Ed Roman is an Award-winning singer/songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist from Shelburne, Ontario, Canada. Blurring 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 and more than 400 stations, worldwide. Ed is a 2014 Artists Music Guild Award Nominee, a 2014 International Music and Entertainment Association Award Winner, a two-time 2015 IMEA Award nominee, a 2015 and 2016 Josie Show Awards nominee, an Akademia Awards Winner, and a two-time Indie Music Channel Award winner. Ed has performed at the Red Gorilla Music Fest during SXSW, The Millennium Music Conference, and SS Cape May, and he has toured both New York City and Philly.
Recently, this Top 100 MTV.com and #1 Reverbnation artist traveled to Jamaica to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to the island, while shooting the music video for “Jamaica.” Ed is also a Heart Songs for Veterans artist, donating money to help veterans with his single and Top 10 Yallwire.com video,, “Lay One Down.” His last album, Letters From High Latitudes (an homage to his Ontario home) was a critically-acclaimed vehicle for Ed’s socio-political, earthly-conscious and globally-aware messages. This earthy, funky and magical mix of music has earned Ed Roman airplay chart recognition and won over legions of fans around the world, known as “Ed Heads.” Now, Ed has returned with a brand new album, Red Omen, produced with renowned producer, Michael Jack. The album, featuring the first single and video, I Am Love, is out June 7, 2016. www.edroman.net
Why did you select this song as your current single?
Ed Roman. First off let me say thank you so kindly for having me today and it’s a pleasure to be able to speak with you. The latest single “The Way She Goes” is much like a lot of the storytelling and ideas that are found on my latest album “Red Omen”. In actuality it is very different from everything that is on the record and unique to itself. The libretto of the song suggests there is always some kind of conundrum to overcome and perhaps too often we throw the baby out with the bathwater. It focuses on the feelings of an old world mentality where dirty hands make clean money. The bridge of the song summates the idea that so often we take things at face value and despite we know some ideas and motivations are wrong we participate in negative activities regardless. The basis for the philosophies in the song come from parables and ideas that my grandfather would often proclaim when difficult moments would arise. Almost like a mantra. I think it fits well into the subconscious of the average person today going through many of the changes that face us in the 21st-century. The idea was ripe for the picking.
How does this single relate to the rest of the Album, EP or Mix-tape?
Ed Roman. As I mentioned the title of my latest album is Red Omen and such language denotes there is a reckoning of thought and ideas occurring all over the globe as a result of so many changes. I find some of the things that we take for granted today are more important to become part of our lifestyle on a regular basis such as food and agriculture. Many of us can go to the proverbial grocery store/feeding trough and buy whatever we need 24 hours a day seven days a week but many of us don’t know how to grow our own food. This is something my family has done for generations and I can tell you this it is one of the most empowering skills that I have in my life when it comes to day-to-day living. The video of the song is set in front of the backdrop of an old farm. Dilapidated and forgotten. As a child family farms were everywhere when I grew up and sustained not only us but our entire community. Food doesn’t have to come from thousands of miles away. There are many messages on this record that suggest antiquated ways of thinking or not so antiquated. They are in fact things that make us healthy and strong so the story of the single worked so well with the rest of the album.
What was the writing process for the song?
Ed Roman. Grace under pressure… I think not. I sat for months and months in my bathtub which for me is a great place to write. I didn’t sit in there for months at a time of course it’s just that I am very motivated by water. Especially when I’m in it. The phrase that my grandfather would always say to me “dirty hands make clean money” kept rolling and rolling around in there for the longest time. After my tyb one night I was sitting on the couch with my guitar and I was thinking about my garden and pruning my tobacco flowers that grow at the top of the plant in order to make the plant produce more, and pop…. like a stream of consciousness that I edited later I follow the trail of memory, current thought and excitement for the future running back-and-forth between my couch and kitchen table. Almost as if the information was being dictated from the other side. “Transmissions open message ready to receive” Ed Roman
What does this song’s lyric mean to you?
Ed Roman. This song and every song that I write is my footprint of memory, experience and feelings as I live now in this moment in the 21st-century. They are my barbaric human music yelps. More like epitaphs on my soul. The courage to wield words in ways that have led me through some new meaning. Greater than the original thought itself.
What would it be like to see you in person performing this song?
Ed Roman. Some people have called me a human gargoyle and others a gentle storyteller. To me I am always moved by the music. I sing the song more like I’m speaking to a young child. When I was young I remember having so many questions and that feeling of connection between my thinking and an older persons answers was such a special moment to me. I almost feel like I am taken over by the same feelings I had as a child when I came to those understandings inside of the answers.
Could your fans summarize who you are as an artist by this song?
Ed Roman. Well considering most people have trouble classifying me and I’m played all over the world on every kind of genre and station from Punk Metal to Jazz R&B Country Folk Rock Storytelling…. I’d say my fans would say it’s an Ed Roman tune. Categorized under “Kitchen Sink” 😉
Is there a video planned and or completed and if so, what was the idea behind the video?
Ed Roman. The video is out and you can check it out on my YouTube channel at Special Ed Roman. It is said in the countryside in the rolling hills of the county that I live in in Ontario Canada. Dufferin County to be exact in the Township of Melanchthon. As I mentioned this song has that Canadiana Americana kind of feel and the backdrop of this old farm, dilapidated it may be but yet in my eyes still robust with potential, was perfect for the video. Ed Heads🗿 are watching the video on my YouTube channel at
One last question, what is your motivation behind your music?
Ed Roman. Passion is always the motivation. I am exhilarated by idea and epiphany especially when the connections, as clandestine as they may be, show you the circuit cable of information that runs through from the beginning all the way to the end. Almost without question. This is the adventure of writing. Thank you so kindly for having me today and it’s been an absolute pleasure to be able to speak with you.
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