Photo by Sebastian BuzzalinoDaniel Romano originally played in punk and indie bands growing up in his hometown of Welland, Ontario. He shifted away from punk to a folksy sound in his earlier albums Come Cry With Me and 2015's If I've Only One Time Askin' but is back to genre-bending on the upcoming Mosey, which releases today on New West Records. Romano writes about a song a day and often records them in his home studio. He self-produced and played nearly every instrument but horns and strings on Mosey. The record is influenced by everything and everyone from Rolling Thunder Revue-era Bob Dylan to Serge Gainsbourg to Lee Hazlewood and Ennio Morricone to Randy Newman and Leonard Cohen. Romano stopped briefly in NYC last weekend to play a few songs off of past records and his upcoming release. Backed only by his guitar and the ghostly pure harmonies of Kay Berkel he played a short set at Rough Trade and we spoke after.Today Noisey premieres the song "I Had to Hide Your Poem in a Song" and like most of Romano's songs this was first written as a poem and then put to music. Then we had a brief chat with Romano.
It's the greatest hits…of the last year. There was kind of an initial ten songs that were written and recorded about a year ago in the vein of the first track (Valerie Leon) but then we did a European tour and tracked another ten songs in Berlin. Then we did a few more things at home and chose the ones that had to be on it, the best ones, and tried to find a way to make it cohesive.Do you have a favorite track?
No I don't. I like it as a package. It's probably the record I like the most but that's just because it's the newest.You haven't played it so much that it annoys you yet.
I've been playing it longer than I thought I would get away with playing it without being bored by it, which I think is probably mostly because of my attitude now more so than songwriting. I'm probably more easy going now…to myself.Why did you choose to release a premix of (Gone Is) All But A Quarry Of Stone, and why is it called a premix as opposed to a remix?
Because it came out before the original version. It's not a real thing. I just thought it was funny.It is funny.
Thank you. I was just messing around with the song and we were talking about doing something visual for it and I just liked that version better. I probably shouldn't say that.The video is funny. Your hair, the track suit, the hamburger.
I like to leave it up to interpretation. There were some intentional things and some magical accidents. Aesthetically it kind of matches the tone of the song but beyond that we didn't really think about it.How'd it taste? The hamburger.
It was pretty delicious.Daniel Romano and his Trilliums Band embark on a European tour May 26.
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Tell me about the new record, Mosey.
It's the greatest hits…of the last year. There was kind of an initial ten songs that were written and recorded about a year ago in the vein of the first track (Valerie Leon) but then we did a European tour and tracked another ten songs in Berlin. Then we did a few more things at home and chose the ones that had to be on it, the best ones, and tried to find a way to make it cohesive.Do you have a favorite track?
No I don't. I like it as a package. It's probably the record I like the most but that's just because it's the newest.You haven't played it so much that it annoys you yet.
I've been playing it longer than I thought I would get away with playing it without being bored by it, which I think is probably mostly because of my attitude now more so than songwriting. I'm probably more easy going now…to myself.Why did you choose to release a premix of (Gone Is) All But A Quarry Of Stone, and why is it called a premix as opposed to a remix?
Because it came out before the original version. It's not a real thing. I just thought it was funny.It is funny.
Thank you. I was just messing around with the song and we were talking about doing something visual for it and I just liked that version better. I probably shouldn't say that.The video is funny. Your hair, the track suit, the hamburger.
I like to leave it up to interpretation. There were some intentional things and some magical accidents. Aesthetically it kind of matches the tone of the song but beyond that we didn't really think about it.How'd it taste? The hamburger.
It was pretty delicious.Daniel Romano and his Trilliums Band embark on a European tour May 26.