ED ROMAN

I guess my dream show would be atop of Machu Picchu, evening concert with Tom Waits. Enough said.

ATP

Do you have a street team and how can you join?

ED ROMAN

If you go to my Reverb Nation page which is Ed Roman, you'll find the fan area and it will direct you to a place where you can join a part of our street team. Keep up to date with all shows, interviews and any new releases.

ATP

Do you have a record label and if not are you looking for one?

ED ROMAN

At this moment I'm currently with MTS Records. Michael Stover at MTS Management took on my latest CD Letters From High Latitudes as one of his first records on his company's label. As far as looking for a record label I feel very comfortable working with Michael but if a bigger label wanted to take me on as an independent Michael would be a part of my team. Stover and I have been building and amassing a great amount of power by my music and I'm one of those people who is devoutly faithful to the people I work with and never forget about the things that we've created.

ATP

What are your plans for the future, in a year, 5 years?

ED ROMAN

The plans for the future are to keep writing, recording and gigging. I've been doing a lot of writing as of late and I'm excited about getting into the studio in the spring of 2015 to start recording a new CD to be released in the fall of 2015. Red Omen. I'm also planning a trip back to the island of Jamaica to record my next video for the song from the latest CD Letters From High Latitudes which is titled Jamaica.

ATP

Finally, do have any words on what Arm The Pit means to you?

ED ROMAN

"whosoever dig at the pit shall fall in it". The pit of the arm is where the sweat of life pours from. Pronounces patterns of perspiration on peoples pants. It's what hard work feels and smells like. The pit is wet, the work is on. Thank you for supporting artists everywhere. Arm The Pit Kicks Ass.