Ed Roland

My introduction to music was my family. My father was a minister of music, but before that he was operatic trained. He was actually going to Italy to sing opera. Somewhere, him and God had a talk and he changed and he became the minister, and my mom played the piano in the church, so I had no choice.

Guitar playing, for me, has changed over the years. It was very serious at the beginning. I used to be really good. I could shred and all that, went to Berklee. I always just wanted to be a songwriter, but you study your instrument. So guitar playing to me now is I just want to write songs. So it's evolved, or devolved, over the years, if that makes sense.

Growing up, I had so many idols. I mean, Elvis was really big. And like I said, my dad being a minister, a lot of gospel, a lot of gospel in the house, a lot of hymnals. The first one that I discovered, I would say, on my own was Elton John and Bernie Taupin. That one's the one where I went, "I want to write songs like these guys." Still trying to, 50 years later.

I wasn't sheltered, but I also wasn't made aware of pop culture, to be honest with you, growing up. Then I started discovering band... Like Paul McCartney and Wings. I didn't even know Paul McCartney was in the Beatles. And then as soon as I started getting into music, the new wave started happening, and then in your teens, color in your hair, and then it was the Clash, Police. Cars. Cars were big for me. ELO, Tom Petty. I mean, I'm a classic guy. That's just the influences I had, starting with gospel hymnal and ending it with The Cars, or mixing it with The Cars.

Being from a small town, I didn't know how to be a songwriter. There was not many people playing instruments or taking music seriously, if that makes sense. It wasn't going to be their career. I'd done my research. I knew that some of the guys from The Cars had gone to Berklee. Steely Dan. I just looked where I could go to be around other musicians. So I was like... I made my mind up and I said, "I'm going to go to Berklee," and that's where I surrounded myself with that.

Berklee taught me a lot of things. Taught me more about culture and myself. So I would just walk a silly young southern boy and meet people, and I met mailman. Somehow we just started talking and said he graduated from Berklee. And I said, "Wow. Why are you a mailman?" He goes, "I didn't want to teach." He said, "What do you want to do?" I said, "I want to be a songwriter." He goes, "Then quit Berklee because they don't..." They didn't teach that at the time. I mean, I don't know who does. That was his point. You've got to go out and live life, see landscape, do whatever. Just you got to experience life. And so I was like, "Okay." So I went back home, came to Reel 2 Reel and started interning for his pops, and here we are.

The first time I bought Ernie Ball strings was from his pop's store. He had a music store above the studio. It was his... Your grandfather's house, I believe.

Yeah. Yeah.

Big Fred would work the front counter up there.

Oh, I don't remember Big Fred working.

I do.

I loved him though.

Terry Hamilton worked there.

Yeah.

So that's the choice I had. Really never left.

Pretty much same here. I remember the Ernie Ball eagle and that's all my dad played. [inaudible 00:05:08] from my dad's Ernie Ball strings. He loved Ernie Ball strings, that's the ones he liked.

I didn't know there were other strings, to be honest with you.

I just remember thinking the eagle-

And now we do, but we still use those. I'm not a guitarist... Even back in the day, I never wanted my strings changed every day. I just did not. I'd want them to get my grit, because it helped me feel. Because I'm all about guitars. They can be $300, they can be $10,000, but if it don't feel right, it don't feel right. I can leave those strings on. Because we'll pick up one of my guitars that we haven't played in five years, and just tune it up and go. Do it all the time.

The funny thing about the first CD, it's just a collection of demos over a five-year period, I would call it. I think some were five years old, some... Shine was done in '88, '89. We thought we were going to get to re-record and we could figure out a unified sound. Because the first record sounded like a songwriter demo, which is what it was meant to be. It wasn't until we went out on the road and then, I mean, every day... My mom actually found our itinerary, which was handwritten, of our first tour. We did 25 shows in 23 days. Because they were just throwing us out there and we were naive and young and excited.

Yeah, we were kind of excited to do it.

I mean, I still am. But I'm not doing 25 in 23 days.

Yeah, there was a couple days where we played two shows in small clubs. They would empty the room-

And then we'd do a radio show, and then we'd go over here and do a night show. We'd be first on the bill at a radio show, and then festival show, and then be over there. It was exhausting, but at the same time exciting. Because that old saying, you had your whole life to write the first record, the second one's tough. I was like, "No. The second..." From that point on, it's been easy. Because the first one, I didn't have anywhere to live. I mean, I was living under the board, the old Trident board, because it was warm. I could live under it and put a pillow down and I was cool. But I felt like at that point, all the pressure was off. Like I said, I could afford a car, I could afford an apartment. All the pressure was off. So I think that really helped me develop more in a songwriter. I could take time and really not worry about anything else than writing songs.

I don't get up at 9:00 and say, "I'm going to write a song today," get a cup of coffee. There's no logic to what I do. I'm not technical. I'm a feel writer. Like when I feel like it's going to happen, it happens. But it's a part of... Extension of me. I do it all the time. Ideas, anyway. Just sit there and noodle, and then I'll go, "Oh, that [inaudible 00:08:30] cool," and kind of start chanting. And hopefully within five minutes the idea's there and hopefully the thesis, the title, or something I'll write about. The lyrics take longer. We've done many recordings where I didn't even have the lyrics yet, back in the day. But now I try to be more prepared with the whole song.

(Singing).

There's no doubt of the future of this band. We're going to make records and we're going to tour till the good Lord says, "Hey." My wife will say, "When are you going to retire?" I said, "What is retirement? Define that." You travel, see the landscape, meet interesting people, do what you love, have a hobby. So I retired at 14. What is retirement? What do people do when they retire? What we do.