Seven Days, Twelve Hours, Five Minutes, Ten Seconds

Any Given Day goes live at the stroke of midnight Friday, 6/7.  Here are some things we wanted to know about the album and it’s ten new original songs from singer/songwriter Ed Gumbrecht:

Q: What’s the concept, and what kind of music will we find?

Ed:  Any Given Day looks at today, right now.  Celebrates its moments, stories and perspectives.  It jams and grooves from singer songwriter fare to acoustic rock and on to country western.  The music originates spontaneously and daily for me, and when I take songs to the studio they go in every different direction during the recording process. We have a variety of feelings on this record but the themes all revolve around being in the moment.

Q: All originals, or any covers here?

Ed: Originals.  One day I’ll do some covers of songs I love, but here these are all songs I wrote in the last few months. We didn’t get too precious with the recording – we just jammed and let them breathe. It has a lightness that feels really fresh.

Q: What was your writing process for this album?

Ed: It varies with each song, but it usually begins early in the morning in my studio.  I’ll have a lyric or a melody that I want to build something from.  I work pretty quickly and rough it out on guitar or keyboard.    Then over the next weeks I’ll come back to it and refine it, add versus and parts until it feels complete and says something new.

Q: Who else is on the album?

Ed: My friends at Dirt Floor Studios are all up and through this.  Eric Lichter is everywhere, playing drums, bass, guitars and even throwing in harmonies.   Eli Novicky shows off his mad chops on lead guitar.  He and Guido Falvene engineered the tracks, and Eli did the final mix.  Steve Whyte did the Masters. I was hoping to get a few more musician friends on this project, but logistics are tricky.  Next one!  Especially want to get Claire Marie back to the studio.

Q: Is it true one track is an ode to coffee?

Ed: Well, maybe not an ode, but an unblinking look at it.  “Cup of Joe". It’s fun. Definitely an ear worm -- which is appropriate for the addictive stimulant we’re all hooked on.

Q: Did you include two versions of the song, ‘Storm Over’?

Ed:  Yes, as it happens.  I wrote the song up in CT as a simple acoustic campfire song after a wicked storm blew through New England.  It was staccato two-word couplets with a sliding bass part that sounded like storm clouds.  When we recorded it, it slowed down a little and we found an electric groove.  The vibe changed.  We came back at it again and I laid in a narrative vocal over top and told more of the story of what happened.  When we listened to both versions, they were very different but both really nice.

Q: Waking Song sounds like you are channeling Cat Stevens. Have you ever met Yusuf?

Ed:  I wish!  Interesting thought. I wrote the song after I had been looking at some poetry by Rumi.  He has one called ‘Don’t Go Back to Sleep’ written about five hundred years ago.  It sounds like it happened today.  I wanted to catch that timeless feeling.  In my life, we have a bunch of babies arriving in our extended family.  I had a notion to do an anti-lullaby.  David Byrne did “Up All Night” in the eighties. This is less subversive but it’s about getting the kid out of bed to get into the day!  Get up.  Have a tangerine.

Q: What’s your favorite?

Ed: ‘Sun Salutation’ because its so feisty!  You “got to got to got to” go around with it again!