Awesome Interviews – Ed Roman

Ed Roman is an Award-winning singer/songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist from Shelburne, Ontario, Canada.  His music blurs the lines between pop, rock, folk, and country music genres, Ed’s uniquely crafted songs have received regular rotation on more than 100 terrestrial radio stations across North America. Awesome Canada had a chance to chat with Ed recently, read the complete interview below.

AC – Hello, thanks for taking the time to chat with me. Take a second to introduce yourself.

Ed – It’s a pleasure being able to speak with you and thanks so much for having me as a guest. My name is Ed Roman. I was hatched above the great telluric current known as Victor, that runs over the regional municipality of York and the township of Markham. I spent so much of my childhood inventing songs and accessing mystical imagination and dreams that seem to go on forever. It was a blessed childhood in much simpler times and creativity oozed from every crack in our community. You made your own fun and you made your own music and hand-in-hand, this beautiful combination flourishes in my heart and in my soul still today..

AC – Who were your musical influences growing up?

Ed – As I’ve come to recognize musical influences go hand-in-hand with our growth at different points in our lives. When I was a young child I used to love to listen to people like the Beatles. There seem to be some kind of a game going amongst my family as to who could memorize lyrics better than the other. These early records really pushed me into sweet melodies and philosophical concepts about life. As I got into high school and then in the college I really fell in love with musicians that had a stamina and musical prowess. Artists such as Jaco Pistorius and so many others from the progressive jazz and rock movement really propelled me as a young player. As I went on into college I started to study artists such as Charles Mingus, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern and so many others that enlightened me into the idea of composition. Now in days I study artists more like I’m writing a thesis for a university degree. Everything about their lives including early beginnings till in some cases there demise. I’m always learning.

AC – What makes your music unique and different from everything else that’s out there?

Ed – I’m not trying to imitate anybody else or pretend that I’m something that I’m not. I am just me trying to express myself in the most loving and caring way I can as a human being in the 21st-century. Emotion is music and I’m continually being pushed and pulled around the endearing ping-pong game that we call life. We are all so unique as human beings we have something special to offer in our own incredible way. One of the hardest things you can be as yourself as we so often place ourselves against those influences who have already come. The easiest thing you can do is believe in yourself and at the same time as a mentioned it is one of the hardest. Once you find that sense of belief in yourself anything is possible.

We are all human beings feeling this emotion at this period in time and I am trying to reflect the day and age that we live in.

AC – How has Canada influenced you and your sound?

Ed – For six months of the year Canadians live and what is something more like environmental isolation due to the snow and cold weather. There’s much time to reflect on what is just gone on over the last year and as a consequence there’s always an envelope for artistic thinking. Canada is a beautiful place filled with rich ideas and positive attitudes. We are selves much of the time are observers of the international race track. I see Canada’s more like a collecting zone or great magnet for ideas that filter their way through the atmosphere into the artisans of this country. What is ironic is that so many artists need to leave this country in order to find acclamation and work. It’s not till after the fact that Canadians then take up the artistic flag for the achievements of that one individual or group.

AC – Do you have anything coming up we can look forward to?

Ed – Over the last couple of months I’ve been working on a new record entitled RED OMEN, set to be released in the spring of 2016. Another sociological look at the love and anger in the day and age that we live in. It will be followed up by multiple videos and supported by a tour across Canada in the United States.

AC – How can our readers get in touch with you?

Ed – You can always get a hold of me at www.edroman.net where you will find all my social networking buttons from Facebook to Twitter and YouTube. You can check me out on sound cloud and do yourself a favor…. and get the Ed Roman App on iTunes for free. It’s good for your iPhone or Android devices. Head on over to iTunes and get the latest record “Letters From High Latitudes”

today.

AC – Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

Ed – Music cannot exist without the support of the community around it. Music to me is more like a garden. It requires continue attending not only from the creators and purveyors of the art but those that are listening and obtaining the emotional bandages and medicinal words that souls so greatly require. It is important for the listening community to remember these things as it is what keeps our existence alive.